From: Van oost Kenneth (kennethvanoost@belgacom.net)
Date: Thu 06 Mar 2003 - 12:10:29 GMT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Vincent Campbell" <VCampbell@dmu.ac.uk>
> <It's probably best to avoid religious or political topics in the
> workplace.>
>
> I tend to think that, assuming you're in a country where free speech is at
> least vaguely tolerated, religion, politics, and sex (oh, and memetics
:-))
> are the only things worth talking about. Why? Because people tend to feel
> really strongly about at least one of these, and engaging them in
discussion
> gives a good insight into who they are, and them of you.
> Otherwise conversations are really only coded versions of these kind of
> issues anyway- i.e. office politics conversations often impliclity reveal
> people's views on gender, hierarchy, individualism etc. etc.
> I was disappointed by Marsha giving up on her work colleagues, and also on
> her refusal to read the Bible- fear of the unknown is what gives religion
> its basis in the first place, and their's nothing to be frightened of in
> religious texts if you don't believe them to be revealed truth. There is,
> however, quite a lot to be learned about the mentality of believers, and
of
> the founders of faiths. If the fear is the 'what if they're right and i'm
> going to hell?', and you can't get out of that mindset, then I'd actually
> advise making the leap of faith (didn't someone famous regard this as a
good
> bet- Voltaire? Descartes? Someone else French?).
Giving in will probably count as being/ feeling right !
What Marsha did or will do is motivated by her own opinion and her own
set of rules, but I agree on the fact that discussion is the best remedy to
contradict strong belief memeplexes, although I presume that will be invane.
Like you said, their belief is inbedded, * written in* in their mentality,
gestures
and behavior. You can 't change the person who in the end is defined by his
memes. Marsha's bosses will never go on the other side of the argument,
like I hope she will neither.
IMO, it is probably better to ignore the stuff of religion they belief in
all
together. Marsha you're free... they are not !
Kenneth
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