Pluralism and its Affects on Society

Acts of Faith written by Eboo Patel tells us of how diversity within culture and religion can truly affect ones world. Patel says, “Only the smallest part of humanity wishes and acts upon the destruction of others. The pluralists are far larger. Those of us who believe in a world where we live together, we're far larger. The problem is we haven't made our case compelling across the world yet.”(1) This is the reason why here in America and all across the world we see problems when it comes to diversity and why people with different religions collide and look at each other in a negative way, because of this small part of humanity wishing and acting destructively to others. For example Muslims and Christians, both of these religions have many similarities yet the people that come from these religions differ in their culture and how they were raised, and because of the negative connotations of the opposite ethnicity continued to be taught in their “traditional culture” this is why many individuals today have a different (at times negative) image of other religions/cultures.

Yet as Eboo explains change can be most affected when it comes internally. Although he also explains that change comes socially as well. He explains how the pluralistic views can really help society if people shared these ideas. Fighting or calling people names because of differences should not happen it is not relevant because we all have different views but yet we are all still human. Patel says in an interview “what if the worlds 1 billion Catholics and 1.2 billion Muslims decided that their work together in the world was to be ending malaria that the energy currently spent on suspicion on ignorance and hatred was entirely devoted to that people devoted to prevent this disease that is where we should spend our energy the next five years.”(2) Patel’s message in this excerpt truly gives us the idea of how a pluralistic approach would benefit two different “societies/religions” and could possibly bring a cure to something that has been killing thousands of individuals. The animosity between the Catholics and Muslims throughout the years has done nothing but harm to one another and to the world. If they spent all of these years working together, the world would be a much better place.

The idea and message that Eboo is trying to explain is the concept of Religious Pluralism. His thought it that if Religions take a pluralistic approach at life and situations that occur in day to day activity people of different backgrounds would live in harmony with each other. M. Basye Holland-Shuey explains in perfect words, "Pluralism...holds to one's own faith, and at the same time, engages other faiths in learning about their path and how they want to be understood.... Pluralism and dialogue are the means for building bridges and relationships that create harmony and peace on our planet home."

Works Cited

(1)http://www.betterworldheroes.com/pages-p/patel-quotes.htm

(2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znm71XGPsng&feature=related

(3)http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_plur1.htm