[Vision2020] Religious Diversity Education

[Luke]

Mr. Moffet:


> You and I can disagree on many issues, yet we can live together in peace.
> In fact, I can be an atheist, and you can follow the Bible, and if we
agree
> that murder, theft, fraud and violence are not good for society, we can
get
> along just fine, unless one of us starts insisting that the other one must
> follow their beliefs down to the last detail, or they are doomed to hell,
> from the bible believer's point of view, or doomed to dogmatic
superstitious
> nonsense, from the atheist's point of view.

    That is not quite true. If you are a logical and consistent atheist, you
have no reason to abstain from murder; there is no punishment anyway. You
have no reason to abstain from theft; so long as no one catches you, a
little money on the side can really be nice. You have no reason to keep from
fraud; in a court case, someone might shove over a little dough to keep you
quiet, so why not take it? You don't need to be non-violent; there is no
consequence.
    However, a true Christian has biblical reasons, moral imperatives to not
do any of these things. You don't murder 1) because of the 10 commandments,
and 2) because man was created in the image of God. You don't steal because
of the 10 commandments. You don't have anything to do with fraud for the
same reason. You avoid violence because God says that He hates violent men.


> derived from realizing that the ultimate truth may be beyond anyone's
> understanding, is not what creates evil in our world.  Much of the evil
> comes from people who think they have the ultimate truth which gives them
> the right to violently impose this on other people, and kill or imprison
> them if they do not agree.

    Evil comes not from a man's surroundings, but from his heart. You want
to see evidence of this? Watch a little kid, perhaps with a younger brother.
He doesn't have to be told how to hit his little brother, or how to take
away his toy, or how to lie about it afterward. No child must be taught how
to be selfish, how to be mean. He does those things automatically; it's part
of his nature. It doesn't wait to come out until he has grown old enough to
comprehend religions.


> that taught them to respect other religious points of view, and to be
humble
> about asserting that their religion had to be the only true religion,
would
> they have been as likely to carry out the 9/11 attacks?

    Yes, I think so, because the image that Muslims, tolerant or not, in the
Middle East have of America is one of big, bad Christians who behind the
scenes have a wicked culture (for example, porn, crime, and making movies
full of immorality, full of nudity, full of all kinds of evil.) Even if they
are taught to be unsure of their religion, they would still think of America
as a hated enemy.

In regard to your desire to accept every religion:
    Every culture, no matter how tolerant it claims to be, has a form of
blasphemy, an object of hate. For example, if I asked the average American
whether we should become Nazi's, and find a new Hitler, the answer would be
NO WAY! Our culture and history declare Nazism to be a fell evil.
    One of the idols that American culture today has is feminism. Regardless
of my arguments, if I spoke out on this forum against women in government,
women in leadership positions, or women in the military, I would immediately
be jumped upon by 50 people at once. It wouldn't matter if I argued well, or
if you claimed to be tolerant of other people's ways of viewing the world.
And the same thing goes for homosexuality. Even you, in all your
relativistic, tolerant truths, have beliefs and ideals that you would indeed
claim intolerant, absolute truth on.
    So the question comes down to this: what is the basis for your rules,
for your blasphemies, for your moralities?

Sincerely,
Luke Nieuwsma