Fighting for What's Right

I've been accused of vacillating in my decisions a lot. Do I get a new job? Should I get this spanking new bag? Or even - what should I eat today? So I admire people who have a sense of conviction and stick to their guns.

Or at least, to the extent til their stick-with-it-ness impact me personally. For I can't imagine anything worse than talking to someone whose mind is not only absolutely set, but who barely listens to alternative points of view and doesn't allow you to get a word in. A person whose idea of a conversation is a merely launchpad to conversion of others to his/ her worldview.

That's how I feel reading the Q'uran. It seems almost a one-sided pounding of the same point, again and again. The One God is absolute.

One theme I have read so far touches on why Jews and Christians should be the first to embrace Islam, because the Word of God had been corrupted and they should absolutely be delighted that version 3.0, the real deal, has descended. What if I like Windows XP and don't want to upgrade to Vista? Is it always better just because I'm told it's better? There is no attempt to appeal to reason, the Book seems to convince mainly through fear of the Fire in the after life or social exclusion in this life.

This sense of conviction that any religion is the right religion is disturbing to me. The same case with the certainty that there is no God. How would anyone know? Is it that difficult to keep an open mind and maintain an attitude of uncertainty?

People in the ancient world used to worship the Sun before they knew better. We used to think Pluto was a Planet. We don't know enough now to know we are right.

People only fight over something when they feel they are right. Feeling that we are right makes us smug and we run the problem of hubris, whether religious or scientific. Arrogance turns to superiority. Superiority leads to a tendency to want to conquer.

Maybe it's time we be honest and say that we don't really know what is right. No one has possibly gone down a path of all possible religions (or lack of religion) in the world to know what is right. To assert what is right is also to miss the point - the world is diverse and the sheer variety is something to be celebrated, not stamped out. Why don't we preach the values of uncertainty more and be willing to listen to others, suspending the need to prove others wrong? But with a dose of skepticism to some extent, of course. After all,

"Keeping an open mind is a virtue - but not so open that your brains fall out."