Truth: Part 1

There is much being said about tolerance, and the importance of respecting opinions, individuals and societies different from our own. I believe that we should be respectful towards our fellow human beings, but what does it mean to be truly respectful? If what is meant by respectful is to consider someone else’s beliefs and practices as equally true and valid as our own, then I would have to respectfully disagree.  Disregard for truth is never respectful or tolerant.  To regard all worldviews equally true does not show respect, but indifference to humanities responsibility to seek truth.

If in the name of tolerance, we validate contradiction, then our ability to think critically dissolves into absurdity.  Imagine if the scientific community decided to exchange the scientific method for the “modern tolerance method”, so instead of scientifically confirming biological differences between men and women, they decide to not offend feminist (their views are as valid as the biologist) and denied in the name of the “tolerance method of science” that men and women are different.  How could medicine advance the health of men and women if it operated with the view that men and women were not different?  How would women feel respected if they were treated like a male by their physician and likewise, how would men feel respected if treated like a women by their physician?

Our equality is not found in opinions, way of life, ideas, or gender, but in our being human and our being created in the image and likeness of God.  We are not eating, drinking, mating organisms of chance, but rational creatures with a God given instinct to seek and know truth.  To disagree is not showing disrespect, but to forbid the possibility of humanity discerning truth and falsity shows contempt for our capacity to be rational human beings.

TOTT

Sex and the Museum: Part 2

In a previous post I commented on a museum’s endeavor to get people to talk about sex, via naked photos of average American bodies. My take on the whole project was that the last thing western civilization needs to talk more about is sex. There is another problem with the museums intentions; there is more to the human body than its sexual function.  Sex is awesome and a great pleasure, but there is much more to the human body than the act of pro-creation and sexual pleasure.  Think about the process of human development from the womb into old age.  The changes are incredible, complex, and remind us of our beauty as well as our mortality.

What about everyday human contact between humans, i.e. hugs, handshakes, kissing. God said it is not good that man should be alone, and an important part of being human is touch.  We use our bodies to serve in powerful ways.  I wish the museum would have put together a collection of photos of average American’s serving each other; pictures of hands feeding hungry children, pulling Katrina victims from the dangerous flood, Mothers and Fathers holding their children.  There are countless examples I could give that would inspire and remind us of our need for each other, but the museum has a sexual fixation like the rest of our society, that endangers sexualizing every aspect of human touch (this topic will wait for another post).

There was a picture taken in the early 20th century of a group of men holding hands and sitting on each others laps posing for a photograph.  To the modern eye, this picture appeared to be of a group of gay males, but the truth is that none of the men were homosexuals.  What we see in the photograph is a snapshot of a time and a place where genuine human affection was not sexualized but embraced even by men.  Our ability to reach out and embrace each other, to serve each other is as fundamental to our well being as food (man shall not live by bread alone).