Do you feel it is important to share your views on faith or atheism?

[gingerdodger]

This is a genuine question, I am not asking to promote a faith vs atheism debate as we have plenty of those.

My question is whether people feel that it is part of their faith to share those beliefs with others? How far do you take this and how do you approach it? Similarly for those who are atheist, do you feel it is important to share your opinions and in what ways do you do this?

I know some faith groups see this as absaloutely fundamental to their faith whilst others are more relaxed. I also see that those who do not believe in God(s) also often wish to share their opinions widely. It interests me to think about what this achieves in terms of sharing opinions, understanding of each other etc.

From my point of view I strive to be open about my faith, I like to listen to other's perspectives as this makes me think (providing they are listening, I tend to bow out when it starts to feel adversarial and not inquisitorial). I don't feel compelled to actively knock on doors (metaphorically or otherwise) to share my faith but rather subscribe to the view that I hope my approach to life and openness about faith allows me to discuss my faith openly and honestly. I do believe actions speak louder than words and the best form of 'preaching' is to live Christian values of love (not saying I am good at this).

believe there should be provision for collective worship in schools, they value collective worship.

Since religious people can have collective worship with their family or their church any time they wish the sole reason as far as I can see for wanting collective worship in schools is that it forces those not in their church to worship their god.

That is the point isn't it and why there can be no real debate. they will fight to keep the right to force other people to worship their god because that is what it is for.

As I've said before one way to make the point might be to enforce more religion in schools. Imagine if you can't walk in the school gate until you kneel and say that "Allah is the one true god" and then you can't enter the classroom without praising Joseph Smith for coming to correct the mistakes made by Jesus and Muhammad.

I did at the beginning of the thread. Here:

Add message | Report | Message poster capsium Sun 06-Jul-14 22:06:35
My beliefs are an essential part of myself. They make up the motivation behind the decisions I make, the things I say, the way I view the world.

If people truly accept me, as I am, it follows they would, at the very least, be interested in what I believe...

And a few posts later, here:

Is there not space to share your views without trying to convert people to your way of thinking?

If I share my Christian thinking, answer questions, in any way that reflects being a Christian is something I value, I could be accused of seeking to convert.

I don't actually believe I can convert. Faith is something that a person has to choose for themselves. Belief without acknowledging that you have made a choice, to believe, is just ignorance, which IMO is of little value.

So where is the middle ground between someone who values their own Faith and who answers other's questions in a way that reflects this and someone who somehow seeks to convert someone else (against their will)?

I believe this is a subjective matter of perception between the people involved.

I should give up OP and try starting again and perhaps hope that people don't derail for a question that wasn't asked!

^ answer the initial question that is.

Sorry-that was after BackOnlyBriefly-perhaps we are back on the subject now.

For any future posters-this thread is not about collective worship and it is not about schools!

Delph, I agree with you. I answered the OP's question way back when the thread was still on topic.

Dorrit, no one is whining that there should be collective worship. There is collective worship by law with a choice to opt out.

I think the thread had gone well and truly off topic before the schools issue was raised.

But to answer the original question, I very rarely mention that I am an atheist unless it is somehow relevant. I would generally expect most atheists and other non religious people not to talk about their non beliefs very much, because they aren't generally terribly important, absence of faith doesn't tend to influence your life or choices in the way that faith does.

For example I was just talking to my sister about her Sunday. She talked about the services she went to and what that had made her think about. I on the other hand didn't have any special ceremonies so nothing much to share on that front.

I'm not sure what sharing my non belief would look like beyond 'I'm an atheist, I don't have faith in any supreme being types, my life choices are my own (affected of course by society, my upbringing etc etc)". Short conversation generally. Generally speaking if I think that the other person is religious I'd just try and avoid the subject entirely unless the other person indicated that they were up for a bit of a debate/discussion.

and I find it actually quite offensive to be told that my strong feelings about my young child being indoctrinated with no prior warning is 'whining'. In what other context would it be considered OK for a five year old to be exposed in such a way? Parents get told a great deal more about virtually every other aspect of the school day.

I tried a search for 'collective worship' and more than 500 discussions came up so I tried this year and it was still more than 500 discussions. It is done to death without using this thread!

Nooka, I was talking about 2 specific posters who despite having the opportunity to actually do something about CW IRL, did absolutely nothing. Nada. Zilch. Despite one poster believing that her DCs were being "brainwashed".

Moaning ad finitum, while doing absolutely nothing is whining in my book.

Doomed OP! I would abandon it and start again-making it clear that it is nothing to do with children.

I think the OP went away once it became an atheists vs believers wrangle.

Agree Delphiniumsblue, collective worship is one of those topics that will always inspire people to fight the good fight.

As it should of course.

Well, some people might consider that there are more important and interesting things to talk about than rehashing the same views all over again.

Well that would be me too Dione, although I'm not really sure what we could have done about the head's friendship with the vicar. Parents have very little power when it comes to how schools are run, especially if they work full time and have a fairly small window for interaction, all most of us can do is to address the problems when our children come home and tell us all sorts of things we are very surprised by and attempt to give some sort of balance to the 'Jesus died for us' literalism. Given that the school is doing what it is supposed to do I don't think that we'd have much ground to stand on.

I suppose I could argue that in emigrating to a country with a secular school system we've done more than moan, but it was not the deciding factor.

Or you could just opt out and not subject your DC to "indoctrination". Your choice, but don't try to make others responsible for your decision to do nothing.

I don't like anyone who evangelizes, whether about their faith or their lack thereof.
If people ask, I will talk about my personal beliefs. If people say ignorant things (like on another thread at the moment), I will try to correct them or address their concerns. I will talk to my DD about what I believe and why. Otherwise, I can't see why it needs to be a subject of conversation, really.

I like to hear about the beliefs of others and what that means to them. I am suspicious of preaching, IME it simply means do as I say, not what I do.

It is the 'evangelise' bit that irritates me. I can't stand it on any subject - diet etc.
Talking about it is fine, but not in the expectation that you are right and people must 'see the light' and I prefer to wait for it to come up in conversation rather than initiate it out of the blue. That means it may never come up in conversation.
The people I admire are the ones who live their views quietly, without needing an audience.

So our children are excluded from this discussion?

I think the discussion surrounding religion in schools is very appropriate to this debate. The OP was asking about sharing faith- most of us are parents here, doesn't this subject include the enforced indoctrination that our children are subject to? It's highly appropriate when discussing the sharing of faith.

capsium and others talk of communities and shared faith- again an appropriate point, but nowhere apart from schools do I see religion being forced down the throat.
I can think of many communities where groups of like minded people come together but religion playes no part.

My DDs dance school
My DS rugby club
my Univeristy where I gained my degree
our local choir
our local drama group
our local horticultural society
my gym
my workplace
our toddler group
the breastfeeding support group I run

Why should schools- which should be a place of learning real facts- be allowed to peddle faith and superstition?

I am an atheist. I loathe religion and think that it does more damage than good and so am very vocal about being an atheist. However, thete is no point trying to convert people.

We were recently at a dinner with an American couple who were shocked that the other 3 couples were atheists. They had just never encountered it before. That was why it is important to discuss it, even just to show that there are very many people who determinedly believe that the idea of a god is ridiculous but who still can lead moral and good lives.