Religion?

[nelsonic]

Religious Debates? ⚔️

This is a "holding" post for when I have time to write about this topic. 📝
Please don't read it if you are easily offended by half-formed ideas. 🙄
My intention with this post is not to offend anyone but rather to highlight a meta discussion.
The discussion around "dogmatism" in general and it's effect on wider debate in society.
Often people try to polarise a discussion in terms of "right and wrong" or "us vs. them" see: #504
Instead of trying to find the similarities and harmony they highlight and focus on the differences.

I was lucky enough to study "comparative ethics" as an elective course at University.
The actual course was called "Financial Ethics" (I was studying finance...) but it gave me a chance/excuse to read widely and understand how much the various religions/faiths overlap.
One thing all religions have in common is the "Golden Rule" which is why it's the first thing in our "manifesto": https://github.com/dwyl/start-here/blob/master/manifesto.md#manifesto

I intend to elaborate on this in due course, but for now, I need to get back to work! 💻

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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 18:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

• http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights

Most Humans are Religious

Regardless of what you do (or do not) believe, an irrefutable fact is human beings are (at least historically) a deeply religious species. Over 70% of the world identify as being religious in some form.
see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religious_populations

Religious Discussions End in Impasse

If you haven't had much interaction with deeply religious people,
you won't have exposure to faith-based discussions;
i.e. the kind that go nowhere and end in:

"my religion is right because {religious_leader_name} said so, and yours is wrong."

My intention with opening this topic is not to "pick sides" or disparage a particular religion,
I simply want to highlight one thing: by definition, they can't all be "right".

Consider the following Vice "documentaries" on various religious groups with charismatic leaders:

https://youtu.be/W2Cv5hZfOmk

https://youtu.be/RWUZnYCe0QA

https://youtu.be/ArfGyo6HQ_E

https://youtu.be/SBpNu4_TP9w

https://youtu.be/6AOX-_HdFKQ

None of these religions is "mainstream" and yet the devotees of each group are 100% "bought" into the group's ideology or dogma. The people do not question what the religious leader preaches even if they have a doubt the collective does not permit dissent therefore critical thoughts are not voiced.

The problem arrises when people have the apparent freedom of religion but no actual freedom.
Because there are so many things we can't say.

Your Parents' Religion

Most people conform to their parents' religion without any further thought.
https://www.quora.com/Do-most-people-believe-the-religion-of-their-parents

There are _many reasons for this, which you are free to research on your own.

Examples of "Religious" Debates Outside of Religion

There are many examples of where debates are interminable/unwinnable, because they are based on emotions and "faith" rather than reasoning and facts.

Star Trek vs. Star Wars

A vocal minority of "nerds" can debate the merits of these two franchises vociferously at length.
(I have watched all of both franchises for entertainment purposes over the years, and can follow along in the discussion, but by no means am I an "expert" or "convert" in either one).

Star Trek (The Original Series) debuted in 1966 a full 9 years before Star Wars, released in 1977.

This video is a good summary

https://youtu.be/s4HLE_GSYxM

And this is an interesting post/infographic on Trek vs. Force debate:
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/star-wars-vs-star-trek-you-cant-force-good-writing/

Android vs. iPhone

Pretty obvious ... pay for privacy and seamless ecosystem vs. "Open Source" total tracking.
see: #31 (comment)

Tabs vs. Spaces

See: dwyl/dev-setup#15 (comment)

Emacs vs. Vi (or any other editor/IDE dichotomy)

Emacs is a powertool, most people only need an allen key.
I started out using Emacs at University, it was good. But it's complete overkill for most people.
Yes, the "modes" in Vim take a few minutes to get used to, but it's a worthwhile investment.
https://github.com/nelsonic/learn-vim

Question is: when is a power tool more effective for getting a particular job done? dwyl/dev-setup#25

Functional vs. Object Oriented Programming

The fact is that most schools and universities teach either Python or Java, both Object Oriented.
This means that for most people their first (and often last) programming language, and one they will defend to the death for no other reason than it's their default is OO. 😮

[nelsonic]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation%E2%80%93evolution_controversy

[nelsonic]

Each time I visit family over the Christmas Holidays I'm reminded of the haves and have nots. 💭
Yes, in terms of wealth, but way more importantly in terms of Religion, or as some prefer to call it "Faith".
On the one side of the family we have people who celebrate all the Catholic Traditions
but have no clue about and don't follow anything in the Bible.
On the other we have people who follow the Bible, or the parts that they chose to follow - not getting into that now - but don't celebrate any Catholic or other mainstream traditions, i.e. Christmas.

There is nowhere in the Bible that says people should celebrate Jesus' birthday, 🎄
nothing about cutting down and decorating pine trees and certainly nothing about giving each other gifts. 🎁