Religion and Politics

I remember being in first year university, and enjoying the fact that it was the one time in my life when I was surrounded by people who welcomed debate on religion and politics. I saw many, many people change their views at that time. I even changed a few of my own. When you get older and start working, having a family and belonging to a community, you have more to lose by airing opinions that might be unpopular or misunderstood. That's why I'm enjoying the internet so much. I can debate in the same way I used to 20 years ago, with people who probably are equally guarded and don't discuss religion and politics in real life.

When I hear a conversation along these lines, I find another place to be. Pollitics can divid friends and religion is so deeply ingrained one seldom convinces another to change - especially through argument. So I thing avoiding either of these would be wise - unless one learns the power of testimony. No one can argue with you telling about your faith from your personal experience.

Here in Italy politics is not avoided, it's discussed quite often, especially to criticize the current government or at election times. People avoid to defend a party or a political leader because "politics = corruption". About religion, here there are Catholics who go to church, "Catholics" who don't go to church and atheists; the remaining are very few. Most atheists have also anticlerical positions, I think this is the reason why religion is avoided during conversation.

People avoid these subjects so as to avoid conflict. People usually have very strong opinions and beliefs in regards to both religion and politics and as such, feel they are too passionate and will become tooo aggressive should a conflict arise. People get worked up because they know they cant change the other persons views and get frustrated by a different perspective...