Peeve Farm

g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets

  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
     A stream-of-consciousness Web journal, containing
     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.

On My Blog Menu:

InstaPundit
USS Clueless
James Lileks
Little Green Footballs
As the Apple Turns
Entropicana
Cold Fury
Capitalist Lion
Red Letter Day
Eric S. Raymond
Tal G in Jerusalem
Secular Islam
Aziz Poonawalla
Corsair the Rational Pirate
.clue

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Friday, December 13, 2002
09:42 - Perspective	(top)
Post-9/11 discussions about how to deal with rising Islamic terrorism-- as well as arguments over how to deal with our own domestic religious fundamentalism, including the usual evolution-vs-creationism debates-- seem to comprise opposing sides whose world views are so fundamentally incompatible that no common ground can ever be reached. To the non-religious, all these arguments about religious freedom, secular government, and scientific exploration of the natural world all seem perfectly natural. We are willing to tolerate all religions, because to us, religions are about the equivalent of what TV shows a person likes to watch. "Do whatever you like in your personal life," we say. "However you choose to spend your private time, however you intend to relate yourself to the universe, is fine with us. It's none of our business." It fits in perfectly with the arguments for self-determination, privacy, freedom of expression, and protection against "thought crime" police. But this isn't the argument embraced by the religious, to whom religion isn't just a diversion, it's truth. And that truth must apply to all people equally, because, well, it's truth. From that perspective, it's futile to argue against truth, just as it's self-destructive to live life in a way not in accordance with that truth. So our arguments in favor of freedom of religion must appear to the religious to be more or less similar to the arguments in favor of legalization of drugs: if some people want to pursue a self-destructive act, which will only result in them ending up in Hell, that's fine. (Or, as the other side of the argument from that perspective would posit, such people need to be protected from themselves-- prevented from making such self-destructive choices-- forcibly if need be.) One group sees it as an argument about art, expression, and freedom. The other group sees it as an argument about the containment of an epidemic of criminal self-abuse. How can these arguments be reconciled? Unless we figure that out, I doubt there'll be an intellectual solution to the current global clash between religious tolerance and fundamentalist theocracy, which can only become more immediate a concern as time goes on.