On Tue, 5 Dec 2000, Robin Hanson wrote:
> Yann Le Du wrote:
> > > I agree that many people highly value their ability to express their
> > > religion. But how much they value a constitutional guarantee to
> > > such expression depends on what they think the chances are that the
> > > government would actually try to stop them.
> >
> >... can't a constitutional rule somehow encourage the existence of an
> >educational system that fosters tolerance, and thus lead to a more
> >tolerant society ? I agree that the rule is then useless, but is it wrong
> >to say that a good rule is one that aims at becoming useless ?
>
> I suppose it is possible that the first amendment directly causes our
> society to be more tolerant of diverse religious expressions. But I'd
> want to see more evidence in favor of this theory before accepting it.
Well, I don't know anything about the USA 1st amendment and its effects,
but hasn't it permitted the building of Temples, Churches, Synagogues and
Mosques, etc., close to each other, or at least in the same locality, so
that these different religious people went out in the open, met, and
somehow got to tolerate each other more ? Hasn't this amendment forced the
police to make possible such cohabitation by outlawing those who impeded
the constructions ? I would believe tolerance would have then developped
after a few generations, as things mixed up well.
The problem certainly is that differences in wealth certainly undermined
this mixing.
If for example some religion encouraged to be rich, and some other to be
poor, then I guess the religious buldings would be constructed at
different locations, say the rich stuff in the expensive middle, and the
poor stuff in the cheap outskirts of the city, so that no mixing would
occur.
Yann
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Yann Le Du E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Theoretical Physics Web : http://cdfinfo.in2p3.fr/~ledu/
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