Reply #22: There is a fundimental (no pun) problem [View All]

[Az]

Hey I get to reuse a subject line! :)

One of the principles of most left leaning religions is tolerance of others beliefs. Also present is a rejection of evangelyzing. This combination creates a people that are open to the presense of other beliefs who do not attempt to force their beliefs on these other people. Great for the community, unfortunate for recognition of their particular belief system.

I suspect what needs to happen to not only bolster the awareness of liberal religion but also quell the excesses of the religious right is to open more dialog on the matter. I can atest to the fact that many atheists are completely unaware of the various stripes that religion can come in. They see liberal Christians in particular as a extrodinary anamoly.

The hurdle we have to overcome is that our society has created a taboo of talking about religion. Thus we each fall into our own camps and can only find discussions about how the other camps are so full of themself. We need to bust this taboo in a big way. We simply do not currently have the skills or tools to dicsuss religion without stepping on each others toes. But these will come in time. For now we have to put our vaulted tolerance to work and discover the ways we can open discourse on this subject.

The advantage of our post modern society is it allows for a diverse group of cultures and beliefs to live along side each other. The disadvantage is it causes this seperation of the people and encourages ignorance over time. The only way to fight this is by recognising it and working to keep the gap from growing. We cannot stuff a believer or nonbeliever into a niche. We need to find out who they are. We need to open the world of beliefs to the light of day and let growth start again. Shutting things up in the dark only leads to stagnation. So while it may be uncomfortable at times, there are teachings in all our cultures that advise us to be tolerant and we are all benefitted by seeking the truth.