Is it ok to offend religion?

[Adam]

Originally Posted by mr_j

but is it our duty to suppress our opinions or their duty to respect laws and logic?

But it's not us an they, we're one society. And you can't expect every country in the world to live by the same norms, if there is a right that is more valuable than an other in a country then that doesn't have to be the case in Lebanon. I find it sad that people choose to have ideologies that govern their choices rather than them govern their ideologies. Example: You don't like the idea of abortion but because you are a liberal, you vote for abortion.
Instead of making a decision depending on the issue and the situation people choose to divide themselves along the lines of conservatism and liberalism.

And no one is talking about suppressing opinions here but you have to agree that most people who have many opinions are driven by hate toward people who don't agree with them more than anything else.

[mr_j]

But it's not us an they, we're one society. And you can't expect every country in the world to live by the same norms

they should, there are things that must apply everywhere regardless of the country... can a country for example and a society legalize raping women and say "these are our norms?" why should they be allowed to ban certain opinions under that excuse?

PS: our country is not that special when it comes to religious views, we fool ourselves with this excuse
Europe is split half atheists half Christians(most European countries are split 60/40 70/30 50/50 etc...) you don't see them killing each other and you do not see laws restricting opinions

[Adam]

Originally Posted by mr_j

they should, there are things that must apply everywhere regardless of the country... can a country for example and a society legalize raping women and say "these are our norms?" why should they be allowed to ban certain opinions under that excuse?

I didn't say anything about banning opinions, what I'm saying is that because the norms are different you can't expect all forms of rules to be as effective in all countries. Again you can't say "they" because you live in the same society and can't what you are saying be considered banning "their" opinion?

And if a society accepts rape, who are you to tell them it's wrong if you're not a part of that society? How you define right and wrong is irrelevant as it's also something subjective, they can have a different definition. It's hard to accept this but for me freedom of thought is more important than anything. Your opinion can be different.

Originally Posted by mr_j

PS: our country is not that special when it comes to religious views, we fool ourselves with this excuse
Europe is split half atheists half Christians(most European countries are split 60/40 70/30 50/50 etc...) you don't see them killing each other and you do not see laws restricting opinions

I never said it's an excuse but that it has to be taken into consideration. We have a dark past and we will not get anywhere pretty by opening old wounds. Wait a few generations and if there were no wars the scars will be gone, we can't expect every single conflict to be solved in our life time.