Post by aric on May 6, 2007 0:51:15 GMT -5
admin said:
Because it's a nice way to show respect for me and my beliefs, if not for my God.At some level I can accept that position since I realize that there are people who take that rule seriously (overly, in my opinion), which is why I do try not to swear at all in public places. But from an intellectual POV, must accommodation be a one-way street? Is it not enough to simply leave it up to God when the time comes to tally up sins and offenses? Why take it upon yourself to make others abide by your religious law under the premise of “respect” when let’s be honest, the only one being offended here would be God. And it’s not as if God, as is currently conceived by monotheists, is some defenseless two-year-old who needs protection from bullying.
So I ask again: Why do you take it so personally when someone else uses God’s name in vain? Why bother yourself when someone else doesn’t follow that religious rule. Why take offense or take it as disrespect when others don’t abide by that particular commandment?
admin said:
If someone asked me to never offer them something with my left hand because of their religious belief, I would attempt to make every effort to accommodate them, even if I would see it as something silly. And you might do well to follow this rule since in some under-developed countries people use one hand to eat while they use the other to wipe their butts after they go to the crapper. This particular rule can have pragmatic value depending on which religion and culture we’re talking about, albeit buried under cultural and religious customs. Can the same be said of the rule forbidding people to use God’s name in vain? What reason is there for people who don’t even necessarily belong to that religion to constantly abide by it every single time a legalistic Christian is around, other than some folks take offense, or see it as disrespect, when others don’t follow their religious rules to the letter?
And really, if this person who refuses to touch other people’s left hand is living here in America permanently (the way a lot of the Christians who express shock and anger over that kind of swearing are), then I’d tell him to his face almost everything that I told you and Cassandria. I’m going to ask him why the heck I should keep doing the same. If my idea about bathroom conduct is correct, then I sure as HELL am not going to bend over backwards indefinitely for someone whose mindset is still situated in pre-modern mentalities of sanitation. And if this isn’t the reason why he doesn’t like shaking the left hand, then there’s even less reason for me to constantly indulge him in this regard and challenge his position. It’s one thing to indulge someone’s cultural or religious idiosyncrasies when the encounters are temporary and transitory, but it’s another to use that example when it’s going to be a lot more often in a social setting where there are going to be a lot more people getting “offended” a lot more often and giving me an earful about it.
Again, I can accommodate the offense to the best of my abilities while it’s still here. But one of my contentions is, why should it even exist at all? Why should people get offended or dismayed when others don’t follow their religious rules? You say that people shouldn’t swear using God’s name in vain; I’m saying people shouldn’t get uptight about it at all.
- Aric