Acceptance? Tolerance? Maybe the word I’m searching for is Respect?

I suppose the important thing is how we actually treat other people, both individually and collectively, both people who share our views and people who don’t.

When meeting people from other countries, other races, other religions, I find it is helpful to *accept* that there are differences - and then ignore them. Instead, concentrate on our similarities. We all have something in common.

As Sting said towards the end of the Cold War: The Russians love their children too. I bet this also applies to Sudanese refugees, Muslims, Israelis, Palestinians, boat people, even Collingwood and Pauline Hanson supporters.

My belief is that a casual acceptance of differing views is the real mark of condescension because it means you don’t really give a damn about those views. The flip side is that anyone talking about acceptance clearly wishes their views to be accepted too. So it’s a bit of quid pro quo, which isn’t really very civil.

Tolerance, on the other hand, provides an environment where views can be discussed. It allows for the human habit of disagreement, even recalcitrance. Tolerance is achievable; acceptance strikes me as too much “let them eat cake” … and we all know where that lead. It’s very easy to be accepting of things that are far removed from us.

As far as religion goes, I am reminded of something Douglas Adams once said:

“If somebody thinks taxes should go up or down you are free to have an argument about it, but on the other hand if somebody says ‘I mustn’t move a light switch on a Saturday’, you say, ‘Fine, I respect that’.”

By the way: your blog? Always worth reading, Mr Fitzsimon.

Some people feel really uncomfortable talking about religion. It’s a bit like when you end up at a vegan restaurant and everyone else knows all about these meat substitute thingos and you don’t.

I have not had one comment…

There is an argument to be made for who cares about religion…

My feeling is that faith is between you and God… everything else is window dressing…. (for God read Buddah… Allah… etc…)

I would read anything you post because of your pedigree… not your religion… Accepting of all is a brilliant concept.

Cheers.

Some concepts, like “Top Friends”, those eyeball-shattering glitter graphics and outlandish colour schemes are better suited to MySpazz.

Hear hear!

Some of my friends use the Religion space to profess their love of their favourite football team. One very religious lady (she’s an ex-Catholic nun) refers to her local football team as her “Earthly Religion”.

But seriously, what religion we profess to follow is nowhere near as important as how we actually treat other people - no, ALL people.