Casey you seem to think that by saying no offense one devalues their point to avoid confrontation.
You're putting words into my mouth. That isn't what I said at all. Read again - nobody should have to apologize for their opinion.
I understand why it happens. However, you're saying the same thing regardless of whether you tack on that prefix or not. Sometimes, people NEED to feel that you are attacking them in order to get the message across. If you were truly passionate about the point, you wouldn't say it. I haven't said that phrase ONCE in my life, ever.
It's not about devaluation one's point, it's just trying to be more I guess "nice" about it.
If you REALLY wanted to be nice about an opinion that could offend someone,
you would not say it in the first place.
Maybe you meant that but the way you put it sounded like "fuck what other people think, I'm entitled to my opinion and fuck others' opinions". Which btw seems to be the way you act toward meat, god, apple, and anything else that is not what you believe in.
Hmm, judgemental much? You've just showed that you skim over most of what I write as opposed to reading it and letting it sink in.
When I post about meat, god, apple, etc, I'm generally not expressing opinions, I'm expressing FACTS. That's the difference between the way I debate and the way 99% of people on this board do. Every debate I've ever been in, I can back it up with evidence and facts, and there's no way that anyone debating against me will be able to pull out more evidence or facts than I do, because I don't debate topics that I'm not passionate enough about to know everything about them. The only person that can do that shit better than me on this board is Jokerman, and 99% of the time we see eye-to-eye on everything.
If you think I'm simply expressing opinions in my debates, you have not been reading them properly, and if you haven't been reading them properly, then it seems fruitless to discuss them forthwith.
People need something to believe in.
You're generalizing. I believe in myself. I don't "need" anything else to believe in.
Everyone has faith in some higher power or some perspective that helps them face death and other things that are out of our control as human beings.
I don't and I have no issue facing death or anything beyond my control. My mother died when I was 4 years old, and
not once have I needed any sort of faith or belief in anything to "help me". People live, people die. That's it. It sucks when people die, but everyone else's lives go on.
To believe in something else having any sort of measure of control over your life is doing yourself a disservice as human being and preventing you from being all that you can be. I dislike when actors and musicians win awards and spout some nonsense about being thankful to god, when really they should be thanking the huge team of people that busted their asses in order for that person to be winning that award. The actor that wins an Oscar shouldn't be thanking a non-existent deity, he should be thanking the director, screenwriter, cameramen, producers, editors, other actors, crewmember, runners, etc .The singer that wins a Grammy should be thanking their producer, management and the marketing staff at their record label.
The more desperate ones end up in sects where they are abused financially, physically and psychologically.
All religions, but more specifically cults and sects prey on the vulnerable. It's why you see Scientologists setting up tents at tragedy scenes.
Prince, for example, was brainwashed into the Jehovah's Witness cult at a time when he had lost his infant son, his mother, and had just been divorced and experienced a disappointing return on an album that he had put a lot of effort into, but was ultimately ruined by misguided interference by Clive Davis and Arista Records. A string of tragedies and misfortune like this would test most people's resolve, even if they are only slightly religious.
On some level, this happens to most people. People become more religious at hard times. It would never happen to me though, because I'm an atheist. The worst of events isn't going to convince me that there is a god, because my reasonings are based on factual evidence, or lack of it.