The so Called "Melting Pot"

"The Challenge of Cultural Relativism" by James Rachels reminds me a lot of the saying "we agree to disagree". Throughout the article Rachels made strong points about the different beliefs and morals throughout different cultures in the world. Like he said, there is no right or wrong in our world. Everybody has their own reasoning as to why they act they way they do, or why they do what they do. I personally found the example about eating the cows striking. Rachels tells us to think about a culture where they don't eat cows even though they may be starving. He says this is because they believe that humans get reincarnate into the body's of animals. So for them, they could be eating someone else's grandmother which makes everything sound perfectly logical, after all I wouldn't want anyone to be eating my nana. This article greatly relates to Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Throughout the story, Christians came in and tried to present to  the natives about their religion. Rather, they tried to FORCE their religion onto them which I feel was the most unjust way to do it. But then again, there was those Christians who came and tried to teach the natives about the religion, rather than forcing it upon them. This approach seemed to be better, and I think that this is what we need to do in our own world. We need to teach others, not force them. I agree with Rachels statement that there is never a right or wrong answer to some things. I think that everybody is entitled to their own beliefs especially here in America where we are the so called "melting pot" of different cultures. Rachels made a statement that some cultures believe that the world is still flat, but that belief is outdated and can be proven wrong because of science. Science is a crazy, amazing thing that somehow can prove answers to questions that people have been asking for as long as humans have been around. But somethings science will never be able to prove, maybe because simply there doesn't need to be an answer. Like why is the sky blue? Who knows, but then again who really needs to know? As humans we are born with this thirst for knowledge and to understand the unknown. But we also believe in something greater than ourselves. For most cultures, this is a God figure. For some people, this is science and only science. They won't believe in something until there is a proven reason as to why something had to happen. But like Rachels said, there's never a right or wrong answer. We can try all we want to change other people's beliefs, but like we saw in Things Fall Apart, that doesn't always go over well. Faith and beliefs, and morals and customs all come in different ways and sure, it's in our nature to question how or why, but we cannot judge. Like this time of year people are fighting over wither they should be called "Christmas trees" or "holiday trees". I personally think that this is ridiculous. I went to catholic school for ten years and was raised to say Merry Christmas and I personally do not think that there is any harm in saying that to someone. If you know that someone is Jewish and doesn't celebrate Christmas then saying "Happy Holidays" is perfectly acceptable but if you don't know the person and you say "merry Christmas" I do not believe that there is any harm in that and that person should not feel violated, because your trying to spread holiday cheer. This holiday season is supposed to be a season of joy and people need to learn how to respect and honor that. We all need to realize that we live in a culturally diverse world and if we do not learn how to accept and embrace other cultures then its not going to be peaceful.  We don't always understand why they believe what they do, but maybe that's because we don't try and learn about it. As humans I think we all need to take a step back and stop comparing ourselves so much, and rather learn about each other and fix the things about ourselves that truly need fixing. 

Our choices are our Fate

We've all heard the saying "What's meant to be will be" right? Fate is a funny thing. There are people out there that have this strong desire to believe in something more. They think that everything that happens is supposed to happen the way it does. But then, there are those people out there that think we make our own fate. That every decision they make has an impact because they chose to make that decision. For me, I believe that there is something greater than ourselves. I think that God has a plan for us before we are even aware of what that plan is. I think that God gives us our parents because they help shape us into the people that we become. Every decision they make regarding us helps decide the rest of our lives. Just like Oedipus' parents decision affected his life, our parents decisions affect our life. When Oedipus' parents found out his destiny, they tried to do everything in their power to make sure their baby didn't actually kill his father and marry his mother, but because of this he actually did. Fate plays a funny role in our lives. We all like to think that we can make our own path and do what pleases us, but sometimes it's hard to not think that everything that happens to you happens for a reason. Some people in our lives come and cross our path momentarily and some people stay with us for a long time. Every decision you make, and every person you meet, changes your life forever; and it's hard to not believe that this is all fate. Oedipus showed us that we cannot avoid our fate. He showed us, no matter what we do, what is supposed to happen will. Even though time has changed since the story of Oedipus, the thought of fate never go away. Everyone always questions the unknown but one thing remains forever: our fate is who we are meant to be, and there is no way to escape that.