Friday 22 May 2015

Chicken and Egg

I feel a need to explain something very carefully.

I am often told that I'm critical of religion, in some way or other, and there is some truth there, but when it happens there's a reason why.

I am pro love and anti harm. That is my basic attitude/mindset/way of thinking/whatever you like to call it. Ethics R Us. That does not mean that I claim to be all love and zero harm, it means that's what I seek. Nobody's perfect and nobody is expected to be. To err is human. But that's my thing. That's my priority.

Where did I get that from? Where did I develop this? Life, I guess. Upbringing, experience, preferences, observations, etc etc. No single person or book. Just an awareness, a mindfulness.

Love = good.
Harm = bad.

More love, less harm.

This is what I seek.
This is what I choose.
This is what I teach.
This is what I expect.

You can call it my personal philosophy if you like.

I would be at a loss if anyone objected to it, how can you object to it?

So. When I see a lack of love, I am saddened, and I protest.

When I see harm, I am saddened and I protest.

IF I see that lack of love, or that harm in a religious example, I protest. If I complain about a religious example, it's because of this. If I avoid a religious example it's because of this. If I speak out against a religious example it's because of this.

I do not dislike religious examples just because they are "different", or foreign, or whatever. They have to have caused harm, or shown a lack of love.

If you, personally, feel offended, because I have said something negative about your religion, then think again. It's not about you.

If you think your religion as a whole has been insulted because I said something negative about it, think again. Look at the specifics.

There is a lot of talk about respect. I respect people.

I am told I should respect beliefs. What, automatically? Just because they are beliefs? Not likely!

If it's a belief that leads to love, and prevents or avoids harm, I'll respect it.

If it's a belief that leads to a lack of love, or causes harm, I do not respect it. I reject it.

Beliefs are opinions. Nothing more or less. I do not have to respect your opinion. I can listen to it, consider it, and give you the time to explain it. But if it's an opinion that I not only do not share, but see as harmful, I shall say so. I shall explain why. I shall still respect you, as a human being, but I shall not, and SHOULD NOT respect your harmful opinion.

We can argue over what is harmful, and I'm sure we shall.

2 comments:

  1. Always amuses me. Beliefs are opinions; they are not fact. They are not truths. They are opinions. Want respect for belief? Back it up with facts and then it ceases to be "just an opinion." From Mirriam-Webster: opinion - a belief, judgment, or way of thinking about something : what someone thinks about a particular thing.

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