TBGO: Autos de Fe

 

A "faithful/believer" commentator asked, basically, why can't we--believers and non-believers--all be friends.

Woody tried to answer:
All proclamations of faith in "supernatural beings" in public discourse are ALWAYS intended to win for the proclaimers unearned, undeserved rhetorical advantage and authority. "God says" is a claim to irrebuttable authority. But it is (or should be) meaningless in the secular world, and deserving of  no more acknowledgement that if someone claimed "The Dog says..." The "faithful" would rightly scoff at such a claim about "the Dog," and thus may not suppose "the God" carries any more weight..

Thus: We can be friends as long as you don't insist that your (or ANY) "God" has a "legitimate" place in discussions of public law, regulation or conduct. We STOP being friends when anybody proclaiming your (or ANY) "God" decides their faith entitles "believers" any special status or privilege or standing.
In other words, it's your private business.

Truthfully, I don't want to know that or if even you believe. It doesn't MATTER. Unless you DON'T keep it to yourself and your co-religionists. Indeed, if I DO know your theistic position, then you/folks have, de facto, violated the public space.

For example: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/nyregion/hasidic-jews-turn-up-pressure-on-city-to-accommodate-their-traditions.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Hassidic Jews in NYC wan the city to legislate certain accommodations to their "traditions."

Since civic government is responsible to ALL the people, no secular authority should ever endeavor to adjust the behaviors or the conduct of the "polis" to accommodate ANY special, sectarian demands from ANY cults or religions. To do otherwise is to force the whole of the People to submit to the "spiritual" whims of a minority--which would, I'm sure, be dreadfully aggrieved if they were forced to submit to antagonistic "beliefs" of some OTHER cult.

Which is why the "public" celebration of (e.g.) "Christmas" (per se), or "Good Friday," or "purim," is unacceptable. A civis may proclaim a seasonal holiday, or a commercial one. But as soon as it labels and locates the event in ANY theistic tradition, it violates the right of others NOT to behave according to imposed sectarian whim.

I'll close with this fervent prayer: