Am I unusual in this? Does anyone else round here feel that their understanding of someone's personality is necessarily (or even usually) incomplete without some knowledge of their attitude to religion?
I think I feel something like that. I will have a go at explaining why, but it might not make much sense.
If you look for evidence for the existence of God there isn't really any, and I think that how you deal with that fact forms a major part of your personality. Accordingly, I divide people into three groups:
1) People who disagree with that (in my opinion, these people are mistaken, so I tend to see them as not being very good at thinking, or not having bothered to have thought about it very much). 2) People who accept this as a fact and do not see any reason to go beyond it, so call themselves atheists (or agnostics if they want to emphasize the fact that if any evidence did turn up they'd be open to hearing about it) 3) People who think one's approach to God needs to be radically different from one's approach to finding out about phenomena that exist in the universe, so think it's true but at least partially irrelevant that there's no convincing evidence for God's existance.
I divide 3 into 3a (people to whom this comes naturally, who are a bit like 1s) and 3b (people for whom this is a struggle, who are a bit like 2s).
[Edit: when I think about it, perhaps there's also a 1a and a 1b: 1as think there's evidence they can communicate to other people which makes it significantly more likely than not that God exists; 1bs think their personal experience of God makes it more likely than not that he exists, but acknowledge there's no reason why anyone else should believe on this basis.]
I'm a 3b, so feel an affinity towards other 3bs. I like and admire 3as and sort of want to learn from them and be like them, but also worry that they're woolly thinkers and no different from 1s, who I rather look down on sometimes, though I'm comfortable about talking about religion with them and indeed find it relaxing and refreshing and delightful [particularly if they're 1bs]. Most of my close friends are 2s, and I like them, and feel an affinity towards them, but sometimes feel uncomfortable discussing religion with them.
More relevantly to your post, I think that which line you take has an effect on the way you see the entire world, which is why I think it's an important part of 'personality'. Though more strictly, perhaps I'm really talking about peoples' attitude towards reason (which will lead to particular religious beliefs) as the thing that's important to personality, but asking questions about religion is quite a good shortcut to finding out what that attitude is, since not everyone thinks within the same terms of reference.
[Disclaimer: I currently think this is the way I see things, but I did just make the tripartite division up off the top of my head, and might find I don't think like that tomorrow.]
no subject
I think I feel something like that. I will have a go at explaining why, but it might not make much sense.
If you look for evidence for the existence of God there isn't really any, and I think that how you deal with that fact forms a major part of your personality. Accordingly, I divide people into three groups:
1) People who disagree with that (in my opinion, these people are mistaken, so I tend to see them as not being very good at thinking, or not having bothered to have thought about it very much).
2) People who accept this as a fact and do not see any reason to go beyond it, so call themselves atheists (or agnostics if they want to emphasize the fact that if any evidence did turn up they'd be open to hearing about it)
3) People who think one's approach to God needs to be radically different from one's approach to finding out about phenomena that exist in the universe, so think it's true but at least partially irrelevant that there's no convincing evidence for God's existance.
I divide 3 into 3a (people to whom this comes naturally, who are a bit like 1s) and 3b (people for whom this is a struggle, who are a bit like 2s).
[Edit: when I think about it, perhaps there's also a 1a and a 1b: 1as think there's evidence they can communicate to other people which makes it significantly more likely than not that God exists; 1bs think their personal experience of God makes it more likely than not that he exists, but acknowledge there's no reason why anyone else should believe on this basis.]
I'm a 3b, so feel an affinity towards other 3bs. I like and admire 3as and sort of want to learn from them and be like them, but also worry that they're woolly thinkers and no different from 1s, who I rather look down on sometimes, though I'm comfortable about talking about religion with them and indeed find it relaxing and refreshing and delightful [particularly if they're 1bs]. Most of my close friends are 2s, and I like them, and feel an affinity towards them, but sometimes feel uncomfortable discussing religion with them.
More relevantly to your post, I think that which line you take has an effect on the way you see the entire world, which is why I think it's an important part of 'personality'. Though more strictly, perhaps I'm really talking about peoples' attitude towards reason (which will lead to particular religious beliefs) as the thing that's important to personality, but asking questions about religion is quite a good shortcut to finding out what that attitude is, since not everyone thinks within the same terms of reference.
[Disclaimer: I currently think this is the way I see things, but I did just make the tripartite division up off the top of my head, and might find I don't think like that tomorrow.]