Working With Diverse Beliefs and Cultures

[MinisterJay]

We live in a very large world, with a large diversity of cultures and belief systems. Some religions be come from a similar background like the Abrahamic Faiths: Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Bahá'í and Rastafari; they all share the same deity. These originated in the Middle East. As we move eastward, we will see more Hinduism and Jainism, which traditionally introduce polytheistic beliefs. Moving even move eastward, we encounter belief systems that are more philosophical, like Confucianism and Buddhism. Around the world, we see a wide variety of belief system. Included within belief systems are agnostic and atheists. Many other beliefs are found throughout the world, and their importance is by no means lessened because they were not mentioned. They to do have belief systems, but it may not be religious in nature.

No matter what one's belief system is, we can work with each other. We do not have to agree in what each other believes, but we should never get on the level of attacking each other beliefs. These beliefs have enriched our arts, our literature, and our architecture. The world is an awesome world because of the diversity that is brought. While different areas of the world entered Dark Ages, other areas made gigantic leaps in scientific advancement. I have had the privilege to work directly with people of all of the listed beliefs above, except Bahá'í , Rastafari, and Jainism and it has enriched my life. Work with people of diverse beliefs and cultures; you may be amazed.

 

[Cunechan]

This is so true. Reminds me of the ring parable, for those who not know it it's from Nathan the wise, a drama about religion, and how we all are actually one family in the end (it's metaphorical; each of the persons in the story represents one religion and in the end they find out that they're all related)

Spoiler: Ring parable

The centerpiece of the work is the Ring Parable (German: Ringparabel), narrated by Nathan when asked by Saladin which religion is true: An heirloom ring with the magical ability to render its owner pleasing in the eyes of Godand mankind had been passed from father to the son he loved most. When it came to a father of three sons whom he loved equally, he promised it (in "pious weakness") to each of them. Looking for a way to keep his promise, he had two replicas made, which were indistinguishable from the original, and gave on his deathbed a ring to each of them.[1]

The brothers quarreled over who owned the real ring. A wise judge admonished them that it was impossible to tell at that time – that it even could not be discounted that all three rings were replicas, the original one having been lost at some point in the past; that to find out whether one of them had the real ring it was up to them to live in such a way that their ring's powers could prove true, to live a life that is pleasant in the eyes of God and mankind rather than expecting the ring's miraculous powers to do so. Nathan compares this to religion, saying that each of us lives by the religion we have learned from those we respect.

Now I can't remember what I wanted to write... MJ you're really lucky, learning so much about the whole world and cultural differences must be so awesome. Just because people are different doesn't mean they can't get along well, same with beliefs. It should never be a reason to start a conflict. Somehow your post is so feelsy

 

[Amysaurus]

Generally touchy subjects such as religion and politics, however harmless, are best left to status updates or blog entries. I will leave this thread open as long as the discussion remains civil.

Working with a people of different cultures and backgrounds can be a very enriching experience. I often work at my university's International Student Center, and it's always a lot of fun to get to know the students from so many different countries. As different as we all may be, by embracing and respecting each other's differences we all grow closer together.

 

[Bizarre Monkey]

Amy's on the dot, I'm not gonna say much as I'm pretty neutral to everything, but these threads can get uncivil super fast due to tests of faith and righteousness overtaking the tranquility of civil debate.

This will likely be my only post here, as I'm already on code red due to recent things.

This is the only real truth-- It's not about who you are, or what your religion is, it's how you wear it.

I have witnessed the worst and best of several different cultures and peoples, none are better or worse than the others, all have the bad eggs, all have a majority of not-so-bad to really good yolky(yolk means chummy in this analogy) eggs. I myself am agnostic, and it seems to me a lot of the militant overzealousness some people tend to associate to religious faiths is based in who is right about what can't really be proven, not yet-- anyway.

The militant zeal isn't a symptom of religious orders alone, however. Every single sect of society in humanity has those people who will go to wit's end to prove that their side is correct, even when there's no evidence to prove that they are right or to disprove anybody who disagrees with them.

What I find makes it so noticable in religious circles is that unlike in most sects that are more real or at least quantifiable in some way, most religions are based on words written millennia ago, and in translation a lot of the original intent gets lost, or the original meanings twisted by vague scarcity, the omission is then oftenly taken for granted and used as a means to push mortal agendas, which can quickly escalate to violence-- the Inquisition, World War II, the Crusades, all brought on by pronounced misinterpretation of a deity's word, and those are only famous examples, there's probably far more.

The upside to being agnostic is that I don't act like I know anything, which makes quarrels with me over religious things pretty much a no-go because I can outweigh the need to argue with a respect for the omissions, people are generally happy to not continue if they aren't being asked to admit they're wrong, they only would like a chance to still be right.

I find more neutral orders like buddhism that don't have a moral choice system (heaven/hell, olympus/the underworld, valhalla/sovngarde etc.) are much more chill, because there's no wrong thing to do, except what you think or believe is right, Buddhism is built toward finding inner peace, and every buddhist I've met has been the chillest dude. What tends to happen is in circles where there's a good end (heaven) and a bad end (hell) there's immediately a social breach between the orthodox and the unorthodox, and every action you make is as a purist believer who doubts in themselves, is wrought with 'is this the right thing to do by God', 'will this land me in hell?', it's a very stressful lifestyle for those with severe issues of self-image. I remember one of my friends used to constantly do a ritual that'd take about two hours around the house to keep her conscience clear.

I myself was a Christian for about 8 years (age 5-13), it was my choice to dabble in it at five, and while I was never a super purist follower, it wasn't an athiest who converted me, nor a satanist who opened my eyes to the one true lord and master, Stan.

It was several disgraceful zealous attitudes displayed within the church that lead to me just phasing out. I used to love Church, I'd go in, get to drink a bit of wine (actually grape juice, I wasn't a catholic, hue) and we'd eat bread and sing these songs, I didn't really understand what a lot of it meant, but the ambiguity was part of the elated charm for me.

However as time went by I began to notice how nasty some got talking behind each others backs, but that I could ignore and move beyond because at least they weren't making it that person's problem. But I did began to question what we could really state we knew of God, do we even know that's his name? I then tried to piece together where people got that God hated gays, or that other stuff some zealous neo-christians say like it's absolute fact.

Piecing it together, i eventually learned the bible was a tool, that was largely used by people to hedge their bets and fortify their agenda, no matter how moral or immoral.

Then I became aware of much of the scum and villainy within the Church, not just mine, Churches everywhere. Even Charities, it started to make me feel sick to look at. It was shortly after that I felt I no longer could respect those who called themselves Christians, not because they are unanimously bad, like i said, only a few are rotten eggs, but I could never see it the same way, the precipice of it's once coruscant glimmer had fallen like the angel Lucifer himself.

I did try out Athiesm, but it was more of the same, people thinking they knew better about the Universe than they had means to prove, they were for a lot of the part, more logical, due to their existence being one grounded in the harshness of reality, but the entire lack of mysticism was nearly as damning as the damnation of it.

Agnosticism was my calling, no church, no obligations, you didn't know what god wanted, if he wanted anything, or if he cared at all. And 'God' essentially becomes 'a great Power beyond understanding or reach', and you're not even sure that exists. You didn't act like you knew, and that suited me just fine, because what did I know? I had seen nothing with my eyes to affirm the existence of a god, but yet in the grand scope of the universe, who knows what's possible?

Not me, and that's how I like it.

-Biz out.