We believe that all humans were created equal. Thus you should treat people with due respect no matter their gender, race, appearance etc. This does not mean that we want a uniform population. People are different and in some sense not created equal. Some people are better at sports than others etc. People also look differently, for example have different skin colour. We should celebrate those differences. We should not be scared when we see someone different, on the contrary, we should be excited because we might learn something new about the world from the person. Discrimination is not the right thing to do.
It is healthy to travel and get to know people from other countries or a different background than yourself. It helps expand your horizon and helps you do the right thing. In the future we hope to set up a forum in connection with the blog. The forum would be a good place for you to chat with people from other countries in a cheap way (much cheaper than actually having to travel!). Don't get me wrong, traveling is great but this would be a great alternative because not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to travel all over the world.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Diversity
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6 comments:
This site gets more and more intriguing. I may well become an avid reader. I am definitely recommending it to my sister a Philosophy, Ethics and Religious Studies teacher - her just pre-university students might find it very interesting. Keep doing the right thing.
Thank you for the kind words Rich.
We would love to get people from academics to join the discussion and highlight views that we haven't even thought about. Religion should be somewhat alive and ever changing because we are constantly learning more about ourselves and the world around us.
Does diversity lead to doing the right thing? Allow me to quote a relativist philosopher. Here is a quote by the philosopher of ethics, relativist and atheist, Louis Pojman:
Eskimos allow their elderly to die by starvation, whereas we believe that this is morally wrong. The Spartans of ancient Greece and the Dobu of New Guinea believe(d) that stealing is morally right, but we believe it is wrong. A tribe in East Africa once threw deformed infants to the hippopotamuses, but we abhor infanticide. Ruth Benedict describes a tribe in Melanesia that views cooperation and kindness as vices, whereas we see them as virtues. Sexual practices vary over time and place. Some cultures accept cannibalism, while the very idea revolts us. Cultural relativism is well documented, and "custom is the king o'er all." There may or may not be moral principles held in common by every society, but if there are any, they seem to be few, at best. Certainly, it would be very difficult to derive any single "true" morality by observing various societies' moral standards.
Pojman used this quote in defense of relativism, but I would hold it up in defense objective ethics.
If you want to pick and choose, then what is there to stop a nazi, or a Muslim from doing the same? You could claim that Islam and Nazism are intolerant, but that presupposses an objectively binding ethical duty to be tolerant. And where does that come from? What scientific experiment has found this objectively binding duty?
Liberal religions - and I say this as a former liberal atheist transexual - are a fast trip into a quagmire from which you will never escape. Evolution, social contract theory, utiliarianism, they all fall short of providing a defense for objective ethical duties. And again, if you reject objective duties then you have licensed the nazis, slave owners and oppressors of women.
My other ex-liberal atheist friend and I were talking the other day. He drove past a liberal church. They adopted universalism so they took down the cross on the steeple. But they did not know what else to put up. So they chose a weather vane. The irony was enormous. They've replaced the cross with something that tells them which way the wind is blowing.
Yes diversity is the spice of life our differences are meant to complement each other...we all have varying gifts, talents, strengths, and weaknesses learning to recognize and appreciate them is our greatest area of opportunity
I have had my mind on a moral dilemma multiculturalists like ourselves have to deal with: Strict Islamic practitioners.
Here's the problem: On the one hand we want people to be free to believe and practice what they want. On the other hand, part of their practice is the restriction of the freedoms of women (against the women's will). Now what?
I personally believe that each woman has the right to choose her own destiny. But that means those strict Islamic men are not allowed to practice their religion. So be it.
We all have our differences and it is important to accept others for their differences allowing them to accept us for our differences.
Please check out www.thegiftrevolution.com as we try to change the world through random acts of kindness.
Pass it on and Merry Christmas.
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