Is it therefore wrong to make light of such important and intrinsic beliefs, even if they don't make sense to you? – May
If your subjective judgments are causing you to hurt another person, even if you are doing it in jest, then is that wrong?- May
I need to step in here and say that I believe that May is mistaking mocking for making a light of, or a jest of something. Not all humor is based in mocking, which is usually attacking something with ill intentions. The question at this thread may not be how I am interpreting it- if so, I apologize for the post I am conducting because it’s probably not the most accurate. It is not wrong to make jests in good intentions or make light of beliefs, but if it is done purposefully I would have an entirely different opinion. To me, I generally interpret ‘mocking’ as implying a less than pleasant intent.
But for my take on the issue no you should not mock, to mock is to humiliate, embarrass, or to tease. You shouldn't mock people for anything not religion, sexuality, culture, race etc.-Riven
I strongly agree and identify with this statement, and I felt quoting it was really important. This sort of backs my point that perhaps the original poster was not thinking of the definition of mocking that I usually think of when I dwell upon it. I don’t think that this thread was geared about mocking, but even so, I agree with Riven’s opinions on this issue. I think this is a very wise statement.
At the end of the session, he was asked to continue speaking to the audience and proceeded to go on for a solid half-an-hour telling Catholic jokes...and the crowd was literally in stitches!!- Randomsomeone
This also seems to be confusing mocking with making light of, or creating humor in something. I am thinking that this individual was not making ugly, hurtful jokes on purpose. Therefore, this is not mocking, this is more about humor and being able to laugh about one’s belief, not exactly ‘mocking’ a belief in order to get a good laugh. Although, I suppose the catholic jokes could have been mocking and belittling the beliefs of catholics in order for your group to have a good time, but I somehow doubt it.
I'd also hope it wasn't just for malice. –Ecton
I think that mocking generally implies malice, and Ecton kind of touches on that here.
Ah, my own recent lesson.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
It is pretty much that simple.
I can respect other people's views and beliefs for as long as they can respect my own.
But even if they don't respect my views and beliefs, I can still be a better person and demonstrate the goodness of my own beliefs by choosing to tolerate their views and beliefs even if they are not willing to tolerate mine.
That is why I have always loved that old prayer, "Lord give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
What is truly important isn't that your beliefs are right for everyone, but that your beliefs are right for you. - Satya
I would have to say that of all of the posts I read on this threads, Satya got to communicating my own beliefs better than others. He has set down a lot of things here: essentially, my interpretation of reading this is that Satya is saying mocking implies a sort of negative intent, and that it is truly disrespectful. A lot of this has to do with tolerance of beliefs- not just religious, because while a lot of posters have made this about religion I do not think it is so narrow.
A lot of people mock a lot of things and it isn’t a just sort of thing to do; religion is a touchy subject but mocking any sort of concept or belief is rude and unwelcome. I think that, while Satya may not have said any of this, he communicates this in his post the clearest and that is the message I have received from this post. Your beliefs are your own beliefs and when one mocks something you have to question why. Is it because they disagree with it and are trying to prove it is of less value than some things they might believe? Just a few things to think about there.
I don't think it is right to mock anything. To explain my reasoning, look at what the word ‘mock’ represents.
Mock: to treat with contempt or ridicule
It's a negative sort of behavior that I personally don't enjoy behind on the receiving end of. It would not matter what I was being mocked about- my hairstyle, maybe, my personality, my mother or heaven forbid, my religious beliefs.
I suppose if you are simply mocking religion it may feel it is not as personal. But mocking religion, and how absurd it is, has an indirect personal effect on others; by mocking something you also will end up offending those who believe in it. If I were to mock science, ridicule it's merit without evidence or proof, just to be malice, and essentially make fun of it, some people would get offended. Not everyone, but some people. If I were to mock short haircuts and say they didn't look good on females without reasoning why because I was saying it simply to offend, those who had those haircuts would feel effected by that statement even though it was a generalization and not targeted at them. If you target religion and mock it, those who believe in it, even if you were not trying to target or offend them, will be indirectly effect.
The question is 'is it wrong to mock religion', I would have to say that there is no absolute answer to that question because as I've mentioned in so many of my thoughts and opinions, right and wrong are subject to the culture you live within and the societal norms. In some places it might be wrong, although in other areas I assure you it would be considered socially acceptable to mock Judaism or Islam where there is probably not a large populations of people who have faith in that religion. In some families it may be considered correct to put down the Mormon beliefs and therefore indirectly creating a bias against Mormons. To me, it is neither right or wrong.
I also want to mention that the posts between Flavus Aquila and Vulcan are, from what I can see, irrelevant to this topic and the moderators might consider splitting their discussion or putting it into the ‘random’ category.
