Are you friends with people with completely different belief systems from you?

One of my "bestest" friends has extremely different views. She dislikes pop culture immensely for example. It doesn't really affect me nor our friendship that much. Sometimes I will stop and give her one of my "lectures" (and vice versa). But on the whole it hasn't stopped us from being best friends.

Most of my friends have different values & ideologies to me. Mrs Vague does too, in lots of ways. God knows I don't think I'd want to buddy up with someone exackly like me.

Yes, I am friends with people with different belief systems. Republicans, Jews, vegetarians, Guided by Voices fans...

Me personally most of my friends are all on a pretty liberal wavelength, tho there's disagreements about various things and there's a bit of a range. My wife, otoh, is still close with her best friend from childhood, and he best friend's family and lifestyle are kinda the polar opposite of ours. Sometimes its a bit of strain on their relationship, but my wife doesn't want to give up one of her oldest friendships.

Certainly I'm friendly with various family members who's belief systems I completely disagree with

i like to respect people's uniqueness. no, hang on, that's BS, but the chances of knowing more than a couple people, hell *anyone*, who you even agree with most stuff about is hard.

chances are hard?

ivy league snooty syntax fascists hic

I'm actually friends with several vegetarians and some people who don't think twice about their carbon footprints.

I lived with a far-right libertarian Christian for a year. We wrote the opposing political columns for the paper. It was fun. We sparred over politics all the time, but didn't take it personally.

all my friends are exactly like me

that's right

I'm friends with people who enjoy the company of other people. So, yes.

Also, a lot of Arsenal fans.

this question is dumb: yes, of course i am friends with people that i don't agree with

i'm friends with jewish people too, and i'm "catholic" supposedly. but those friends are not very religious. i can't imagine being friends with someone who is very religious. i'm not.

you can disagree with someone but the extent to which you disagree makes a difference. i don't think i could be friends with someone who i disagreed a LOT with -- or on a lot of issues.

xpost The question isn't dumb at all. It all depends on how much you find importance in your and other people's beliefs. I used to think and feel that I could not relate to other people if they were extremely open (and defensive) about their (religious) beliefs. Well, I sort of believed it but then I realized it wasn't all that important. *shrugs*

there has to be some kind of common ground, doesn't there? i dont have a ton of republican friends, or friends of a certain kind of christian bent, because the foundations on which i build my sense of self is pretty radically different from the kinds of foudations that some christians and most conservatives do.

i also tend to think people who have different belief systems than me are usually unredeemably dumb, and im not friends with dumb people

It's weird but ever since college the guys who I've developed the closest ties with are frat-boys-with-hearts-of-gold types. People with similar interests... we're usually like waves with similar amplitudes but different phasing.. always clashing even though we look alike.

yeah to be honest i dont have a lot of friends who share the exact same interests as me (i.e. certain kinds of music or "being an english major" if that counts as an interest). i dont know if thats just circumstance tho, or something else.

but "interests" != "belief systems" at any rate

OTM, max.

This question seeks to make mountains out of molehills.

"interests" is definitely different -- obviously, my friends have many, many interests that i don't share. but we pretty much all share the same deeply rooted beliefs/values.

my one friend just got married to this guy in the army, that she only knew for like i don't know, 7 months? and now they're having a baby and moving to south korea. i'm having a hard time with it. i just feel like her values are sooo different from mine, that i can't see eye to eye with her anymore.

I tend to befriend people who are on a v. close moral/intellectual wavelength & also in terms of sense of humor. I wld prefer to have few/almost no/(maybe even) no friends than friends whose values just disgusted or maddened me, or if they were impolite (manners and tact being perhaps my most important values!).

=) go politeness!

Australia's run by a horrifyingly bigoted warmonger. I cannot take seriously anyone who supports him (for obvious reasons). Unfortunately most of my wife's and my families are gung-ho bigot supporters (and also bigots). This I find difficult to ignore when I have to fucking eat dinner with them.

So that's the political one, and even then it's just against people who support bigotry, not supports of the party back when it wasn't being run by monkey boy.

You can roll homosexualist-haters into this group of 'people' with whom I refuse to mingle.

Hmm, me too, except minus the scare quotes.

Er, I actually had a strange experience yesterday evening when smoking a massive doobie at a classmate's place.
I was with two schoolmates, the girl whose apartment we were in and a boy.
As I said, it was a massive joint, and we were all pretty giggly and stupid when we were talking, mostly about art and the people we know who're making it and it what forms it is taking.

The boy brought up a few friends of his who stage guerrilla art shows concerned with, it sounds like, mostly the war in Iraq. As someone who wholeheartedly opposes the war, I thought what they were doing sounded wonderful. The guy, however, made their efforts sound like it was the most misguided thing in the world! "You could try, I don't know, writing a letter and saying a prayer." Was exactly how he put it.

Now, I agree that there need to be many more letters written, by myself included, but the fact that he tacked on "saying a prayer" freaked me out a bit. I had to leave shortly after because my brain wasn't working in the way it is right now where words are coming out and seem to make some kind of sense. I don't think I would stop being friends with him, but now I'm curious about how religious he is, and (if he is very or isn't at all) how that changes my perception of him, which began as funny guy from my painting class.

prayer probably marginally more effective than letter-writing, unfortunately.

My girlfriend is currently having the same problem with a friend of hers from uni, he's a total born-again crazy man apparently. do not want to meet him.
xp

prayer probably marginally more effective than letter-writing, unfortunately.

you're telling me

I don't know, it's a pretty good way to find a husband (who is in prison).

I have a habit of assuming people are highly and devoutly Christian, when they turn out to be gay atheists.

lolololol louis

Gaytheists!

Christiaggotry

That's my new name for Rio de Janeiro

oh no! i just saw all these facebook groups a friend of mine from junior high has joined :(

republican youth bullshit
stop obama something or other

AGH! i don't know if i can poke her anymore

the dilemma of our times

I'm getting a pizza abovementioned bro this weekend. Amped.

Friends? With people?! Me??!! I am afraid I do not understand. Now pardon me as I wander off into the empty wilderness alone for a couple of weeks to commune with my friends, the rocks and trees. Not forgetting the birds and bees.

most of my friends share very similar belief systems, at least politically. i don't think this makes me boring, though; i've been exposed to enough other worldviews in work situations or with family or whatever

I'm not sure I have a lot of common ground with anybody so i kinda have to be. but then someone can say/believe things that really seem bad/wrong/dumb to me and I dont really feel like I need to set them straight unless they try to set ME straight. then they'll get it. I have TONS of family/friends who are strong believing christians and believe me they all gave up a long time ago, but thankfully they all still love me.

my friend's mom-in-law is an evangelical christian of some stripe that i just don't get at all (think joel osteen)

she also happens to be this amazing person who simply makes you feel loved and accepted in her presence in a way that very few other people do that i've met. so...

that's because she's riding high on the power of the lord

haha i think i have quite a few people "praying" for me...

xpost
aw, don't be mean. no, i think that she was just always like that

she's not at all sanctimonious or whatever, fwiw

hell2thanaw

xpst

she's just a really sweet person. whether that has anything to do with her religious beliefs, i couldn't say

Y'know, I seriously try to realize it ain't all that important. On top of that who's to say they are wrong (and I'm right), right? (Well, I do think I'm right but y'know whatevs I'm trying to downplay my being right...) It all depends on how in your face you and/your friends are about your/their beliefs.