Why do people find my beliefs so offensive?

[RancidSumo]

In the "Left vs. Right Authoritarianism" thread, Belmont31R made the comment,

What ever happened to leave me alone and Ill leave you alone?

As an extension of this, why do people tend to hate those of us who hold that belief so much? I've found this hatred to be almost universal over the last three years as my beliefs have gotten progressively libertarian and I really don't understand it.

An example of this came up today (actually about 45min ago) in my Nature and Human Values class. There were many people in the class that were opposed to the topic at hand (genetic engineering) on religious grounds. I made the comment that just because they didn't like something and justified it with, in my opinion, a faulty interpretation of the Bible, does not give them the right to force me to live by their beliefs, even if I'm in the minority. This really made several of them upset and in some cases, angry.

I don't understand their anger. I wasn't trying to force them to live by what I believe, I wasn't condemning their religion, I wasn't doing anything of the sort. All I said was that they don't have the right to force me to do a damn thing and similarly, I don't have the right to force them.

This should be the most acceptable viewpoint to a reasonable person I would think. It isn't like I was trying to force the Christians to convert to Islam, I was just telling them to stay out of my life. Does anyone have insight into this thought process? What is it that makes the beliefs that I hold along with many others on this forum so hated by the rest of the population?

[Skyyr]

The fact that they have no control over you... and what you could do with the freedom of being free of others rules (e.g. with DNA engineering, you might decrease infant mortality rates, but you could also turn into a psychopath who creates monsters from innocent human embryos).

It comes from a culture fear-mongering, plain and simple.

[SteyrAUG]

It's kinda how people want more money than everyone else. They want to be free, but they don't want you to have the same.

[500grains]

The prof flipped out in my criminal law class when I said that every prisoner who was not expected to pay back the costs of his incarceration in taxes once released should be executed as a matter of economic pragmatism. The next day he gave a public apology for his flip out.

WTF does he care what I think?

[rob_s]

Mr. Evans: You ever been to Lawrence KS young man?
Jack Bull Chiles: [scoffs] No, I reckon not Mr. Evans. I don't believe I'd be too welcome in Lawrence.
Mr. Evans: I didn't think so. Before this war began, my business took me there often. As I saw those northerners build that town, I witnessed the seeds of our destruction being sown.
Jack Bull Chiles: The foundin' of that town was truly the beginnin' of the Yankee invasion.
Mr. Evans: I'm not speakin' of numbers, nor even abolitionist trouble makin'. It was the schoolhouse. Before they built their church, even, they built that schoolhouse. And they let in every tailor's son... and every farmer's daughter in that country.
Jack Bull Chiles: Spellin' won't help you hold a plow any firmer. Or a gun either.
Mr. Evans: No, it won't Mr. Chiles. But my point is merely that they rounded every pup up into that schoolhouse because they fancied that everyone should think and talk the same free-thinkin' way they do with no regard to station, custom, propriety. And that is why they will win. Because they believe everyone should live and think just like them. And we shall lose because we don't care one way or another how they live. We just worry about ourselves.
Jack Bull Chiles: Are you sayin', sir, that we fight for nothin'?
Mr. Evans: Far from it, Mr. Chiles. You fight for everything that we ever had, as did my son. It's just that... we don't have it anymore.

[Belmont31R]

That was my point in that thread. Both conservatives and liberals want to project their idea of "right" onto you.



Conservatives want religious values and "traditional" family legally enforced on everyone.


Liberals want social and economic justice (AKA communism) legally forced on everyone.



I don't care what anyone does so long as it doesnt have a direct impact on me or my family. If someone wants to smoke pot in their house then so be it. If I want a full auto M240 to shoot on a range or my own property then I should be able to.


Remember rights stop where anothers begin.

[Business_Casual]

I heard a bum on the streets of NYC say: "Americans hate God and fear death."

That answers a lot of it, in my opinion.

B_C

[stifled]

That was my point in that thread. Both conservatives and liberals want to project their idea of "right" onto you.



Conservatives want religious values and "traditional" family legally enforced on everyone.


Liberals want social and economic justice (AKA communism) legally forced on everyone.



I don't care what anyone does so long as it doesnt have a direct impact on me or my family. If someone wants to smoke pot in their house then so be it. If I want a full auto M240 to shoot on a range or my own property then I should be able to.


Remember rights stop where anothers begin.

Where's the party for the fiscally conservative and socially liberal (I'm not talking everyone-should-make-the-same liberal, I'm talking why-can't-gay-people-get-married liberal)? Every party that claims to be both seems to quickly move towards Republican or Democrat policies in short order.

[RancidSumo]

Where's the party for the fiscally conservative and socially liberal (I'm not talking everyone-should-make-the-same liberal, I'm talking why-can't-gay-people-get-married liberal)? Every party that claims to be both seems to quickly move towards Republican or Democrat policies in short order.

That's the libertarian party although lately I've been moving so far libertarian, I don't even agree with them on some issues.

[Business_Casual]

Gee, why can't gay people get married, it's such a puzzle! How can we be so mean! What could possibly go wrong with that!

B_C