Can you be close friends with a person whose beliefs you completely disagree with? I have a college friend. He is Muslim, and I am not. He believes in the stoning of women caught in adultery, which I vehemently oppose. Should I end the friendship?
I think it depends on how you define belief, how much importance you place on that belief, and how you negotiate differences. I have 3 core ethical values. They are what I use to make decisions and how I set my personal boundaries. I do not ever compromise on those values. I can and do interact with people who don't share them, but I will never be intimate (sexual or otherwise) with someone who does not share those values. These values are much more than belief, they are fundamental to who I am.One of my dear friends is an anarchist. I'm not. We are still close. One of my former partners is a conservative. We had many heated debates. Still cared for each other. In both cases, the other people shared my values but saw the practical and political exercise of the values differently. We could respect each other.Which brings me to my last point. In every case where I have had a significant political, economic or religious difference with another person and a close, intimate relationship with that person, we have been able to understand the difference between fair and respectful debate and a fight. We could understand that it was possible we were both right, neither of us were right, or that perhaps there actually was no single right answer.
How do I overcome the belief that I have to be a Don Juan who has slept with the most beautiful women, before I can settle down?
You can settle down without trying to be a Don Juan. When you do settle down, it wouldn't even matter if you had the most beautiful women before or not, because she is no longer there and wouldn't be the most beautiful women to you anymore. You wouldn't want to compare anyone to her and keep thinking about how you had once been with the ‘most beautiful women’ and end up missing her when you moved on. Nevertheless, the most beautiful women to you is not the most beautiful women to someone else.
Deja-vue, your beliefs?
Hmmm, interesting question. I think all mother's have instinct naturally. They just sense things are wrong ans stuff, kinda like twins. Deja-vu I have yet to figure out. Although, I really feel like many things I see, I have seen before in dreams or somewhere. There was once a place I came to in a car that I dreamed about for many years when I was a child. I jetted outta there so freakin fast, because bad things always happened in that place. I don't mess with stuff like that. I guess you could say that I believe that they are possibilities.
Do you think that women who hate men are justified in their beliefs, given the actions of men in the past?
Original Question:Do you think that women who hate men are justified in their beliefs, given the actions of men in the past?How would you react, if instead the question were…Do you think that white people who hate black people are justified in their beliefs, given the actions of black people in the past?Chances are, you would say definitely not, and you would probably be very offended by that question.You see here, black people are not one singular person. They aren’t all the same. This is just like with men: men are not all the same.It is illogical to hate an entire group of people just because of your experience with a small number of them. Heck, this question may even be insinuating that a woman could hate men, even though no man has ever done anything bad directly to her.A separation needs to occur between someone’s actions, and who they are. For instance, you’ve probably been driving down the road and encountered people who were driving very recklessly and quickly down the freeway, narrowly dodging other cars. You probably just thought that the person is an a**hole who doesn’t care about others. Who knows? It could be a man, whose wife is in labor. Perhaps it’s a mom, and her son hit his head, and is bleeding out of it, needing to go to the ER immediately.You see, there is a difference in what are called dispositional and situational factors. Dispositional factors are the things like your personality, things that are always with you, which will always influence how you act. Situational factors depend on the situation, and can temporarily influence how you act.One famous study on this is the Stanford Prison Experiment. Pretty much, psychological researchers took normal, good, college students and assigned them roles in a fake prison, either being a guard or prisoner. Over time, the guards started to beat and commit nearly unspeakable acts against the prisoners.So really, you have to separate the personal experiences you have had (assuming you have actually had any), versus the overall picture. Most men don’t harass, rape, or abuse women. That’s a minority of men. Most men are good men, the ones who work hard and respect women, upstanding members of society.Here are some of the most outstanding men in society, including the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet, Michael Bloomberg, and Bill Gates:The 20 most generous people in the worldHow could you possibly hate these men?
For you women who are pro-life, how do you explain your position for being so, particularly in the face of this position promulgating the ‘war on women,’ and it violating women’s rights?
I am not a pro-life woman, but it's really not difficult to understand. Women who oppose abortion generally do so because they believe life begins at conception and abortion is essentially murder. They don't believe abortion restrictions violate women's rights because they don't believe women have a right to kill unborn children, and they certainly wouldn't see abortion restrictions as part of a "war on women." That silly bit of rhetoric will never change anybody's mind.Some pro-life women may also believe that abortion is only for filthy sluts, and upstanding moral women would have no need for it. Sex-negative misogyny isn't a required part of the pro-life stance, but it does accompany it fairly often, and women have been enforcing sex-negative misogyny on each other since time immemorial.
Can a woman who is required by their religious beliefs to wear a hijab use an avatar of a woman without a hijab?
I don’t see why she would, unless she is doing so as an act of rebellion. Deliberately creating an avatar without hijab to look like her true self under hijab would defeat the purpose of covering. If the avatar were a generic female shaped head, automatically assigned to her profile, then I suppose there would be no problem with that. Although, most devout women practicing hijab usually just put up a picture of something else like flowers, their kid, a nice view, or kind of picture with some memorable words.The thing is, if you are referring to Islam, there is no specific compulsion for women to wear a hijab according to Allah’s words in the Quran. It simply says that women need to cover up their adornments. Women get to choose their level of devotion for themselves, and wearing hijab is just a great way to elevate our devotion to Allah (God). So for a woman to decide to wear hijab every day outside the house, but then decide not to when she is on a public website, accesible to the same people outside her home, is contradictory to your commitment to hijab and Allah.
Is women's strong belief in feminism going to annoy men and create a strong division between men and women?
Times change, people change. When I grew up, men absolutely detested feminists and women who took offense to being objectified. They were clear on their stance: men are better providers, they get to run things, they get to make all the money. Women should just sit there, look pretty, cook, clean and fetch the beers when asked, never engage in intellectual conversation, never take initiative to solve problems. Period. End of discussion. On the other hand, there’s my dad saying the exact opposite. Men who love the women in their lives will support and defend them, no matter what.These same “dudes” holding court at the henhouse grew up, got married, and had daughters. Their daughters were raised to believe they could do anything, and deserved the same respect as their formerly sexist fathers believed was their entitlement, alone. It’s ironic. But feminism today is…well…? Mitchell already described it. Women defending themselves and protecting themselves against exploitation is not an “-ism”, really, is it. The men and other women who will be annoyed are the ones doing the objectification and exploiting, so, yeah, they’re going to be hostile when you call them out and take away their chew toys. Most men in this country are not sexist, so, the division would be between feminists and a certain class and type of men who don’t love or even like women at all, but don’t mind using them for their personal satisfaction. I don’t know how that’s going to go, frankly. Time will tell.
Where does it say in the bible "Force your beliefs on those who do not believe as you"?
I just can't seem to find any quotes in the bible that say any of the following: When others do not believe as you do: 1) Force your beliefs into the government 2) Force your beliefs into public schools 3) Force your beliefs into women's bodies 4) Force your beliefs anto anyone who does not believe the way you do I do not understand why, if Christians say they are 100% comfortable in their beliefs, they feel the need to force them on others. Unless they aren't 100% comfortable? Anyway, if someone would tell me where in the bible it says to do the above, I'd appriciate it.
What is the appeal of Donald Trump to women?
Donald Trump's appeal to some women is exactly what he's been damned for describing to Billy Bush. There are a significant number of women who look for men with money, power, position, and/or fame. There are many women who will, in fact, let a man grab their privates just because that man is famous.Anyone who argues otherwise ignores fact. In high school, everyone of us knew the girls who were attracted only to jocks, only to pets, only to musicians.Then there are women who aren't necessarily attracted to Trump, but support him because they agree more with his politics than they do his opposition.Finally, I'm sure there are women out there who believe he is attractive.Some people thought Barak Obama, the man who can only read a teleprompter and stutters and stumbles whenever he doesn't have a script, was a good orator. There is no accounting for what people find attractive.