Regarding respect for others beliefs: I remember when I was a super zealous new jw and my mother's mother had just died, my mother and her were very close, she had lost her father when she was a teenager. I pushed and pushed for her to listen to and respect the resurrection hope, quoting 'their conscious of nothing at all etc etc' thinking it would make her feel better. At some point She stopped me, grabbed me by the shoulders and said, 'I need to believe she's looking down on us in heaven with my dad, taking care of us, I NEED that'. That's what has kept her going when her dad died as a youth.
with my superiority complex I thought I could easily disprove her belief, but that didn't take into account the affection she had for that belief and the importance it played in her life.
Some members here would say that with enough education and research all belief in a deity can be disproved. I find it difficult to believe that any such thing can be completely disproved or proved, haven't scholars tried to do so for centuries? That's where there is room for faith.
We are at various stages of awakening, after a high control religion was our crutch and whole life, it could be insensitive and cruel for someone further along in the process or with a greater knowledge of certain areas of study to ridicule and tear down someone else's dearly held religious belief.
I think the important thing for us all to display here is open mindedness and mutual respect for each others beliefs, considering we came out of a cult which encouraged close mindedness, blinkered thinking and disrespect for anyone else's religion.
