THE
TANDEM PROJECT
UNITED NATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS,
FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF
Separation of Religion or Belief and State
WESTERN SCIENCE & EASTERN RELIGION
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Issue: Tolerance
for Diversity of Religion or Belief
For:
United Nations, Governments,
Religions or Beliefs, Academia, NGOs, Media, Civil Society
Review: The Whole Earth Catalog: The Prequel, Ken Johnson, Art Review, New York Times: 1 January 2010.
Excerpts:
“While the Eastern side displays many
captivating works of painting, sculpture and drawing representing Hindu,
Buddhist and Jainist perspectives in sensuous detail, the European ideas are
mostly in the form of printed illustrations in antique books, with astronomical
photographs of the heavens taken by the Hubble space telescope and other
high-tech machines representing current knowledge of the universe.
There
is no reason the West’s picture of the universe cannot inspire great art, but
it is not likely to precipitate the visual and metaphorical extravagance that
the East’s does. There is no comparison between a garishly colorful digital
abstraction representing the Big Bang theory and ‘Vishnu Sleeping on the Cosmic
Ocean,’ an 11th century sandstone sculpture representing the
Creation.
But
while Eastern cosmologists envision the enchanted inner world of mental
experience, Westerners map the disenchanted outer realm of material reality.
Only a wedding of the two perspectives- a marriage of the yin and the yang-is
ever likely to yield a complete picture of the cosmos.”
1981 UN Declaration: Considering
that religion or belief, for anyone who professes either, is one of the
fundamental elements in his conception of life and that freedom of religion or
belief should be fully respected and guaranteed,
For
the purposes of the present Declaration, the expression ‘intolerance and
discrimination based on religion or belief’ means any distinction, exclusion,
restriction, or preference based on religion or belief and having as its
purpose or as its effect nullification or impairment of the recognition,
enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal
basis.
All States shall take effective measures to prevent and
eliminate discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief in the
recognition, exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms in
all fields of civil, economic, political, social and cultural life.
Attachments: Western Science & Eastern Religion; Joy of
Physics Isn’t in the Results, but in the Search Itself