How to Treat Others

Motivation

Every religion treats other religions as ignorant at best or evil at worst. Followers of Open Religion may also be tempted to do the same. What should be the ideal approach of Open Religion towards followers of other religions given its emphasis on allowing every conscious entity to choose its own destiny?

Content

For most complex systems that one is part of, be it your body or a relationship or an organization or the society, it is much easier to identify what is not working compared to what is working well. A simple example is when a body part starts paining, we become aware of it at every moment while in our normal lives we may not spend even a moment to think about it. This physical mechanism seems to be analogous to how the human mind works. Flaws are difficult to un-see and even a few flaws might be enough to take all virtues out of the mind’s visual field.

Religions are complex systems which have their flaws and virtues. The flaws have been explored earlier in this book and in many atheist literature but in summary this list includes propagating false beliefs about the nature of reality, inciting violence against other groups and putting some unjustifiable restrictions on certain members within the religious group. What are the virtues? At the individual level religion may give a person a sense of purpose and a community which has many physical, psychological and economical benefits. At the social level, religions may help regulate individual selfishness, help cooperation among people not of the same family or tribe, punish free-riders and hence make more complex societies possible.

To enable us to not be blinded by the flaws, Open Religion advocates that it’s followers give the most generous interpretation to all religions and their practices and customs and try to see what beneficial role could they have played in the past, what can be learned from them for our present lives and what can be distilled from them for our future.

References

Motivation

Are men and women equal? Why? Or Why not? How should we treat each other?

What about homo sexuals? Transgender?

Content

Women, all over the world and through recorded history, form the largest group of humans who have been denied their individual freedoms, treated as property or worse and have been subjected to humiliation, harm and death under the banner of religion and culture.

What kind of world should Open Religion aspire to in this regard and how to change from the current state to that world?

References

Motivation

Making the case for allowing conscious entities to choose their destiny irrespective of gender, race, sexual orientation and other differences

Content

References

Motivation

Best recommendations for approaching whether to have a partner, how to choose a partner(s) and spending a life with a partner(s)

Content

References

Motivation

Given the fact that no conscious being is responsible for being born into riches or poverty, how to ensure equality of opportunity to lead a good life?

Content

References

Motivation

Best recommendations for approaching one’s role in the many relationships that make up one’s community

 Content

References

Motivation

Best recommendations for approaching whether to have kids and how best to raise them

Content

References

Motivation

How should a conscious species treat other species that may or may not be conscious and how should it treat the common habitat shared by all?

Content

References