How do we overcome our difficulties talking about
religion with other people? This would also include people that we talk
to about religion and agree with us. If someone tends to agrees with us
most of the time, this could create difficulties in a different way.
Their constant agreement could tell us a couple of things about them,
either they don't know enough about the topic you're discussing, have no
interest in it or they don't want to upset you and will tend to agree
with you often if not always.
The biggest problem, dealing with the difficulties in talking about
religion would involve two people who disagree on one or many topics.
These topics could range from very important (life changing and factual)
to common beliefs. When someone ask you a question like, "Do You Believe
in God?", this could lead to an argument with the wrong person.
You can be honest, but always have an exit response if things get a
little out of hand. Whenever someone chooses to become animated or mad
at me, because of something I said, that they don't believe in, I can
simply choose to remove myself from their presence. I would like to
point out to my readers, rarely do I ever choose to remove myself from
any heated discussion but often encorage or egg them on.
If you don't feel comfortable asking questions about religion, but seek
answers from others, start with simple unoffending questions and lead
your way into the bigger ones. For example if I wanted to know, why
someone believes in Hinduism, but am afraid to directly ask them... have
someone else asked them. Okay maybe that's the easy way out, but you
could always start with a question related to their childhood like," How
Old Were You When You Started Going to Church?"
They might reply with, we don't go to church, we go to Temple or Mandir.
This often breaks the ice that could lead to the end of the
conversation, quickly. If you did a little research before you spoke
with them, you could always replace church with the word temple but not
Mandir. This might give them the impression, you already know about
their religion, let them explain their religion to you.
If this is handled in a non threatening way, it could lead to a
friendship of greater trust and now you can ask the bigger questions.
Asking the big questions sometimes, even in a friendly environment this
could become frustrating if your intentions are other than just
gathering information. Don't try to convert anyone to follow your
religion or spiritual practices. This could end the relationship quickly
and cause bad feelings.
Treat people like you would like to be treated and if you treat people
poorly, disregard the last statement and treat people with kindness and
compassion. |