People calling us crazy...

Gisteron wrote:

Jack.Troutman wrote: Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that does not mean it is ok to belittle or bully someone because their beliefs are different than yours.

Actually, that is exactly what it means. Everybody is entitled to their opinion and everybody is free to voice their feelings and opinions in speech or text or creative art or any combination of the above. However, nobody is entitled to remain uncriticized or to not be ridiculed or indeed to not be laughed at.

is an opinion only privileged when backed up by reasoning?

you may see some people have zero reasoning supporting their opinion as if completely unaccountable to intend prejudice to others. for a logical person, prejudice is easily put down, but for a sensitive person, prejudice cuts like a knife.

so there's a strong need for opinions to be supported by reasoning and evidence. entitlement is actually a limitation of thinking. freedom of speech is a necessary privilege of virtue, backed by the other virtues of truth, justice, courage, and discipline

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What people chose to think about me is none of my business. The desire to know, change or control others thoughts and opinions is motivated by fear or arrogance.

Brenna wrote:

What people chose to think about me is none of my business. The desire to know, change or control others thoughts and opinions is motivated by fear or arrogance.

This is what i was looking for , thanks for putting in into words Brenna

The only thing i want to add to this discussion is

Feeling offended is a choice you make

Social media is the root of all evil.
Here in the UK, different religions and faiths are all blacklisted by the spurious releases of the BBC etc and the Tabloid (adult comic book) newspapers.
To the point that (for example) all Muslims, to an uneducated being , would appear to be IS terrorists which we know to not be the case.
I am 25 and am part of a generation where everyone is connected 24/7. This is not healthy. Society is all about getting even, when it should be all about gaining the upper hand through diplomacy and respect for one another

Jack.Troutman wrote: I see a lot of posts on social media calling us (Jedi) crazy for believing what we do. Or saying we must be crazy because it is only a bunch of movies. To them Iask why? Why are we crazy for believing in Peace, Justice, Love, Learning and Benevolence? If that makes me crazy, then ok, I'll take it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that does not mean it is ok to belittle or bully someone because their beliefs are different than yours.That type of hate and intolerance is what is wrong in the world. We should try to understand one another. We should try to help the human race move forward, not creep backwards. We, as a species, will one day move beyond this. But it will take those of us with a high moral code to stand strong and make it happen. I am proud to be a Jedi and I do not shy away from it. May the Force be with you.
Patience

Each believes in something to explain or motivate us to be better human beings. Call it what you want, to mirror whatever they want, just do not judge. I say this to those people. No one has concrete evidence about God's existence ... but ... I do not know you, but I'm very mad !!

so are people against judging, or against the outcome of judging?

actually to judge is to serve justice, hence the occupation. so judging is actually a virtue

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Deliberation to decide for oneself, versus determination to decide for someone else. They are both actions of judgement but only the later is what I'd call being necessarily judgmental. The former can become judgmental if it becomes static I guess. but if the focus for oneself is being open to deliberate - then its continuous.

Determinations are the implementation of authority, and to be authoritative on something is best expressed in its conditional frame of reference IMO. I don't see empowerment as the same thing as control... seemingly one is opening to potentials and the other is closing them. Such that its often easier to ensure we're approaching things from a relative perspective and not so much seeking out absolute natures of anything - even though a relationship can have an absolute and intrinsic relative quality, I tend to just think that makes it absolutely relative
:silly:

Just to put my two cents in here, it seems that most of the criticisms stem from the fact that our myth is drawn from a series of Science-Fantasy movies.
To which I say, aren't all religious ideals taken from or explained by some sort of myth? In most religious cases, it seems that whether or not the myth itself is true is immaterial; it's the core idea, moral or message behind the myth that is what people decide to live by. For example, the Greek tale of Hercules and the Hydra most likely didn't happen, but it is the message of perseverance, bravery and thinking critically while under pressure that allows this myth to be relatable even today.
To be honest, this is an oversimplification and the core of most religions is in fact the belief in a higher power, whether that be God, the infallible rules of Science that we continue to discover and learn about (this is actually why I count Arheism as a religion in my opinion, but I digress), or even the Force. It just seems to me that the lessons behind each belief system is more important than the actual myth behind it.
So that's why the largest complaints (ignoring the "All of these guys are 40 year old virgin" clichés, of course) are pretty much irrelevant. I am of course new to this whole Jediism thing, but I have yet to find an argument against Jediism that does not include the criticism of the mythos.

I'm not a Jedi, but I find it hypocritical when people criticize Jediism, since movie-worship is a real thing in the West and elsewhere.

Fiction worshiping...

And we don't care for the fiction as a rule, lol...