Well, I never finished college + the IRS begs to differ but then
again, I know how to move what little $ I have around tongue
emoticon but yes, I'm far from a peasant immigrant, although he
gave a rather extreme example. From a worldwide
economic/educational standpoint, I am an educated wealthy
individual. I accept that and I'm rather glad for it. I'm
grateful for privilege that's thanks purely to happenstance of
birth. Anyway, I agree that religion dominance needs to be
excised from politics. I don't mind MILD inclusions of religion
that exists within some governments - things like "under God" in
the USA I don't care if they stay or go, and swearing on the
Bible stuff is silly tradition that can stay or go, and the
inclusion of religious tradition in English education for
example is hardly an issue but I'm sure ppl can argue for its
removal if its bothersome to their personal whatevers. English
Common Law itself is Christian. No way of getting around it.
It's as Christian as Sharia is Islamic. But it's the extremes
that are at issue. In many ways, Sharia and Common Law are
_mostly_ comparable legal systems. [we just focus on extremes
because, well, some of it is extreme] But that's where diplomacy
comes into play. Diplomacy *is* secular _without_ requiring
removal of religions. Diplomacy is not atheist. It is agnostic.
It's ignostic. It's "don't know, don't care". Human rights *do*
have a historically Christian background, as secular humanism is
the product of a Christian culture ultimately, as humanism
itself is AND secularism and rationalism. However, despite their
roots, both secularism (separation of government and religious
affairs) and humanism (scholarship) have grown to a point that
they are accepted in most of the world as a "baseline" of "This
Is Good" in nearly all cultures, whatever their dominating
religion may be. It is through diplomacy, discussion, humanism
and secularism that peace can be achieved, regardless of the
religious or irrelgiousness of the peoples involved. That's it's
power and strength: Not as a replacement-for, but a
supplement-to It remains powerful regardless of the religions or
lack of.
