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One thing I like to do is try to start conversations with people who believe very different things than I do. For a while I was doing weekly bible readings with
by blendergasket 14y ago
One thing I like to do is try to start conversations with people who believe very different things than I do. For a while I was doing weekly bible readings with a very interesting group of Christian people (I'm not Christian and have never been religious). It got heated. I was very challenged and forced to analyze my own beliefs and the presuppositions I brought to the table. I'm sure they felt that they had to do the same as well and I think we all became better people for it.
- jeremyt 14y agoMy experience has been this is a recipe for becoming an admirably open, yet unlikable person. I'm actually in the process of heading in the other direction. In fact, I think that I recently lost a budding friendship because of a heated political discussion.
- the_cat_kittles 14y agoSorry to hear that, but its been my experience that a friendship that gets tripped up by relatively superficial differences like that is probably not a strong friendship to begin with. I am not old, but the older I get, the less I feel like religion and politics are relevant to a person's personality. At the risk of trivializing them too much, I almost think of them as a team allegiance like rooting for the Packers vs the Steelers... While there are consequences for what people believe, in terms of a friendship, these things really don't matter to me.
- jeremyt 14y agoWell, in my defense I did say it was a "budding friendship". However, I literally have never had a positive experience discussing religion or politics, except with people with whom I already agree. I have a personal rule to never do so, and I've even attempted to apply that to the Internet and failed on several occasions. Yet, I regret having tried in each case.
- blendergasket 14y agoI actually made a pretty good friend out of it.