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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (54687)	8/15/2002 11:57:21 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Given that many people all over the world believe many contradictory things, what is the most humane thing to do in the face of such uncertainty? (Using the typical definition of humane.) Would it not be, absent any real ability to prove the supernatural, that we honor and respect all that we can about other life forms- regardless of what they believe- acknowledging that all or none or some could have a truth, but that it is impossible to know that. One need not believe in any supernatural power to do that- one needs no religious tradition to come to that- one does need to know the word "humane" or something like it, or some idea like it- and one needs to want to have an idea to live with. I think that is all.

To: epicure who wrote (54687)	8/15/2002 12:19:41 PM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 82486

There is a big difference between having beliefs that cannot (or have not) been conclusively refuted, and there being myriad realities. Sometimes it is just a matter of time before the matter is settled. Millions of people could believe in Marxism, and revisionists could be busy beavers explaining away the resilience of bourgeois, capitalist society, but in the end, socialism was a social and economic failure. Nor was it a matter of indifference that they believed something so wrong, in terms of adding to the sum of human misery, degradation, and brutality to no purpose. Millions of people used to think that women were somewhat like children, and incapable of taking command of their own affairs or having a career. It is not merely that they happened to change their minds, but that over time it was demonstrated that such beliefs were untrue, and constituted an unfair limitation on female aspirations. A number of the contradictory things people think are simply false, although there is a residuum of things that cannot be so neatly determined......