Arbitrary quotes rarely ring true with me July 11, 2005
Posted by andy in : readings, life , trackback“When tolerance is founded on similarity then it is ultimately a form of self-love…”
This is something that I’ve been thinking about in various ways over the past few months, but I have lacked the wherewithal necessary to actually articulate it. Thankfully the authors of Tomorrow’s Islam are my intellectual superiors and the world is a far richer place because of that.
There are a few things that one should never discuss in public, and one of them is religion. That is why I have chosen to discuss it. Firstly because I rarely fully broadcast my opinions on such things and secondly because I tend to enjoy theological discussions on the topic. Call me crazy, but I take after my mother who is both an Anglican Deacon (she’s a Reverend) and crazy. I love you mum.
Let’s clear things up about my religious status. I have been an active non-believer in any form of institutionalised religion since I was eleven years old. I do not attend any gatherings at churches, mosques, synagogues or other house of worship. I think this was originally motivated by laziness. My mother didn’t force me to go and I didn’t particularly want to.
As a child in the UK I attended a Catholic primary school. I had my first communion, confessed quite a bit (I don’t remember what, but Christie has suggested that it would have been something to do with the extreme brutality I engaged in during my primary school fights) and sang in the church choir. I guess I enjoyed myself. When I returned to Australia I suppose things were a little harder and mum didn’t have the energy to really force us to go. So I didn’t. I was largely indifferent to the whole affair so I stopped worrying.
Since then I have not really engaged with established religion in any real spiritual sense, but intellectually I have always been interested. It’s hard to avoid pondering religion when it defines all of history and civilisation and your mother studies it on a part-time basis.
I am the first to admit that I don’t really have a firm personal philosophy. I tend to absorb whatever I find that I like and I reject things that don’t fit well with me. If something comes my way I usually analyse it and accept it if I believe it is better by measuring it against some internal ruler or something.
Because of this I take a keen interest in any and all of the ways in which people understand themselves, society and their relationship to the divine. This isn’t a purely intellectual thing. I honestly don’t know whether there is any form of grand plan. I see no reason to believe that scientific thinking or modernity in any way precludes there being a God or Gods. I guess you could call me a thoughtful agnostic, but I’m not fond of that sort of statement. I don’t think it says enough.
I am interested. I don’t often know what to read, but I am interested. Authors like Kim Stanley Robinson have piqued my interest about Islam and, in particular its more spiritual, creative and reflective side, Sufism. In the same way I am intrigued by Buddhist works. I have read the books of Christianity and Islam, and if all Judaism has is the Old Testament then I’ve covered that too. I tend to lean towards interest in those religions that emphasise the personal spiritual journey. A voyage of self-discovery and enlightenment coupled with the excercise of some sort of personal ‘goodness’.
Essentially I have my own personal spirituality which guides me through life. I care greatly for the people around me and for the world around me. I have real hope that things can become good and I have no illusions that things used to be better.
That is my very long Preface, which will dwarf the discussion of the quote by many orders of magnitude.
The first thought I want to share is the meaning of the quote. That acceptance of those from minorities, cultures or religions is invariably of a form that attempts to disguise the fact that other people are, in fact, different, by suggesting that ‘we’ are great, but ‘they’ are a little bit great too.
I remember watching a video in high school about an Italian immigrant in the 1960s who was a victim of racism from those he worked with until he somehow showed them that really, deep down, he was ‘one of them’. At the time this was supposed to teach me acceptance and understanding, but I think it was really only capable of teaching me tolerance after assimilation.
How often must I hear people say that they are sick of putting up with new arrivals in Australia not speaking a high enough standard of English? Or listen to people suggest that the Aboriginal people in areas where health-care is poor should move to the city?
The beauty in the world does not come from everybody dressing, talking and acting the same way. The world is all the richer for the broad spectrum of culture, religion and life that it possesses.
No culture is perfect, and none is exhaustively ‘better’ than another. I think this is true of religion as well. Variety in belief is a wonderful thing. Which is something that I find captured well in Islam, where it is stated that if God had wanted everybody to walk the same path, he would have made all religions one. It is an interesting philosophy, and a fine one to hold as one of the cornerstones of a major world religion.
But that is just my opinion. And I am just me.
The second thought I would like to share here is something that I have thought for a while and flows logically from the first: Tolerance is not enough.
It isn’t enough to just tolerate other’s differences. Tolerance implies that this is something terrible to endure rather than something fantastic to be excited by. I love listening to people gabble to each other in unintelligble languages. I think it’s great.
Variety should be embraced.
There endeth my discussion. I hope it wasn’t too preachy: I always try to keep an open mind, but sometimes I ain’t too good at it.
Comments»
I think you may be taking a very literal definition of tolerance - also, I think that ‘tolerance’ has become fairly outdated these last 15 years. These days we ‘celebrate’ things.
Also, although I obviously suscribe to your newsletter, I find your rational approach to dissecting major religions, picking and choosing tenets for your own spiritual handbook, a little disturbing. Only a very little can be learnt through study, especially literature. This is, I believe, even more apparent if you’re dealing with your own spiritual outlook. Think on this, child.
“Disturbing” seems to be a little strong. What’s wrong with redefining your attitudes and opinions based on new information?
I read things, and the things I like, I remember and try to live by. It’s less a spiritual journey than a personal philosophy. Because of that I feel more of a kinship to the more personal, somewhat mystical faith traditions.
‘Disturbing’ is very strong, I momentarily stepped into the shoes of a devout follower of said religion, and registered their horror at their faith being whittled down to so many single ideals.
Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with redefining your attitudes etc., I just feel that your own spirituality shouldn’t be so readily influenced by book-learnin’. Really, you aren’t learning new morals from these learnin’s, you are discovering that the morals you currently have are recognised by numerous traditions. I’d say, however, that the specific moral laws are actually a fairly unimportant part of most religions. Most sensible ones, anyway. This doesn’t mean that you’re missing the point, but that the religions themselves are probably irrelevant to your personal philosophy.
It’s possibly semantic, and I am just being contrary for the hell of it.
Yes. I see your point.
My discovery does seem to be as described. But it is also highlighting things that I hadn’t thought of which ally nicely with my own personal convictions.
Really I’m just realising that much of what religion has to say is relevant to the way I live my life.
Except for the worship part…
I worship* Baal, defeater of Yam (http://www.pantheon.org/articles/b/baal.html)
*nb. I do not in fact worship Baal at all. I don’t even know him. At least, not personally…
Aside; I had Yam soup last night. It was quite good, if you like yams, which I guess I do!
Sounds yammy.
Let me preface my remarks with my own, well, preface. I’m pretty similar to you, and on a similar road, so I feel some empathy. Or something. I’m not affiliated with any particular organised religion, but I do find that there is much of value we can learn from them, particularly their philosophical aspects, as opposed to any dogmatic, ritualistic or specific moral law aspects.
To me it seems like you’re (we’re) slowly discovering that people have been thinking about stuff for a really, really long time, and lots of people have come up with similar ideas and philosophies, and much of it is expressed in a religious context. So when we read something from somebody that has conducted detailed research into the various philosophies contained in the various religious texts and doctrines, we often find that they have expressed it quite nicely.
After all, humans have been building on the philosophical foundations of our ancestors as long as we’ve been thinking, so no wonder some express it really, really well!
From my own perspective, the more I learn, the more the major religions share. The differences are relegated to the dogmatic, ritualistic and specific moral law parts. Maybe this highlights that the human condition is pretty much the same, no matter where you are from, or the idealogies you were raised on?
And, as a parting comment, I agree that yams are delicious. I had some roasted yams last night, and it doesn’t get much better than that!
I like your suggestions and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Where is YOUR blog Thommy?
My blog? Well, I dunno if I deserve a blog all of my own. I would like one, but the idea of an internet blog containing details of my life, what can be read by anyone, kinda disturbs me. Well, it’s not that the thought of anyone reading my blog disturbs me, just one in particular …
So maybe I should use a pseudonym, and not have any photos of myself. That could work.
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I don’t want to see threads like this whonews.,