Caption: No doubt many people think this image of Jesus head-butting the Koran is offensive. That's too bad, because it's really rather funny.Image credit: Screenshot of this YouTube video by Cujo359
George W. blogging about the idea of how much we should respect beliefs that don't make any sense to us:
I still believe the most profound question is; “Can we all just get along?” In historical times our failure resulted in endless slaughter, but our methods have “improved” to where we can’t afford NOT to get along anymore.
I can’t believe that some kind of mutual agreement to tiptoe around and not offend each other is even practical in the short term, let alone a long-term solution. Progress happens when the bad ideas of the past begin to look ridiculous, and that’s never easy or inoffensive. Trying to respect the un-respectable postpones that moment almost indefinitely.
Exploring Offensive Symbolic Expression
It's a profound essay, and well worth a read. I've touched on this subject in the past, but I've never brought up the idea that there are some compelling reasons to learn to get along. As time goes on, our ability to kill each other and destroy will become greater, whether it's with biological weapons, nuclear weapons, or autonomous weapons. With that enhanced ability to destroy comes the danger that we will destroy ourselves or bomb ourselves back to the stone age over some trivial difference of opinion.
We need to learn that others have the right to destroy symbols we think of as sacred, and that we don't have the right to kill or injure them in response. Whether it's destroying a Koran, a a communion wafer, or a flag, the right to destroy one's own property in protest must be sacrosanct. That's because an idea that one person finds sacred could be as abjectly stupid as an idea no one thinks is sacred.
As I've pointed out before, it's the ideas that don't have a basis in reality that are usually the dangerous ones. There are plenty of such ideas that people are willing to kill or injure anyone who questions.
2 comments:
Jesus looks like an underwear model. That's just a little creepy. Funny. But creepy.
He's supposed to look like a professional wrestler, I think. Still, there's a sort of underwear model quality to that look, too.
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