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Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]> Return-Receipt-To: Virginia Wainwright <[log in to unmask]> Priority: NORMAL X-Mailer: Execmail for Win32 5.1.1 Build (10) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="us-ascii" I think that this is an important debate to have. Sooner or later some of us will be put in a position where there is a direct clash of ideology which affects our and our institutions' abilities to promote equality and diversity. This is likely to be in the areas of religion and sexuality and gender equality. At the risk of oversimplifying, it seems that the followers of some religions promote beliefs, apparently based in some instances on texts held sacred by the religious group in question, that women are inferior and that homosexuality is socially and morally unacceptable. Virginia On Thu, 15 Aug 2002 11:57:41 +0100 Berry Dicker <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > The positions Ged describes may be very different but they can be > equally > strongly held. It can be as dismissive to insist to a secularist that > our > lives are supernaturally guided as to tell someone from a faith > position > that as their views are based on belief and not evidence they can be > disregarded. Actually, one could argue that atheism is a faith position > only a different kind of faith, in empiricism. > These are all different life positions and there are many things these > groups will have in common such as respect for life, recognition of the > importance of human relationships, human rights etc. We do not have to > construct this as a polarisation unless we choose to. > Our institutions have to accomodate many different beliefs about the > spiritual aspect of life from Humanism ( the spiritual not seen as a big > deal) to Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and even religions such a > Druidism > where objects in nature are seen as having individual spirits (as I > understand it and I may be grossly oversimplifying). > Mutual respect enshrined in a policy (even if policies are generally > hard > things to implement) is I think no bad thing. Though faith positions > enshrined in cults which require submission to a high level of control > leave me very uneasy and we have, a while back, had some problems with > that kind of thing. > > Oh dear, this is a debate I really didn't want to have! Still there it > is. > Berry > Berry Dicker > > 62-68 Lichfield St. > Wolverhampton > WV1 IDJ > > Tel 01902 321197 ---------------------- Virginia M Wainwright Equal Opportunities Officer King's College London James Clerk Maxwell Building 57 Waterloo Road London SE1 8WA 020 7848 3399 [log in to unmask]