Told My Friend I Was An Atheist .then He Told Me He Has To Go. Does He Hate Me

Why do people disrespect others' religious beliefs?

Why do some people disrespect others for their religious beliefs?I would answer your question with a question:How much respect do you have for the people that perpetrated and participated in the Jonestown mass murder/suicide?After all, they were simply honoring their beliefs.How about Heaven’s Gate? Aum Shinrikyo?Don’t get me wrong…I am not putting most religions on par with the beliefs of those folks, or what would largely be agreed are religious wackos who have formed small scale cults. The point is, just because you say “My religion tells me to” doesn’t mean I (or you or anyone else) have to respect that.I’ll stick with respecting (and disrespecting) people based on what they say and do, thanks.You know what I respect? I respected the Methodist minister at the church I attended with my parents (very intermittently) when I was in high school when he gave a sermon on Mathew 6:5-6:“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.”In short, keep it to yourself.

Are British people racist?

Thanks for the ask. In a sense, the question is a racist one itself - like 'Are black men great dancers?' or 'Are Jews good with money?' You pick a group of 64 million people, and they're going to be a random distribution of every damn' thing under the sun. But the short answer is, no. Britain is one of the least racist countries amongst the mature Western democracies, by any serious measure. As others have pointed out in their answers, outside the mature Western democracies, racism typically soars (not always, but typically).You'll find a healthy amount of racism in this country, of course. However... you'll find racism to be highest in places where non-white people rarely go. UKIP voters are definitely NOT all racists, but it's indicative that the party that gets most agitated about 'foreign-ness' polls like this:Election 2015: Maps of turnout and party strength - BBC News The places where UKIP polls most successfully are generally places with the whitest of white faces. (Not always, but mostly).I've lived in France, Germany, Britain and the USA. Of those places, I've found Britain to be the least racist. In France, the racist establishment uses a very clever trick to deny that racism exists: they say that 'the republic is blind; we will not look at our citizens' skin colour.' Which is just lovely. However, in Britain, the health, education, census, welfare and business departments obsess over colour, religion and sexuality - to good effect. Britain was one of the first countries to legislate against racial discrimination; it is one of the Western countries with the highest rates of mixed-race households (about 10%, vs. the US about 8%); it was the first Western country to have an ethnic (but not religious) Jew as prime minister (Benjamin Disraeli). One of the major reasons British people beat up US service personnel in the Second World War was because the British were shocked at how they treated their black comrades (there were other, less virtuous, reasons). The major 'rage' in Britain is likely to be directed far more at Islam, and while there is a racist dimension to that, the fact is that black people, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and atheists find more to object to about them too. Read the account of one non-white person in a conservative journal (not conservative in terms of the US culture wars; conservative in terms of political theory): http://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/...

I am Muslim and I don't pray, does this fact raise a problem for you?

Yes. It does. For your background, I’m not a Muslim. I’m an atheist who knows a lot about comparative religions.It suggests to me that you’re not that serious about your Muslim faith, since saying salat is one of the five pillars of Islam.If you’re a Shi’a and you do the prayers at home or something, fine. But I’m assuming you mean you’re a Sunni (or similar) and you don’t bother to do the prayers at all, even if you’re not sick or travelling, right?The problem might not be you. If you’re in a society in which you might be severely discriminated against, or even killed, if you admit that you are no longer a Muslim, I totally understand that and respect you. Even if you’re not, it might be that being Muslim is such a big part of your identity, and so important to your loved ones, that you can’t bring yourself to admit that you’re not a Muslim. That’s fine too.But if you really are a Muslim - someone who has said the shahada, and still believes it - then yes, I think you’re being akratic.In that case, you believe that God exists. This should be the most amazing, most important, thing in the entire universe, right? much more important than your work, or family, or culture, or your own life. Right?If God exists, and Islam is true, then why would you not put that in its rightful place as the most important thing in your life?Also, my understanding of Islam is that you believe that being Muslim does not guarantee you going to heaven, at least not right away, and that if you are a bad Muslim, you will go to hell, at least for some time until you have atoned for all your sins. Right?So, if you had some serious medical condition which would cause you the most excruciating agony, and you knew that every time you prayed you stopped that agony, wouldn’t you do it?Isn’t it similar with your beliefs? Don’t you believe that by living as a good Muslim (which includes doing salat) you are avoiding more time in hell? So it seems like part of you don’t believe what the other part of you says you believe.It may be that you used to be Muslim and you’re slowly following the long path to atheism or agnosticism. That’s fine. It’s a process. Many people never complete it. But be honest with yourself, and about what you’re doing. And maybe to give Islam a proper test, do it properly?Otherwise it’s fine, at least in Western countries, to call yourself a “cultural Muslim”, you know?

Why ISKCON Say That Only Krishna Should Be Worshipped and worship of other gods are Condemned?

ISKCON is trying to turn Hinduism into a Semitic monotheistic religion which Hinduism in essence may be but definitely not in practice. Similar movement is active in entire northern part of India called ‘Radhe Krishna’. They have changed the traditional greeting of ‘Ram Ram’ to ‘Radhe Radhe’.More than 50 % of my village got converted to this sect. Initially they even discarded popular festivals like ‘Lakshmi Ganesh Puja’ during Diwali and the most revered festival of Bihar ‘Chath Puja’.My parents didn’t fall for this and we still celebrate all our festival with equal reverence for all our god.we have a pro-hindutva gang in our village as we visit once a year during ‘Chath Puja’ which is six days after Diwali hence the name Chath. My friends parents who are ‘Radhey Radhey’ have given up all the traditional festivals and just celebrate ‘Janmashtami’ has strictly forbidden him not to come during this time as they don’t celebrate. They even leave the house when my friend and his wife does ‘Lakshmi Pooja’ during Diwali. But my friend never listens to them and has pledged to start celebrating our traditions after their parents are gone. Most of our village while keeping their allegiance to ‘Radhey Radhey’ have also reverted back to celebrating our diverse cultural and religious festivals.Our team of young turks have played quite a role in that, we have formed a cultural team with local boys to celebrate our tradition. So I think ISCKON is trying to take us down that path so that we can appear appealing/acceptable to the western world. I hate this from the core.Note: I have no problem in saying ‘Radhe Radhe’ But when you say ‘Har Har Mahadev’ in greeting the same guys won’t reply back in ‘Har Har Mahadev’. That offends me me.

What is your take on Christians wearing a necklace with the Christian cross in public?

In Australia, there is no law saying that you can’t wear a Christian cross, but Australia is 29.5% atheist and 57% non-religious, and in a media poll, 76% of Australians said that the world would be a better place without religion. So there might be negative responses from rather a lot of people, but they would usually keep that response to themselves. Australians are also very laid-back and rather polite people, so probably they would try not to let it affect their opinion of you, but remember you would be wearing something that announces clearly that you are a part of a group that is often not much liked here. Why present yourself in a negative way?In general, religion is seen as a very private thing here, so such a public display is rather against what is socially acceptable, which is a strange thing to say here, because so much is socially acceptable. You would certainly be making a public statement and many people would see it as crass. Many religious people would hold this view too.In summary: people would often view it quite negatively but they would also try hard not to let that alter their opinion of you. For one reason or the other, I think that only a small sector of the population would not view it negatively.