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Do you think interfaith dialogue wll help solve some of the world's problems?


Major sources of worldly conflict include religions and other philosophies. People of different belief systems can't get along. Perhaps if people reached out to one another and tried to understand each other's differences, we can reduce this conflict and solve other problems? That's what interfaith dialogue is.

I think the problem is getting people together and to be open-minded in the first place, though. But there have been instances when people of different beliefs have come together to talk.

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I wish it would be that easy. The problem with religion is everyone thinks that their religion is the only true one. That's why I'm an atheist.

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The irony....

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As you say, there actually is interfaith dialogue and even meetings between people like Ted Cruz and Alyssa Milano on gun control, where their moderated meeting (along with some other people) was reportedly civil and substantive (mostly with Cruz educating her and explaining the GOP proposal they're going forward with that might prevent some mass shootings while respecting the Second Amendment; she described him as "gracious" afterwards and has a wait and see attitude), though political meetings like the latter have become extremely rare. It's like pulling teeth to even have a substantive discussion on this board.

Different religions often work together for common causes, be they charitable or human rights oriented (e.g. opposing abortion). Having even more discussions might very well diffuse tensions in certain areas.

But the fundamental problem is that differences are often concrete and irreconcilable, not a matter of misunderstanding. That's true of Islamist ideology, inherently theocratic, and those who support freedom of religion. It's also true of socialism and Americanism.

That divide is the most important one in the US right now and therefore eventually possibly in the world.

San Francisco just voted to label the National Rifle Association a "terrorist" group, despite the NRA's only tie to any mass shooting being when a member heroically stopped a murderer from escaping. Leftists now want to imprison or kill peaceful people simply for their political opinions, always wrong but especially egregious when the views in question merely support the US Bill of Rights.

With the left increasingly embracing that scorched earth, totalitarian mind set, I'm struggling to find any hope of common ground or national unity.

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