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Votive offerings
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Branwen
824 posts

Edited Sep 08, 2009, 11:00
Re: Votive offerings
Sep 08, 2009, 10:29
Pilgrim wrote:
Hmmm.
I've enjoyed your posts, Branwen, but for the life of me, I don't understand why anyone has to leave ANY kind of offering. If YOU have that kind of faith, why should I have to tolerate it?


You're right. Why should people building roads have to put up with henges in their way. Why should christians tolerate mosques in their town, or vice versa. Why should we have to put up with modern art in public places if it isn't our taste but it is someone else's? (I can't stand the new scottish parliament building set down in an historic district and area of natural beauty, or the huge art sculptures dotted around the park there).

Whose opinion on everything that is in public sight should we go with? Should the whole world just revolve around one person's religious beliefs, and artistic preferences? I'd like to believe my practices have the least impact on the environment, and impinge less on other people's space, and think it might be nice if others were as considerate. You WONT see a buried peg doll of mine, or have to remove a few berries I leave. I'd like to believe I am tolerant enough of other people's beliefs to try and find ways to help them understand enviromental impact, and to find other ways to do the same thing with no harm to nature, without just unilaterally saying I want to wipe out their beliefs and practices. Let them make an informed choice.

Besides, isn't religious intolerance and persecution a crime these days? If you went into a cathedral as a tourist, and found people having an ad hoc prayer circle where you wanted a picture, or had hoped to sit and enjoy the architecture, would you wait respectful of their beliefs? I have personal opinions on these things, of course I do. I think if I can be doing the same kind of religious practice but without leaving any sight of it behind me when I go, why can't others? But I recognise that my personal opinion isn't something I can force on others.

Having said all that, littering is a crime too, but removing religious items is fraught with this kind of argument, as well as the problem of theft by finding, and that's why I'd tell the police if I removed anything, and hand it in. They might have had it all out before and a ruling might be in place already too.
In reply to:
Re: Votive offerings (Pilgrim)		 Replies:
Re: Votive offerings (Littlestone)
Re: Votive offerings (Squid Tempest)
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