I Have A Right To My Opinion, Therefore You Are Wrong

[notorious bum]

/derail a lil

Is Ergo Proxy super philosophical, metaphorical, metaphysical answer-to-the-universe-y? Cause I literally just started watching it, on episode 2... been saving alot of oldschool anime for those rainy days when I don't have any new anime I want to watch. Ergo and Planetes are on the menu for this summer, lovin Planetes so far!

[Kerberoz]

It tries to be all of those things, without actually making any intelligent points or bringing anything original to the table, and it can't seem to decide where it's going with any of it, so it ends up just being pretentious. It's the Sasha Grey of anime.

[Apelila]

Shit I was going to suggest using the teapot instead of going down opinion lane.

If you really want to trip someone up on an opinion matter, when they throw out the "That's like, my opinion man" troll the hell out of them.

"That's my opinion"
Have you ever considered that your opinion is flawed, or at best incomplete?
"No because it says so in the bible"

My favorite's are using the 'wierder' dueteronomy laws, especially if it's a woman. "I'm not your husband, here's a rock. Go stone yourself" (I might have gotten the book wrong on this one, it was bookmarked on my old phone)

Yes, I'm aware that its jumping from proof to following laws, but it's rare someone will notice. And if they do, it's a wedge to get them to admit a whole array of things.

[Tyche]

I'm buying that teapot messenger bag for school. I get ripped on so hard at school for being atheist (in jest) (welcome to the bible belt).

My favorite argument, and it drives me nuts, is when someone says "Well, something happened to me x number of years ago, and I know". I've had that argument popped on me 3 times. Once by my father, and twice by classmates. One's reasoning for believing was that they lived through a tornado (in which no one died).

[notorious bum]

How do bible thumpers rationalize shit like: how 3rd world countries are always the one's to suffer the most from catastrophes? i.e. Haiti(yet, they are some of the most devout people in the western hemisphere)? Guess they don't pray enough. Thanks alot Dog.

I could ramble on for days about inequalities of justice, varying degrees of what constitutes as sinning, how one can go through life without concern or suffering at all and still make it to heaven, or my favorite: why is it that you can live a just and peaceful life in servitude, but go to hell if you prayed to the wrong deity? All of it can be rebutted though, with: "God has a plan." or "God works in mysterious ways." Therefor, I ignore religious discussions like a plague lol I would probably lose alot of good acquaintances if I ever decided to get into a religion debate.

[Acturus]

I'm buying that teapot messenger bag for school. I get ripped on so hard at school for being atheist (in jest) (welcome to the bible belt).

My favorite argument, and it drives me nuts, is when someone says "Well, something happened to me x number of years ago, and I know". I've had that argument popped on me 3 times. Once by my father, and twice by classmates. One's reasoning for believing was that they lived through a tornado (in which no one died).

Which invalidates the principle of faith. Faith is believing in something without proof, not because of it.

*edit* Since I like including Scott Adams' works in threads like these:

http://www.sobejogger.com/Test%20Web...ligion_War.pdf

Start on page 113, the chapter called Mensa.

[kuronosan]

The "I have a right to my opinion, therefore you are wrong" argument comes up a lot in my life. Possibly due to my liberal political view and being outspoken against things like homophobia, racism, etc. Possibly due to the fact that except for my husband I seem to be surrounded by ultra-Conservative stupidheads. It's the one argument I never seem to overcome.

Example:
Them: "Evolution is just a theory that someone came up with."
Me: "No, it's not a theory. There are a lot of scientific data backing up evolution."
Them: "In my opinion it's wrong. I believe God created the world."
Me: "Your opinion is wrong."
Them: "I have a right to my opinion!"
Me: "But it's wrong."
Them: "Only in your opinion."
Me: (davesilvermanface.jpg)

I can never, ever come up with a clever, succinct way to argue this, partially due to complete bafflement and partially due to anger.

I am wondering if anyone on BG has thought of, or knows, a good way to combat this idiotic argument?

This is exactly how my father and stepmother act. The only way to combat it is just to tell them "Look. You do have a right to your opinion, and so do I. Evolution is fact and has been proven. The bible has not. We don't agree, and we never will. Leave it at that."

[Kuya]

I just tell people that they don't have a right to being wrong and then i punch them in the face.

[aduidarnenye]

There are a lot of great comebacks here. Thanks. These will be useful in the face of wanton ignorance.

I've spent the last 15-20 years ignoring ignorance and walking away from people who spout this kind of incredible stuff but recently I decided that that is just as stupid and I should speak up when someone is saying something that's homophobic, racist, sexist, anti-science (especially this), and etc.

I've not made many friends lately.

[Apelila]

Is it only bible thumpers you're having trouble with?

Seriously, they're the easiest to troll. I need to go find my list dammit, there's some awesome bible versus that quickly shut up on flapping heads just about anything, especially if they're just spouting opinions with no facts to back them up.

I say troll because very, VERY rarely will you get one to admit that you have a point. Most will just go brood about it.

[Ragnus]

Eh, my opinion has been posted by the others many times already. So I'll just leave this here has a new way of saying it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlZiWK2Iy8

[kuronosan]

How do bible thumpers rationalize shit like: how 3rd world countries are always the one's to suffer the most from catastrophes? i.e. Haiti(yet, they are some of the most devout people in the western hemisphere)? Guess they don't pray enough. Thanks alot Dog.

I could ramble on for days about inequalities of justice, varying degrees of what constitutes as sinning, how one can go through life without concern or suffering at all and still make it to heaven, or my favorite: why is it that you can live a just and peaceful life in servitude, but go to hell if you prayed to the wrong deity? All of it can be rebutted though, with: "God has a plan." or "God works in mysterious ways." Therefor, I ignore religious discussions like a plague lol I would probably lose alot of good acquaintances if I ever decided to get into a religion debate.

That's how religion absolves itself of responsibility. If something bad happened, it's part of God's plan. If something good happened, God answered a prayer. But God only answers prayers from the devout if it's part of his plan. You also can't question him or tempt him because he's all-knowing, hence the plan. So you can't question his plan, even if it means your entire family, country, or race is wiped out by someone else, because there is a higher purpose. If someone prays for your death, even if they believe they are serving God, they are the heathens and should be wiped out. Wiping someone out goes against the ten commandments as well as Jesus' teachings, but because there are books in the bible that say it's okay, it's okay.

I could keep going, but religion is a logical fallacy in and of itself that can never be argued because people are too stupid to really use reason. It's the single reason that intellect and progress have been held back for centuries.

[Masenko]

There's only one way to truly beat bible-thumping opinionated morons, and that's to out-breed them over the next 100 years. Make that natural selection/evolution theory work!

[shiarua]

http://www.sowal.com/bb/images/smili...ng-popcorn.gif

[Talint]

He's being DEEP. You just don't get it!

Ah, very well then. Carry on!

http://www.itadakiproject.com/timgunn3.jpg

[ronin sparthos]

Like it's been said in this thread already, the best way to counter bible thumpers are to hit them with scripture and watch as they attempt to squirm out of the more... creative passages.

You know, shit like being stoned to death for working on the sabbath, how to keep and treat slaves, deaths of innocent women and children, orders for women to be silent in church etc etc.

Some will be completely dumbfounded and ask to be shown the passages or go full tilt apologetic. Either way, they'll be on the defensive as you hammer away at the moral high ground so often hurled at non-believers.

[Surealistic]

its quite simple really why those passages are there, in translating from hebrew to english, there was some mistranslations put in by the work of the devil to sway people away from god

duh

[shiarua]

This is exactly the problem right here: one side being completely ignorant of the other side. It goes both ways. I've met a lot of atheists that can't even argue their own viewpoint and they know little to nothing about what the Bible actually says.

I've also met a lot of Christians that cant back up scripture and have no knowledge on the subject of evolution.

I think if you are going to have an opinion, it should only be formulated once you've taken the time to evaluate all sides of a issue in an unbiased fashion.

[Hyan]

I think if you are going to have an opinion, it should only be formulated once you've taken the time to evaluate all sides of a issue in an unbiased fashion.

Eh?

Just be open-minded and don't refuse to change your views when proven wrong.

Not that it's always easy, but at least requires less effort..

[shiarua]

Eh?

Just be open-minded and don't refuse to change your views when proven wrong.

Not that it's always easy, but at least requires less effort..

Again, thats the problem with both sides. Im not saying all people are like this, but the majority are.

Christians have their own reasoning and proof for creation, while Atheists have their own reasoning and proof for evolution. Both sides think the other side's arguments are "stupid", illogical, lack reason, etc. Its hard to keep an open mind when you have these biases.

This is why the OP has a problem. He thinks the other side is "stupid", succumbing to the very thing he is getting angry at (people thinking evolution is dumb).