Quote:
| Originally Posted by Buoyant Babe ...
Isn't this how we got to the stage where daft folks feel the need to make a political stand? Political correctness gone mad and a lack of tolerance to other people's cultures and beliefs?
... |
Its not PC, nutty or otherwise, its about the complex inter-relationship between freedoms, responsibilities and governance. The right to express one's beliefs is free speech, yet this is tempered by the responsibility not to offend. If I express my true belief I will offend some people - that is inevitable. So, am I truly possesed of "free" speech or not? Does my employer have the right to suppress my faith, or is it simply that dangly jewelery is unsafe in an aircraft?
Read a little about the ban on the wearing of headscarfs in the Islamic secular country of Turkey and then contrast with the proposition by the racist right in the Netherlands to do the same... Will the incoming Dutch government ban nuns from wearing their very obvious religious uniform in public?
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Buoyant Babe ...If she is still allowed to wear her Cross under her clothing, I can't see the problem, as long as the rule is applied equally to all employees. |
Her "problem" is that this doesn't allow her to make the "political" stand she wants to. As Ahar rightly puts it..
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| Originally Posted by Ahar ...there is a frustration amongst some christians at the continuing secularisation of society and general hostility towards christianity and religion in general. |
I think these people are mistaken, there is no "hostility" to christianity (although there is towards Islam). It is simply that science is continuing to challenge the core aspects of the Judeo-Christian mythology. Humans have evolved, the world is billions of years old, the universe older still. The world is not for our benefit, it is inert - a lump of rock. The existance of biological life can easily be explained as the actions of complex amino acids gradually developing ever more complex interactions. Life is meaningless and will end at some point in the future - the planet to be consumed by the Sun and all record of biological existance removed.
In the face of such complex and profound issues its much easier (and probably safer) just to poke fun. So lets
Chris