Posted by
glen ropella on
Sep 20, 2012; 4:24pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Faith-tp7580633p7580637.html
Prof David West wrote at 09/20/2012 08:10 AM:
> The real interesting question to me - what is the boundary between a
> parents right to raise children in their faith and societies interest
> in establishing a threshold set of shared values and practices for
> acceptance into the society.
It seems to me this is a question of population density. There's plenty
of evidence that nests facilitate altruism (and socialism) and the lack
of nests reinforces selfishness (and individualism). I can infer that
the extent to which _I_ want to indoctrinate someone else's offspring is
a function of the number and type of interactions I'll have with them
(including whether I'll have to pay for the consequences of their
actions like drinking 64 ounces of high fructose corn syrup or alcohol
or bags of microwave popcorn per day).
I currently live next door to a "Catholic" family much like the one in
which I grew up. The dad does a lot of yelling and the children do a
lot of crying and cowering. At one point, the teenage daughter was
literally running in and out of the house trying to escape her dad who
was chasing her (he's a bit fat and she's young and agile ;-). Our
houses are quite close together, which is the only reason I noticed the
ruckus. Had we lived back in our rent house on the river, with lots of
space between us and our neighbors, this wouldn't have been an issue.
Here's an honest and personal question to make the ethics concrete:
Should I have intervened?
--
glen
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