How far are you willing to go to prove you're right?

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This has to do with arguing with spouses, or bf/gf, and with other friends to and anyone you talk to. I have to ask when in an argument, how far are you willing to go to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong?

Second question I have to ask is: What are you hoping to accomplish?
Also, how do you think potential romantic partners will feel if you have to prove yourself right all the time?

i was once at a mensa dinner where i heard five factual errors espoused by other members. i corrected none of them. if the errors had been in my field or if they were about something that might hurt someone, i would have said something. usually just not worth it.

For small things like that, its definitely not worth it.

Depends.

I try not to date/befriend people who are likely to throw tantrums when they're shown that they're wrong. All my friends are just as argumentative as me, and I have some of the most stable friendships I've ever seen.

Generally I'll stop If I know there is no point continuing.

I'm very much the same way as the other posters. I used to be quite argumentative when I was younger. Nowadays, I find it very useless to argue small points.

I never argue religion--I only state what I believe (which is that I'm agnostic/atheistic). Religion provides solace for many people, and also provides many moral codes. Who am I to take that solace away from people? There, obviously, is a brutal history based upon religious belief--but that hasn't turned me against the concept of religion. Just don't try to preach to me by yelling at me.

It depends on the subject matter. When talking about justice issues (sexism, war, politcs) I can get very argumentative. On smaller things not so.
The more intelligent I think the person is, the more argumentative I get. That´s because, when someone is not that intelligent imo, I tend to think; oh well, not going to try to convince someone like that. His loss.

That's good. Especially since two of the worst tyrants in recorded history were atheists and murdered millions in the name of atheism.(i.e. Stalin/Hitler)

I didn't deny that. There's been brutality in the name of religion and of atheism. There's been brutality despite religion or atheism.

I'm an agnostic/atheist. I have nothing against religion.

There was a time when I'd really try hard, in my aspie naivete, to prove how right I am - just to educate the other person and make the world a better place, you know? But eventually I realised how useless that is and now I usually let people be wrong if they seem determined to be. Sometimes, I'll offer a bet if the other person is being particularly arrogant about it and the question is amenable to it. It doesn't prove them wrong, but it usually shuts them up.

^^ This.

If you're not invested in being right, just for the sake of being right, debates can be fun. If one person is invested in being right, and the other person isn't, then unfortunately, the person who is invested usually "wins" because the other person gives up. If both people are invested in being right, it's a lost cause. The latter is one of the biggest problems in our society today, IMO.

Hitler wasn't atheist, though. Stalin may have been atheist, but I doubt he killed because he was atheist.

^ Radical communism is a form of human/party-worshiping religion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Stalin

From Stalin's wiki page: "Raised in the Georgian Orthodox faith, Stalin became an atheist. He followed the position that religion was an opiate that needed to be removed in order to construct the ideal communist society. His government promoted atheism through special atheistic education in schools, anti-religious propaganda, the anti-religious work of public institutions (Society of the Godless), discriminatory laws, and a terror campaign against religious believers. By the late 1930s, it had become dangerous to be publicly associated with religion."

Hitler was obviously obsessed with killing religious people too(jews, various christians, etc), but I'm not sure if he ever directly claimed to be an atheist although he probably was in some form.

Last edited by Venger on 21 Jul 2014, 2:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've read that the Soviet Union under Stalins rule was a strict atheist state. I've never read anything that confirmed Nazi Germany was ever an atheist state.

Hitler was a known Catholic. http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006 ... -he-was-q/

and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_ ... olf_Hitler

and "We demand freedom for all religious confessions in the state, insofar as they do not endanger its existence or conflict with the customs and moral sentiments of the Germanic race. The party as such represents the standpoint of a positive Christianity, without owing itself to a particular confession...."

- Article 20 of the program of the German Workers' Party (later named the National Socialist German Workers' Party, NSDAP)