In a foul mood after getting in a fight with my brother...

All I was trying to do was explain my stance on religion to him because he thought it wasn't possible to believe in both sceience and God since they contradict each other. I told him that it was just my personal belief and I tried to get ONE sentence out there but as soon as I muttered the word "religion", he immediately told me he didn't want to talk about it. I asked him why and he said because he doesn't speak with those types of people. I asked what type of people and he said "Ignorant people". I had to tell him how what I was saying wasn't ignorant and asked him if he thought I was. He said no, and so I asked him if he wasn't being ignorant himself. He said "No, I have something different." and when I asked him what he has he said "Wisdom".

Now I asked him somewhat condescendingly saying "Wisdom? You mean by ignoring what I was trying to say and pretending to be smarter than me?" and he proceeded to get louder and more rude every time I opened by mouth to speak saying he didn't want to talk about it. I respected him by ending the conversation I was trying to have but I did express my dissatisfaction with the way he was acting.

What's ironic is that he told me that these types of conversations "always end badly" however he was the only one that got upset and he got upset even though I was being completely respectful and understanding the entire time. The thing is, he has this strict belief in science and has a heavy interest in the subject. He gives me the usual arguments about how religion has caused so many wars and so much death in the past and how scientific events created the universe. However, I had never really spoken to him about my beliefs and thought it would be nice to share. I honestly didn't think he would get so offended when I wasn't even criticizing him for what he believed him or trying to disprove it.

I had not thought he would get upset or think I was foolish for believing in both scientific facts and God at the same time. It was only when I brought up the religious part of it that he would lose his cool and try to shut me down. Whenever I brought up science-related information he was fine with it.

He has this self-important ego where he thinks he is correct regardless of what anyone else says and refuses to listen it if he doesn't like it, even if they are bringing up a valid point. Usually by getting loud and having an attitude as if he can intimidate the other person involved into not saying what he doesn't agreewith. It's a cop out way to falsely "win" your arguments and immature. I've told him this but he didn't seem to listen. He told me before that he doesn't "mix with the religious crowd" because of their ignorance and shoving god-related nonsense down your throat.

To me though, he acts much more ignorant than any religious person I've ever met. Not just on that topic specficially either, even in every-day conversation he has this "I will shut you down and not listen to you" attitude if you talk about ANYTHING he doesn't like. He is very disrespectful.

I don't get why and have even let him know this, but as usual, he just brushed it off thinking he was perfect and good-to-go. I know when I'm right and it would be nice if I could speak to him about these things without him getting upset.

I want him to be respectful and understanding the way an adult should act and especially because I would love to be able to cover more serious topics of discussion now that we're getting older. In case anyone is wondering, we are both in our 20s. I am the older brother and clearly there would be a maturity gap but I still think his is a little extreme for the age he's getting to be.

Only wanted to get this out of my system and off my chest so that it won't get to the point where it would cause anymore problems. I'm sure we will be back to normal and both in a good mood tomorrow.

Nice wall of text - read about 1/5 of it before I gave up.

Welp, I just read the whole thing (seriously), and I only have one word to say...

okay

@Iszdope:

I respected him by ending the conversation I was trying to have but I did express my dissatisfaction with the way he was acting.

Such is life. However, your mother's other son was right; religious folk are ignorant.

Religion is a touchy subject for many people. I for one don't believe such a God exists, I am more of a scientific person myself.

When I was younger I believed in God, but drifted away from it during my early 20s. Science explains it all, plus no games, no music, no tv, and everybody living happily ever after? Heaven sounds boring to me.

This.

Probably an atheist bragging about his intelligence,and bad mouthing his relatives because they have different beliefs.I have seen this so many times.

tl; dr

This is actually a perfect example of ignorance.

You shoulda been all like, "THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS ME!!"

And punched him in the face.

I saw more than 140 characters and gave up.

Ok so you are the religious guy or the science guy? Either way just punch him in the mouth.

Similar story with my bro but he was drunk. He kept saying we are children of the sun no matter how you look at it. Well great, it is written God created man from dust. Science is of God.

Only the weak would disbelieve god???

How dare you.

My argument is thus. I shouldnt need to read a book, or listen to music, or atten a church to understand religion. If God was omnipotent then there would be no need for religious propaganda....God would simply be born as part of us. Like a soul. As it happens I have to pay money for a bible???

I have to attend a church??? I have to follow guidelines defining morality regardless of my personal circumstances. I call bullshit.

Science offers explanation without objectivity. That to me is far more worthy of devotion than any religion on this earth.

God is so useless. I will remember that the next time I see one of those infomercial about starving kids in some part of Africa. Should had prayed harder.

Exactly how religious are you?

Because Ken Ham says he believes in science and religion, but he's a big ball of crazy.

But if you think of science (real science) as how God created everything, then I think that's a reasonable consolidation between religion and science.

Either way, your brother is an arrogant prick; there's no sense in trying to reason with him. He'll eventually learn that you don't win arguments by getting louder and ignoring people.

When you're not getting anywhere in a one on one conversation then you should bring in another person to help remedy the situation. An extra unbiased opinion could help alot with you two especially since your brother seems like the type that only likes to hear only what benefits him.

@pr0todrag0n:

as the saying goes "if you have a weak point in an argument, shout it!". That seems to be what your brother does. Also if you guys have this argument again you can try to tell him that "hasty generalization" is a logical fallacy.

As far as religious wars go, that is irrelevant to a debate over the existence of God. Besides most wars in human history are probably not of a religious nature, and the most deadly wars - such as WWI and WWII - were fought for secular reasons. Probably more people died because of Communistic wars than religious wars.

Sounds like he's just recently hopped on the Athiest bandwagon. You can always tell because of the "I'm right and you're wrong" attitude and the talking over you way of argument. You can also tell from the religious war attack. If life were a pokemon battle, it would be a constantly used attack which is not very effective. Some Athiests and religious people don't grow out of that bandwagon life though, so don't put high expectations on him changing anytime soon.

I saw religion scrolled down to see a massive wall of text and gave up.