Sheesh. I was going to stay away from this discussion, but after sleeping on it, it still troubles me. Not because of the opinions in general, but because of finding them here. This BBS does not represent the views of the guy on the street, but a self-selected clique closer to the bleeding edge of education and intellectual curiosity. It just doesn't feel that way all the time

So whatever, once again, happened to Oliver Cromwell's "I beseech you, in the Bowels of Christ, to consider it possible you might be mistaken"? OK, Old Ollie wasn't the best example of actually following that concept, but...

People with a diffent cultural background have different values. People with (or without) different religious backgrounds and convictions have different values.

Would I, as a Northern European, be happy with the US imposing their cultural values here, just because they don't agree with the Amsterdam coffee shops and the scandinavian public nudity? Of course not.

You can imagine how people here reacted when they found out the US has a plan to land commandos in The Hague to free US citizens in case they are brought to court at the International War Crimes Tribunal.

How can people in the US expect other countries to respect the US right to sovergnity if they dnn't respect others? That's why, despite all the shortcomings of the system, we need things like the International Court of Justice and the UN. Not just a fanatic US president who thinks he has a mandate from God to be the sheriff of the world.

And as to religious and moral relativism, I have to say that most world religions have the "live and let live" thing embedded very deeply in their core - it's just too bad that so many of the adherents of those religions don't live by it.

If you have a deep conviction about a Supreme Being or The Right Way or whatever, why is it so hart to imagine that other people might have equally strong convictions about different deities/things/constructs/whatever? And how can you be so sure your one is the right one? What *if* you happen to be wrong?

I have nothing against religious convictions, and I often admire them, but that shouldn't be at the cost of throwing rationality and chritical thinking out the kitchen window. The reason we are here, at our computers, communicating over these wonderful world-wide networks in our heated, all-mods-and-cons homes, is because of a tradition of questioning dogma, and rationally keeping on asking "what if" questions. Respecting intellectual freedom and learning.

So if I have a position, it would be "this world needs more Galileos and less inquisitors".