Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Vista, CA
Posts: 5270

Tal Tales
Humble Faith in Reason

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Denver
Posts: 20643

Agreed.

-m

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Myrtle Beach, SC
Posts: 15181

I also agree.

quote:

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Agnosticism and skepticism ("I don't see how God could exist, so I will behave as if God does not exist, but I concede that I might be wrong")

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Registered: Feb 2004
Location: in colorado somewhere!
Posts: 28539

When I die,I will be one of Santa's elves.
I will make toys.
Assembly line.
Piece rate.
Sweat shop.
But it's for Santa.
And all the good little boys and girls.
From first world countries.
It's gonna be fun!

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Santa is coming. That gives me joy. It gives me even greater joy that Hawley will get a coal this year.

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Registered: Nov 2004
Location: Detroit
Posts: 700

"I have always believed that one of the biggest problems facing the world/society is fear of the "other"."

This is correct, but its cause is not an increasing phenomenon, which you asserted to be willful ignorance.

The cause is innate human biology. Our ties with people are what make life worth living. Having ties means, by definition, we have "others" with whom no ties exist.

The existence of an "other" is the source of problems, as you explained.

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Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Vista, CA
Posts: 5270

quote:

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Originally posted by Jeitarium
"I have always believed that one of the biggest problems facing the world/society is fear of the "other"."

This is correct, but its cause is not an increasing phenomenon, which you asserted to be willful ignorance.

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"Willful" isn't the name I would give it. I think it's ignorance arising from fear, and may not be exactly well-thought-out.

quote:

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The cause is innate human biology. Our ties with people are what make life worth living. Having ties means, by definition, we have "others" with whom no ties exist.

The existence of an "other" is the source of problems, as you explained.

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The second sentence there sounds much more like an opinion (although one I am increasingly coming to share) than a fact. I suspect that there are a number of people who find enough reason to live from sources that are not rooted in social behavior.

Still, though, your point is good. The fact that we define ourselves as communities inherently implies the "other", as in "I/We am/are this, but those others are that". I agree, and I hadn't thought of it in those terms. I don't think that it is just the existence of the other that is the problem, though, but rather our fear of the other.

I propose that it is that fear of the other, and the accompanying ignorance, which cause the problems.

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Registered: Dec 2002
Location:
Posts: 17499

Fear of the "other" is rational and reasonable, given our evolutionary history.

Ignorance of the ways of others merely compounds the fear, it is not at its roots, IMO. Knowledge can serve to offset the fear, even totally override it sometimes. Other times it serves to reinforce it.

In the end we are all discrete conceptual universes that only tangentially intersect the universes of others. Like virtually every other human characteristic, the ability to share conceptually the universe of others shows a very wide spectrum of capability. Some can see and embrace almost any mindset, at least conceptually. Others simply cannot, no matter how carefully educated they may be. Again, in my opinion.

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