Quotes About Pluralism

No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.

All our tongues and cultures are constant shoplifters from other tongues and cultures.

Hinduism" is more appropriately thought of as a family name that encompasses an astounding variety of theological doctrines and practice.

Historically, discussions among Hindu sub-traditions were dialogical, and there was a notable absence of systematic efforts to stamp out other alternative ways of religious thinking. The language of engagement was not militaristic, and differences, though important, were not seen as problematic. It would be a tragedy if, like the opponents of Deepa Mehta's Fire, Hindus were to privilege a single interpretation of the tradition and hatefully denounce alternative understandings.

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea if it's the only one you have. • Emil-Auguste Chartier, Propos sur la religion, 1938 Engineers

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea if it's the only one you have. • Emil-Auguste Chartier, Propos sur la religion, 1938

The best way to undermine extremists' insistence that truth is on their side is to argue that theirs is merely one way of looking at things. The only truth is that there is no correct way to interpret scripture. When you open it up like that, you're effectively saying that there is no right answer. And in the absence of a right answer, pluralism is the only option. And pluralism will lead to secularism, and to democracy, and to human rights.

With the current emphasis on multiculturalism and appreciation for the cultural diversity that exists in much of the world, and the importance of a culture's values in its self-definition, it should not surprise us that there is a movement toward accepting all cultures' values as equally valid, which is the definition of cultural relativism.

The universalism I aspire to does neither. It holds that the same light shines through all our windows, but that each window is different.

Never again will a single story be told as though it"s the only one.

we may just have to come around to the notion that there's my universe and there's your universe—but there's no such thing as the universe.

The lure of the various isms, though hardly unknown to religious people, may be even more intense for those who avoid religion.

Thomas Jefferson's classic formulation: 'it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

Since Queens is the most ethnically diverse plot of land on Earth, we had tenants from all over the globe. The whole world in one building.

The introduction of political pluralism often quickly led to bad results.

America's a melting pot, all races, cultures, religious choices.

We are a part of this unique, complex, and complicated fabric of what it means to be an American. Americans come in all colors, creeds, and colors of the rainbow, and we can celebrate this together.

If there is only one culture all over the world, that's not a good thing.

At least for a moment we all saw, I think, that the danger of pluralism is that it becomes factionalism, and that if factions grind their separate axes too vociferously, something mutual, precious, and human is in danger of being drowned out and lost.

Rule? Press my type on others? Dreadful. Is not my happiness precisely the sight of many who are different ?

If one wishes to forgo the protection afforded by secular pluralism, then perhaps Western liberal democracies is not the right place for you to freely exercise your religion.

If India is not secular, then India is not India at all.

All theory of modernity in sociology suggests that the more modernity there is, the less religion. In my theory we can realize that this is wrong: atheism is only one belief system among many.