Sunday 5 August 2007

To judge or not to judge

In respond to a discussion I had with a friend about bullfighting in Spain:

I understand what you are saying and why you are pressing the point. But I guess I didn't express myself very clearly and i think our understandings of the word "judge" are different. So I will restrain myself from using it..

Let's talk about bullfighting. I do not approve of it but it doesn't mean that I will go to the arena and start killing the people who are enjoying it. I do tell people that I don't like it and I don't think it's a sport nor an entertainment.. and if they derive pleasure from it (because of their tradition), then it's up to them.

Religion, I was a devoted Catholic and now I have seen the error of my behaviour in the past (condemning non christian to hell, etc), but I am not going to go to every Christian and tell them to leave that corrupted and controlling organisation. Because I know that no many people can do that, to just give up.. they need security, they need people to tell them what to do and they need people to assure them that when they die, there are better things awaiting them. (this derive from the hopelessness of present reality, but that's another topic we should discuss the next time)

I have always seen anti gay in the same league as racism. Both are things that you can't change and was condemned base on a certain idea and "teaching". So, of course I do not agree with it.. but will I judge it? Who am I to judge? if I take things into my own hand, i am no better than those gay-basher (because they take it into their own hand and forcing their idea upon the others)

Slavery, I strongly disagree with what they are doing.. In my opinion, this is wrong, very wrong.. However am I right as well to go over there and kill all the people whom I think it's wrong? I think that's what America is doing in Iraq.. because America feels that dictatorship isn't right (which I think it isn't too) and they decided to take things into their own hand and here we have our current iraq war. Are you in favour of the Iraq war then? I surely am not.

All I am saying is that, we all have our point of view, it is ok for us to have it and even to judge (i had to use it) others. But when we go beyond our bondary, we lost the very purpose of our action. Maybe I am a coward.. or maybe I am just a person who believe in diversity.

We are looking at issue from this point of view that is generally agreed upon in the modern world, such as Human Right, and all the other rights. So it is easy for us to "judge" things that are against them as wrong. And because of this, a lot of minority behaviour are therefore wrong as well. But what if, Islam is the world religion and Iraq or Iran is the superpower, don't you think that the reverse is true then?

Maybe I am not as noble as a lot of people.. but I do believe in different point of view.. and to understand it before condemning (that's different from judging)

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