Our Religion and Politics are a Matter of Birth

These positions are more about the parents we are born to, and less about independent, rational formulation of ideas.


Folksonomies: politics religion ideology

Where We are Born Determines Our Religion

...the accidents of birth and geography determine to a very large extent to what faith we belong. The chances are very great that if you were born in Pakistan you are a Muslim, or a Hindu if you happened to be born in India, or a Shintoist if it is Japan, and a Christian if you were born in Italy. I don\'t know what significant fact can be drawn from this -- perhaps that we should not succumb too easily to the temptation to exclusiveness and dogmatic claims to a monopoly of the truth of our particular faith. You could so easily have been an adherent of the faith that you are now denigrating, but for the fact that you were born here rather than there.

Notes:

Desmond Tutu makes a thoughtful point about how our parents determine our religion, which means we should not claim a monopoly on truth by our own faith, which was determined by accident.

Folksonomies: religion secularism faith

Similarity

Teens Share Their Parent\'s Political Preferences

Are the great generation-splitting debates that were characteristic of the 1960s and 1970s -- about everything from politics and religion to drugs and hair -- splitting today\'s generations? Not if the results of a new Gallup Youth Survey*, which asked teens to compare their social and political views with those of their parents, are any indication. While a fifth of U.S. teens (21%) say they are \"more liberal\" than their parents and 7% say \"more conservative,\" 7 in 10 teens (71%) say their social and political ideology is about the same as mom and dad\'s

Notes:

So political ideology is mostly a matter of birth, not reason.

Folksonomies: politics ideology