Abortion is in the news, which hinges on when a sperm and egg transition to becoming a life protected by the law.

My world is filled with people whose beliefs in the supernatural differ from mine and whose conflicts with others’ supernatural beliefs cause suffering and death around the world. Their justification seems to be nothing more than strong feeling that they’re right, yet people they disagree with justify themselves similarly. And they kill each other for it. My readers probably don’t kill others directly, but you probably believe things that justify behavior that causes others to suffer without you realizing it.

My point is that we live in a world with diverse views that we accept. Most people I know, including you, I bet, promote diversity and inclusion as valuable, including along religious lines.

I don’t think we can all agree to a definition when, between a human sperm and egg being separate and an independent child that can care for itself, making the cells no longer able to continue as an independent life becomes a crime. As far as I can tell, some consider using birth control a sin and would probably like to make it a crime. At the other end of the spectrum, many cultures today and yours and mine not too far back considered infanticide in many situations acceptable, if regrettable.

If not everyone can agree on when it becomes a crime, we have to recognize that some people are going to consider a crime what others consider good. This division on even life-and-death issues happens in many areas, like the military draft, what constitutes self-defense in killing another person, or how much we pollute.

If you believe one holy book is true, someone else believes a different one is true, and they contradict, do we consider valuing diversity and inclusion to mean that we respect each other’s different opinions of right and wrong? If you believe in the Christian Bible and someone else believes in the Quran, can you live in one community without fighting? Do you honor their beliefs?

What if someone believes a human life begins at conception, and concludes that abortion is murder? If you feel otherwise, do you believe in diversity of religious beliefs? Can you live in a community with them without fighting? Do you honor their beliefs? If not, should people still honor yours? Almost certainly you’re behaving in ways based on your beliefs that are hurting others, even leading to death, that I disagree with. Should I accept you holding beliefs I believe are depriving people of their rights and causing people to die?

Democracy

I don’t know what democracy means to you, but I consider one of its main consequences that decisions go my way sometimes and against me others, including on life and death issue. My goal is not to make everyone agree with me, but to realize that I will disagree with people but we can still get along. I don’t see people today valuing diversity and inclusion or trying to get along. They seem to believe that the other side is going to destroy them.

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