Harvard is a wondrously tolerant climate for debate and exchange among a wide variety of thoughts, backgrounds, and beliefs, but the voice of religion on campus is largely inaudible.
Serious beliefs are awkward, especially religious ones. It's not that there's anything wrong with them, it's just that people's real, heart-felt, deeply held beliefs are, well, 'not easy to handle or deal with, requiring great skill, ingenuity, or care' - in a word, awkward.
By isolating ourselves from those with whose opinions we disagree, we lose the ability to defend our beliefs.
I wanted to write about how people's beliefs shift.
If you don't have solid beliefs you cannot build a stable life. Beliefs are like the foundation of a building, and they are the foundation to build your life upon.
Of course, my own political beliefs inform the ideas I come up with.
Britain First, the English Defence League, the British National Party, and the National Front are all guilty of using British symbols and institutions (notably support for the Armed Forces) to attempt to further their own deeply objectionable beliefs.
I know that some of the spiritual beliefs that I have are that if I come from a place of love, and I try to get out of my ego and my desire to want more and be selfish in any shape or form, then whatever I'm doing is not good.
This is a country of strong beliefs. Just because some two people say something, people don't bow down.
BJP is ready to go to any extent to protest for the rights of Ayyappa devotees. Beliefs should be respected. Man-woman equality is must, but gender equality cannot be established by giving entry to men and women together. There are several temples that deny men entry.
