*back!*

[alexr_rwx]

So I'm back in Atlanta, and I think these next few days are going to be busy indeed... compilers is due on *shudder* Thursday, and I need to get stuff done for research Really Soon, and I need to get going on that dad-blammed NLU project (but that's going to be really cool, actually -- we're totally going to do machine learning techniques and train our agent on Atlanta Latino so's it can do automated translation...)... and ...

"It's not where you come from -- it's go and go get it."
-- The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Where You Come From"

I feel good. I'm ready to get down to business.

And I think it turns out that my mother dramamamalama is more tolerant than I am -- particularly when it comes to people whom I view as having destructively smallminded and Patently Wrong viewpoints -- but that might just mean that I'm 22 and more than a bit paranoid. This came up when we were discussing her new job, which is helping out with the music department at the local Baptist church...

Comments

[dramamamalama.livejournal.com]

Of course you don't have to accept another persons views to be tolerant, I think that that is the definition of tolerance, peacefully coexisting or to quote the New World dictionary: Freedom to hold religious views that differ from the established ones. Debating is fabulous, but are we always charming and polite? Is that a requirement? If you throw out charming and polite, are you then intolerant? Hmmm, I wonder...

[agonistes]

We're not always charming and polite, no -- but I think we should be. There's a big difference in responding to the opinion (for example) that God is a trinity with "Oh, really? Why do you believe that?" as opposed to "You're wrong, and here's why." One is charming and polite and non-confrontational. The other doesn't allow for polite and friendly debate, which is what is optimal.

My opinions on this are colored by my own religious upbringing, of course. :) Since we don't have anything we're required to have faith in, there are lots of opinions in our congregations regarding the answers to the big questions. Tolerance is covered to a great extent in Sunday School, and both when I was small and now I've found it easier to be tolerant when two people who disagree are polite and respectful of the other's view on things. It's when people issue blanket "You're-wrong-and-I'm-right" statements that problems happen. So in other words, yes, if you're not polite and respectful of other views when you question those views, you're intolerant. :)