I think the participants here would tend to agree that letting another person
have their own beliefs, and respecting their right to think what they want,
is a Good Thing.  But how much intolerance is acceptable in the name of
tolerance?  In some religious debates I've seen recently, I've been struck
by how nastily some belivers in freedom of religion have ranted against
Christianity, for example.  
If a proponent of religious freedom meets a proponent of converting heathens,
is it more hypocritical to let them keep converting rather than fight for what
you belive for, or to tell them that their way is Wrong?

8 responses total.

I see nothing wrong with me (an atheist) telling a theist that I believe they
are wrong. I don't see that as insulting or condemming (sp?), nor am I
insulted when theists tell me that they think I'm wrong. I have nothing
against Christianity any more than I have against any other forms of (IMHO)
mythology. To a point, I feel that if theism helps people get through the day,
then more power to them. But contrary to the supposed numbers (95% of American
society are theists, I've heard), I think more and more people are beginning
to question theism, and require evidence for something this extraordinary (see
Carl Sagan). I think more and more people are agreeing that society as a whole
has a long way to go evolutionarily, and that its time to move away from more
primative modes of thought. I mean no offense to anyone

By the way, Dan, good item. :)

Interesting, but I think you may have missed the original question somewhat.
The idea was not just whether it is wrong to try to convert theists, but
trying to make theists stop converting others.

The only time I would actively resist others preaching or converting is if
they were doing it in a way that really disturbed me, such as waiting until
I'm right up next to them, and deciding at that instant to yell as loud as
they could to the whole plaza that we were all going to burn if we didn't
accept Jesus as our lord and savior. This has happened to me before, and I
turned to the guy, after collecting my wits, and yelled fairly loudly, "That
hurt my ears!!" He apologized and I walked away. Otherwise its just in one
ear and out the other. I don't even mind people coming to my door. I think
as long as people are civil, and polite, they should be able to voice their
opinion, no matter how strongly I feel they are wrong. 

People converting to other religions out ot their own free will is okay. But
what do you do when prosyletizers(the people who do the conversion) exploit
the weaker position of others to impose their religion on them? In India, in
the past, the mughal rulers converted entire villages and cities to Islam
after capturing them. In recent times, Christian missionaries go to tribal
areas where the people are neither educated, nor aware too much of the outer
world and give them food, medicines, construct homes for them, and then demand
that they convert to christianity in order to continue receiving the benefits
like these. I do not think Christs teachings included doing such acts. By such
conversions, both the missionaries and the tribals lose their character.

Missionaries come in and feed them, give them health care and homes, and
whatever else in return for their conversion to Christianity sounds
like a good deal to me.  Everyone invests in a religion for some
type of personal gain whether that be a sense of being a good person,
or being part of a special group, or to go to heaven, or have somewhere
to go on Sunday morning.  I think these poor folks hit pay dirt, myself.

What if it went the other way? Say you'r a poor decrepid Christian and a
Muslim comes over and offers you food, medicine but only if you convert.

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