I'm reading The End of Faith by Sam Harris. A good friend suggested the book. Harris' arguments are very compelling.

Any person who lies awake at night worrying about the private pleasures of other consenting adults has more than just too much time on his hands; he has some unjustifiable beliefs about the nature of right and wrong.

I think I may need to place greater emphasis on this quote, it illustrates one my biggest problems with society.

• virgohippy | Sunday, October 10, 2010 09:13PM

  Unwarranted force of will imposed on another is a wrong, which supersedes any lesser claim to ethos, I suppose. Acting in Arrogance vs. Respectfully Leaving Shit Alone

  A respectful person is sensitive to the needs of others, or at the very least is sensitive to the idea other people may have unique needs of their own. Respectful people understand their own values and ethics are merely one causality of human necessity, and other cultures may have discovered similarly useful configurations of their own. Respectful people know that human reality is perception, that the self can be wrong, so the self should not impose on others about which the self does not know. Instead, respectful people seek to know more, and in seeking they learn to accept (to live and let live) and in some circumstances appreciate differences between cultures, even if only for their own sake.

  An arrogant person believes their own values and ethics are the only true values and ethics. Arrogance is seeking to convince other cultures they are wrong, with little or no attempt to sense another's needs. An arrogant person has answers to questions they do not know - they believe these answers to be true despite any evidence as to whether or not they relate to any of the others' questions. In doing so, the arrogant person forces potentially destructive concepts onto another in an attempt to serve the arrogant person's vanity corrupted righteousness. An arrogant person may attempt to good, and equally so appear to do good, but by acting on their unique, limited perspective the arrogant person can unknowingly force suffering and strife on another.

• Vlad | Saturday, July 19, 2008 09:39AM

  Woah...you must go into more detail...