Thoughts on the road

[justben]

So by chance last night I managed to leave work right about 7, and my ride happened to last right about an hour. This was particularly fortunate because every Wednesday night from 7 to 8, my local NPR affiliate airs Speaking of Faith. I heart this show. I mean, sure, I think the hostess's careful diction and intonation are incredibly cute. But far

Comments

[skellington]

You know, while I can see it being important to get groups of people murdering each other talking, I really don't see a screaming need for most religious groups to have much discourse. Who cares if the "reconstructionists" are talking to the New Agers?

It'd be nice if they both left each other alone, and perhaps even respected each other, but there are lots of members of lots of religions I don't have much respect for...

And if it wasn't for the Christians wanting to convert everyone, as a "God Given Responsibility", they pretty much wouldn't care what other people do either. Ever noticed how the Jews mostly just keep their head down?

(And in some ways I think that makes Christianity and Islam fundamentally opposed to a civil society, as they WON'T leave other people alone, but that's another discussion, and portions of both religions are more decent about it than others.)

[justben]

Who cares? I do, for one. Discourse doesn't exist in a vacuum, of course: it both requires and supports respect, and that respect carries with it a whole lot of subtler benefits. You say a lot of people in a lot of religions aren't acting very respectably, and I agree with you. I've found two things that foster respectable action: face-to-face communication and peer pressure. It's hard to be a dick to somebody who's trying to be open and frank with you, and it's hard to be a bully without friends. Communication addresses both: the former directly and the latter indirectly.

Not all Christians want to convert everyone. That disrespectful crowd are just the loudest sometimes. Christianity and Islam seem to work just fine so long as they stay away from the notion that no other faith can possibly warrant respect. And again, communication is a big step toward building that mutual respect.