I am afraid I do not fit in your tickyboxes...

Date: 2007-12-17 11:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] atreic.livejournal.com
I am a wobbly athiest-agnostic-christian who likes knowing what people think about things, especially interesting things like religion, but who thinks in the general case it is probably best only to talk to people about things they are interested in hearing about. So you should mention things you care about to them a bit, to see if they are interested in it, but not bother them further if they clearly arn't. Of course, this may mean that in the end one or both of you decide that there is nothing they want to say that the other person wants to listen to, and you go off and are friends with someone else.

Date: 2007-12-17 02:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sonia-leong.livejournal.com
Hehe, I'm such a lapsed Catholic. What was it Matthew said about me? I'm always in inner conflict about my work/play ratio because of my inbuilt Catholic guilt, versus my environmental Protestant work ethic XD

Religion can be fun to talk about, so long as the tone is kept light hearted, and people can still laugh at themselves.

Date: 2007-12-17 03:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] woodpijn.livejournal.com
I didn't know you well as a student, so never really got to talk about theology with you. I think it would be interesting. It was fun when we had that discussion on ToothyChat about determinism.

Date: 2007-12-17 04:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] woodpijn.livejournal.com
On an unrelated and trivial note: your title "Did you know we're Christian?" sounds odd to me. I would say "Did you know we're Christians?" - i.e. using the noun rather than the adjective.

Is it just me, or do other people agree? Maybe I'll write to Language Log and get them to investigate.

The attributive adjective sounds fine ("Christian students") but the predicative adjective sounds unnatural to me ("we're Christian").

"We're Jewish" and "we're Jews" both sound natural to me, but "we're Muslim" also sounds odd and I'd prefer "we're Muslims".

I wonder whether it's because for "Christian" and "Muslim" the adjective is the same word as the noun, but for "Jewish" it isn't.

I don't the same thing with nationalities - "we're English", "we're Englishmen", "we're American" and "we're Americans" all sound fine to me (gender issues with "Englishmen" aside).

Date: 2007-12-17 05:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] woodpijn.livejournal.com
I don't think it's just you, because I have heard other people say it too. I was just wondering how common it was.

Date: 2007-12-17 06:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] woodpijn.livejournal.com
...in fact teleute just said it in her poll response, so it's definitely not just you.

Date: 2007-12-17 07:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] denji.livejournal.com
it occured to me I do not know a lot about your religion, but I do know it's there ^_^ I m quite interested to see your POV on the world :)

I think too many people put a negative spin on christianity/christians, when actualy most christians are nothing like how people seem to see them..it's so judgemental (and therefore..hypocritical;)

next time i see you i'll ask more about what you think, i think :)

Date: 2007-12-17 10:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] khoth.livejournal.com
Although I answered "just be left alone", it doesn't mean I'm not interested in it when the topic comes up. But I wouldn't expect to be converted, or vice versa. My time as a student asking (and answering) "well, how do you explain this, then? Well? Well?" doesn't seem so worthwhile now, for some reason. Possibly wisdom, or cynicism, or one of those things.

Date: 2007-12-18 01:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] theorah.livejournal.com
I know too many people who are negative about Christians, its a shame! :( I think the news/tv documentarys focuses on those weird people who use religion as an excuse to hurt others, and so loads of people end up thinking that all christians is like that! =/
hehe as Keds said, I am open to all religions/beleifs as long as they dont hurt anyone ^^
I quite like it when people talk about their own beleifs to me, its interesting to find out! What I dont like is when people hurt others/think other people are living bad and wrong lives if they dont share a similar beleif! :( I dont think ANY religion actually promotes this though, just some people interpret things in that way..
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