"That's just your opinion."
"Well that's just what you think."
One has to love our pre-programmed answers. Talk to anyone about global issues, social media posts, national news, public matters or just our moral stance on homosexuality and abortion and I could write a list of answers seemingly programmed into our Americanized brains.
Some subjects resulting in programmed responses are;
(1) pregnancies that are the result of rape are not really babies
(2) homosexual relationships are people that can't help the way they are
(3) don't burden society by having more than 1.2 children
(4) dating multiple people is a good way to figure out love
(5) immunizations minimize germs and death.
The programmed response that really doesn't make sense though, the opinion answer. The one that blasts out it's just your idea, your feelings. The definition of opinion based on a dictionary; a view or judgement on something not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. Here is where we slip up in our generation though because an opinion is not what we are talking about here.
You understand then that when someone refers to something morally or which may discriminate, harm or violate human life we are discussing beliefs and not opinions....right? I am referring to views that cause dinner party conundrums like does the birth control pill really cause a spontaneous abortion? Are homosexual couples still doing good by adopting those orphans and why shouldn't I vote for a political party that doesn't support everything I claim to believe in? Many would call those things mere opinions, but I am not talking about an opinion when I say that human life has a great value and ANYTHING associated with the harm, altering or tampering of it absolutely crosses past the line of opinions?
That my friends is a belief, not judgement ,or something based loosely on feelings and vague thoughts.
In truth, anything I state as a Bible believing Christian isn't an "opinion". It is a belief; a trust, faith or confidence in something.
Opinions don't shrink a friend's list on face book, they don't turn family members away on holidays, opinions don't result in rubbing people the wrong way or give your children a label like sheltered. If they did, if it was " just an opinion", just a "thought coming from your heart." We wouldn't be posting snide little things on social media just because we don't like it. We'd go home, forget about your "opinions" and accept you for who you are. A wandering, unknowing human, who is just figuring out their place in this world....
Right now our culture is still trying to grapple with bible thumper's. We feel such animosity towards these "views" and "thoughts" these crazy yet nice people hold to. We cannot grasp it, and we try to avoid any talk or association with these constrictive outdated ideas these kool aid drinkers want us to accept as the absolute right way to live. Who are the kidding anyway, holding to a set standard of rules, please, life is so much better when you have no lines, just love that's all we are asking. Love that crosses boundaries, love that helps animals, unites unconventionality and accepts that babies in the tummy are NOT like babies outside the tummy. No way, my body my rights, my choice and all that.
But that's just an opinion.
Maybe we need to start finding a better definition for our beliefs; because if you are going to say that you think the way you do because it's an opinion then the definition doesn't fit at all.