Cognitive Disagreement

Every human being has arguments whether it’s about sports, money, or the typical relationship problems, but the one argument that always seems to get the most heated are the ones over religious perspectives. Some of these religious disagreements end up in fights, lost friendships, and continuous debates, but the worst result in my opinion is when one of the peers in the debate looses confidence in their own religious belief due to the overpowering perspective from their peer. This leads me to my question, Does a disagreement with a cognitive peer from another philosophical perspective lessen the confidence one has in the justification of one’s belief system?

Have you ever argued for hours at a time about which religion is more legitimate than the other? Well, I have and it was one of the most mind boggling experiences of my life. I was in the 12th grade at my high school back in Los Angeles, and I can remember this story like it was yesterday. The argument uprooted from my religion class taught by Ms. Turro; it took place right after that class which was when school ended. Our class many analyzed many religions from around the world. I was scared to speak up about me being a Christian, because I did not want to be judged by my other classmates. After class one of the guys from the discussion approached me and asked, “What my point of view was on our class topic?” Next he asked me, “What was my belief?” I was kind of quiet at first, but then I thought I am who I am and my belief is apart of me so why not be proud of my Christian foundation. I responded with saying that I thought it was a pretty interesting discussion although I thought some of the religions we talked about seemed a little weird. He then asked me, “ which ones?” I responded, “ All of them outside of Christianity!” That definitely answered his next question on what my belief was. He called me ignorant for believing that there was one God or any god at all. That really brought out the worst in me,