# Though I've conducted no polls...\[anyone respect any religious groups?\] **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 11, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897 "2013-01-11T20:13:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897/61 "2013-01-16T01:53:51Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I am not sure what point is other than to make disingenuous and ignorant hipster type comments. Just when you had me feeling guilty, you go with the hipster hate. Hipsters are people too, you know. Heh. Hipster. Don’t hear that about myself often. Heh. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897/62 "2013-01-16T02:02:20Z")
> [@Troppus](#): > > Witnesses actively discourage higher education and in the southeast encourage homeschooling, especially by secondary school grades. Purportedly to avoid wasting time and energy on worldy pursuits with the Second Coming due any moment, but to me it looks like a shameless attempt to curtail critical thinking in young adults. They may be literate and well versed in Biblical and Watchtower Lit, but I wouldn’t give them kudos for stressing education when they do everything possible to limit interaction with outside influences, including hand waving away college as an unnecessary evil. Jehovah’s Witnesses are certainly no Jews when it comes to intellectual standards. They are great people in general, hard-working, and sincere but I have never known one that graduated from college or even attempted to do so. I have read every WatchTower I could get my hands on and that is some crazy stuff kind of like a Chick Tract in its cartoonishness but they take it seriously and believe it. Despite working closely with a lot of Jehovah’s Witnesses, they never tried to convert me. They just quietly did their thing in the blue-collar or manual trades and planned to for life. They don’t celebrate any holidays or engage in any vices so that was no fun. The only travel they do is to help new congregations build new Kingdom Halls. It is a sincere religion but not fun at all and certainly not very intellectual. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897/63 "2013-01-16T02:48:39Z")
There are many individuals of faith who I respect as people. Of groups, although I don’t necessarily believe the way they do, I tend to have some respect for the ones who do more of the “walking” than the “talking”. The religious institutions that engage in the good works (eg. helping rebuild after a disaster, soup kitchens, social justice, assistance for the needy) but not really evangalistic, I’m pretty good with. The ones that emphasize higher education, bonus points! 🙂 Most folks who are good people and attend church, synagogue, temple or other religious services, would be good people with or without religion. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897/64 "2013-01-16T02:57:43Z")
> [@For You](#): > > Is he awesome? I have heard conflicting reports on that, some of which, to me, would make him Pit-worthy. Religious leaders are vermin _ipso facto_, we would all be better off without them. Yeah… I’ve heard horrible things about him… from brainwashed servants of an oppressive atheist empire. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897/65 "2013-01-16T03:16:10Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > Bahais are way too political. Shesh! In Iran, they are considered too batshit dangerous to be tolerated and Iranians know a thing or two about religious extremism. This is a joke, right? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897/66 "2013-01-16T03:22:49Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > Yeah… I’ve heard horrible things about him… from brainwashed servants of an oppressive atheist empire. Kind of odd, given that Zen (Taoist) Buddhism is an atheistic religion. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897/67 "2013-01-16T04:59:24Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > What’s your beef with Hinduism? Heh. Good one. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897/68 "2013-01-16T16:32:17Z")
> [@For You](#): > > Kind of odd, given that Zen (Taoist) Buddhism is an atheistic religion. Cite? My info sez more that it’s not \*concerned \*with believing in Gods, as opposed to a direct denial there is a Deity. In other words, agnostic, not atheist. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897/69 "2013-01-16T18:44:37Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Most religious groups are pretty good to have around from a utilitarian perspective at the very least. [Untrue](http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/religious-belief-and-societal-health/); religions are destructive to society. ---
**Author:** ![alnewman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@alnewman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alnewman)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897/70 "2013-01-17T01:36:29Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Gotta throw some props to the [Pastafarianists.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastafarianism) Of course!!:dubious:🙂 ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897/71 "2013-01-17T01:56:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Cite? My info sez more that it’s not \*concerned \*with believing in Gods, as opposed to a direct denial there is a Deity. In other words, agnostic, not atheist. Can you cite where atheism requires a direct denial of any deity’s existence? Is the atheist sentiment “I do not believe there is a god” exactly the same as “I believe that there is no god”? What about apatheists, who are indifferent (“a god may or may not exist but its existence would not make any difference to anything”), is that agnosticism because it fails to deny the existence of a deity? Is uncertainty the same thing as indifference? Buddhism does not address the existence of a god. This does not make it agnostic, otherwise it would address the existence of a god (“god might exist”). Theistic religions center on a deity or pantheon, a-theistic religions, by definition, lack that component. Buddhism is atheistic. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897/72 "2013-01-17T03:08:46Z")
> [@For You](#): > > Can you cite where atheism requires a direct denial of any deity’s existence? Is the atheist sentiment “I do not believe there is a god” exactly the same as “I believe that there is no god”? What about apatheists, who are indifferent (“a god may or may not exist but its existence would not make any difference to anything”), is that agnosticism because it fails to deny the existence of a deity? Is uncertainty the same thing as indifference? > > Buddhism does not address the existence of a god. This does not make it agnostic, otherwise it would address the existence of a god (“god might exist”). Theistic religions center on a deity or pantheon, a-theistic religions, by definition, lack that component. Buddhism is atheistic. > **[Atheism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism)** > > Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which is the belief that at least one deity exists. > Historically, evidence of atheistic viewpoints can be traced back to classical antiquity and early Indian philosophy. In the Western world, atheism declined a... _Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.[1][2] In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities_ _The same Zen adept, Sokei-An, further comments:[49] The creative power of the universe is not a human being; it is Buddha. The one who sees, and the one who hears, is not this eye or ear, but the one who is this consciousness. This One is Buddha. This One appears in every mind. This One is common to all sentient beings, and is God. The Rinzai Zen Buddhist master, Soyen Shaku, speaking to Americans at the beginning of the 20th century, discusses how in essence the idea of God is not absent from Buddhism, when understood as ultimate, true Reality:[50] At the outset, let me state that Buddhism is not atheistic as the term is ordinarily understood. It has certainly a God, the highest reality and truth, through which and in which this universe exists. However, the followers of Buddhism usually avoid the term God, for it savors so much of Christianity, whose spirit is not always exactly in accord with the Buddhist interpretation of religious experience … To define more exactly the Buddhist notion of the highest being, it may be convenient to borrow the term very happily coined by a modern German scholar, ‘panentheism’, according to which God is … all and one and more than the totality of existence … As I mentioned before, Buddhists do not make use of the term God, which characteristically belongs to Christian terminology. An equivalent most commonly used is Dharmakaya … When the Dharmakaya is most concretely conceived it becomes the Buddha, or Tathagata …_ In any case, Buddhism is a religion and is an organized one, altho less so than others, of course. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/though-ive-conducted-no-polls-anyone-respect-any-religious-groups/646897.md?page=3)