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Doubt vs gullibilty

Is it wrong to cause believers to doubt their faith?
If so, please explain why, I am well aware there are some believers that can't be reasoned with but there are those who can be reasoned with. So, if it's wrong to cause doubt, then please explain how it's right to make people believe things unsupported by evidence?

GodlessWahid666 5 Oct 3
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27 comments

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3

I look at it this way; if you can convince me of something then more power to you. Most likely you can't, but if you can then my "belief" or line of thought wasn't that solid to begin with.

3

I've mentioned this in another post a bit ago.
I find that planting seeds works wonders.
i've had conversations with many believers, some are great friends.
I learned that it's never a good thing to try and force any one to think differently than they do.
However, what I do is listen to what they have to say. Then I'll say how I view things politely.
Some times it gets into a great conversation.
But I think that a lot of believers, especially the very religious have been mislead at what an Atheist, or non-believer is like. for instance i've heard from many that said things like, you seem very nice, and not judgemental, you seem to enjoy life, and you seem like a nice person, I would not have thought that.
That seed of showing that their misconceptions about Atheists were not what they were told.
That kind of seed has the potential to have a believer take pause and think.

I've known many because of that, ended up questioning their own beliefs.

Works better than having fits and calling them delusional

@Castlepaloma Agreed.

2

We need to let people do what they want to do.

@JesseThompson Then we wait until they act on it and send them to jail the same as everyone else.

Yes, but this does not include serial rapists and serial killers. They do not need to do what they want to do.

2

I kind of lost you there at the end but it is not wrong 2 cause doubt in believers. Gods were originally created to explain the unknown. Slowly science has wiped out the need for gods. Science explains all of life.

lerlo Level 8 Oct 3, 2018
2

So long as you're focusing on the belief and not the person, should be fair game.

1

No its not wrong to get believers to doubt there faith. We are trying to lead them to the path of enlightenment. To free them from brain washing.

1

You can't cause anyone else to doubt that is sure in their belief. We all cause our own doubt really.

1

" He who does not doubt little learns even less." - Author Unknown but from circa 1759, Western Europe.

Sorry about that quote needing editing but I was disrupted whilst typing it in.

1

"Is it wrong to cause believers to doubt their faith?"

Like so many questions we ask, or have asked of us, it surely must depend on the situation. Reading the prior posts below I can see, perhaps as the author of Ecclesiastes, that there is "a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace."

Timing is everything, and we who no longer believe should, in my opinion, remain patient for the appropriate time. For any who flatly state that it is NEVER wrong to speak honestly, I have nothing but pity.

1

Doubt might not be a pleasant feeling, but certainty is a ridiculous one.

1

I usually mind my own business unless someone is getting the facts wrong or hurting someone. So you're superstitious? Neat. Nothing to do with me. You go to church every time the doors are open? Swell. Nothing to do with me. If I'm at work and one of my coworkers comes out with some nonsense, I just add a book disputing that nonsense to my next library book order and move on with my damn life.

1

No need to have guilty feelings about anything. People will believe whatever until they don't......

1

If you share facts that cause the superstitious to cast off their shackles you are to be praised, but not too profusely. The facts do not belong to any single one but to all.

1

I must check out al-Ma'arri. He must have been fortunate to survive in 11th century Syria.

1

It is faith that is wrong. Faith is believing in something in spite of any evidence to the contrary. Faith is what let us believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. It is folly for adults to use this same thing to believe in gods.

1

No.

1

It's not wrong to cause believers to doubt there faith. More we get believers to doubt the bs, the better the chance of putting them on the path of enlightenment. That makes it easier for our community to come out of the closets with our belief system. I would love to wear a t shirt that said, I'm an atheist and proud of it. It's wrong to con people into something that doesn't exist and do rituals which are total waste of time for an after life. Watching an episode of Power Rangers is more productive than believing religious bs/god. I bet all the people who read my would agree with me.

1

I had a co-worker friend I "reasoned" with. He set out in search of something else to "believe" in. I guess some people just can't believe in themselves.

Della Level 6 Oct 3, 2018

I also know a few people who have left religion and become believers in other magic, such as "new age" teachings.

0

I think it can sometimes be wrong. My mother was a firm believer, but I'm not sure that she was actually in the 'unshakeable' category. So I always tried to be careful, when discussing religion and theology, that I did not strive too assiduously to instil doubt in her. I think that would have been cruel, since her quiet faith meant a lot to her.

That said, I think in most cases it's not wrong to try to cause doubt, and it certainly doesn't make it right to force people to believe stuff.

0
0

I think we all have doubt about many things. Fortunately we do not all have gullibility.

0

Is there a modern translation? I’d like to see one, it might be interesting, rather than the flowery archaic English.

0

Religions are expert in removing doubt and most faces of gullibility. Influencing credulity (negatively) might be a way. It's a question of what efforts are an effective use of our time and don't backfire.

0

Some of these responses are shocking me. If you love someone it is best to be honest with them. Is it loving to lie to them and tell them its O.K. to live their lives in a delusion. Is it loving to watch someone pray for their child to "be healed" without taking them to the doctor? Is it loving to let them live their lives and make decisions that affect others such as in the voting booth based on delusional mythologies?

I believe it is wrong for me to let the people in my life make real decisions based on mythology.
I believe that not making the attempt to help them understand the difference between what is real and not real.
I believe that it is selfish for me not to speak up just because it might be uncomfortable.
I believe that we live in a real world with real consequences of our actions and decisions we make should be based on the real world and not fairy tales as making decisions based on fairy tales can cause harm to all of us.

0

“On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested,--"But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, "They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil." No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature..." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

MikaB Level 5 Oct 3, 2018
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