Still, I label myself 'agnostic' because I have this inherent resistance to telling other people that I think they are 'wrong'. And anytime I say 'I don't believe in God' to someone I know does believe, I feel like I'm criticizing their own personal choice.
I know what you are trying to say, and "get" what you are feeling. But, my dear Lynne, if you examine your statment very carefully, you'll find that it doesn't hold up to scrutiny (I'm trying to say this in as non-confrontational way as possible.. not sure I'm succeeding....
).
When we make statements in general -- about anything -- we're
always stating our personal truth as we know it, and I suppose if our statement conflicts with someone's else's truth, that other person could always choose to be offended by it, to take it as us saying "you're wrong." But that's isn't our intent when we made our statement, and if we altered our statements (in a way, not telling our truth completely) for fear of offending others, then we have started down a slippery slope of mis-representing ourselves about everything.
We have to trust others to be able to distinguish between telling them they're wrong and telling them we disagree. Vic, for example, told us (above in this thread) that she believes in a god, and expected us to understand that she was disagreeing with us, not insulting us. And she was right to do so... I didn't take offense, and I don't think anyone else did either.
After all, we all know how to tell someone their wrong if we DO want to offend them, right? It's one thing to say "I'm an atheist" and another thing to say "you're wrong to be an deist." If you stick to only making claims about your truth, then if the other person takes offense, it's not because of what we said, but because of some insecurity in the other person.
You're a sweetheart, Lynne, and I know you're just trying to avoid offending anyone. But I do get a bit concerned when that effort leads to modifying the statements you make; modifications that actually "bend" what you believe to be true. Your opinion counts, and you shouldn't make it subservient to anyone else's.
Love ya,
Imp