Judging Others

I watched this video (above) by Sam Harris on TED the other day.

He was speaking about how science can be used to answer moral questions.

He believes that we have the right to judge other cultures. 

He assures us that is not only okay to say that a nation that doesn't allow women to vote or a culture that keeps its women "in cloth bags" and cuts out their clitorises is immoral, it is right for us to speak out against such practices.

And he teaches us how to justify our stand scientifically.

 

My first reaction was one of hope.  "Maybe with a person like Sam Harris in the lead we are actually moving forward," I thought.

But something has been bothering me about the video and it grows with each passing day.

And it is the fact that he assumes we all have to be convinced of this and that we need to stand behind science.

Only men need to be convinced that it is right to speak against a culture that practices something like female genital mutilation.

That one complaint aside, I really enjoyed his talk. 

He is a wonderful speaker and the video is not long.

 

 

 

Related articles

• 'Mitts off my muff': the debate on female genital mutilation
• Can Female Genital Mutilation Be Surgically Undone?

Farewell to a Blogger

Turkish Muslim woman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The blogging world just lost an intriguing young female American Muslim blogger.

She's hung up her keyboard.

But before I comment about her work - a few words about where I stand on spiritual issues.

My personal belief is that we can't possibly understand the Creator/Creatrix.

But because we are human it helps us make sense of things by hanging human attributes onto the ineffable.

That which existed before time began.

Something first identified solely as female, then as male for perhaps the last 6,000 years.

 

Although a Christian, I love the pagan Goddess worship that is now emerging, especially among women.

To me it is part of the divine plan to right some historic wrongs.

Slow in coming maybe, but nevertheless change is afoot in western culture.

 

I have a harder time, although I know it is not fair, accepting religions that insist that the Spirit has only male characteristics. 

But I do follow some women who are traditional Christians and I was following the young woman who is a practising Muslim.

And truthfully, my hardest, most important lessons in compassion and understanding have come from those women.

So today I was saddened to learn that Cindy, who wrote the blog "Organica", is ending her blogging career.

Up until a few months ago her blog was on my sidebar but as she blogged less and less I tucked it back into my list of people I read infrequently.

 

She wrote about how important her faith is to her.

But she also wrote about intolerance.

And not just our western intolerance. 

She wrote candidly about Muslim intolerance - with us and with each other, particularly women.

I didn't always understand or even approve of her beliefs and practices but what she had to say led me to understand that Islam itself is not a stagnant religion.

Growth and beauty are happening from within and Muslim women are talking to each other about it.

 

But all women need to build bridges to each other.

Christians, Pagans, Atheists, Muslims, Jews, agnostics, Hindus etc. etc.

Our ability to change things may lie in our ability to connect by computers across physically inaccessible boundaries.

I'm sorry she's ended her blogging career but wish her the very best.