From: donsw@cs.cornell.edu (Donald Wihardja)
Subject: Re: What is the problem ?
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 20:14:09 GMT

In article <C19x4q.J2y.1@cs.cmu.edu> eginting+@cs.cmu.edu (Eka Namara Ginting) writes:
>Completing this technical report may be a better thing to do, but temptation of
>an interesting discussion sometimes is too hard to ignore...

I know how you feel. 


>In article <1993Jan21.145903.46603@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> hsiahaan@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:
>>
>>Mr Bill Alves writes:
>>>Well, I wasn't going to get drawn into this, but since you asked, I vote
>>>a very emphatic YES. I am neither Muslim nor Christian, but I found the
>>>posts very interesting. I most certainly did not find them insulting nor
>>>offensive. It is true that I am not Indonesian, but I am a subscriber
>>>to this newsgroup. I believe my perspective is just as valid.
>
>I would like to second Bill's opinion about discussing religions and the
>interactions of their followers in Indonesia; I think it's a good idea to talk
>about it, especially given the current religious tension in Indonesia (or the
>world for that matter).

I think discussion about religion point of view about morality is a
good idea. This is not the reason why I think the original posting was
inapropriate, however. I consider it to be similar to posting:
"According to my belief, the reason why whites are inherently better
than blacks is this-and-this, and not (as I assume most of you
believe) so-and-so."  In another word, the above would probably be
appropriate to be posted to alt.white.supremacist, but not to alt.usa
(or alt.intelligent.being, for that matter) 

In another word, the posting is for a discussion inapropriate to the
particular newsgroup because a majority of the people of the newsgroup
does not share the belief that is the assumption and the starting
point of the argument.  (and there is a better newsgroup to carry it)
As a result, the discussion will be futile. (or worse, another flame war
with no intelligent discussion at all)

Another thing is that because of the way the distribution is set up, replies
to that posting, will spill over to all of the other newsgroups, so if 
any discussion on that arises in alt.religion.muslim, we'll get to see
them too. As I particularly don't care about the topic, and in fact are
rather annoyed by it, I would not want this. (Would Mr. Alves seriously
wanted to hear two racist talk about how much inferior blacks are, or 
worse, two blacks discussing what a bunch of oppressive trash all the 
whites are.  

>Religion *is* one part of culture. (Talk to any anthropologist, and he/she will
>probably be able to convince you of this).

Yeah, that is true. And I do realize that this is the weakest point of my
argument. (If you re-read my original reply carefully, maybe you can see
that I hesitated right about here.) But I would like to emphasise again
that the topic, as presented, is not apropriate for discussion on the
particular newsgroup. 

>>>>I think you are
>>>>not familiar with the situation in Indonesia regarding religion aside from 
>>>>the fact that 80% of Indonesia is technically Muslim.
>>
>>>I think the poster was familiar with this fact, which is why he thought that
>>>this would be an appropriate newsgroup.
>>
>>On contrary, I think he is not. That is why he posted to A.C.I. The only thing
>>that I think motivated him to post his writing here is his stereotyping of all
>>Indonesians are Moslems and (Indonesian) Moslems have small tolerance on (In-
>>donesian) Non-Moslems.
>>
>>>>while most
>>>>educated people does not care what religion their friends are in, as long as
>>>>they are nice people, the topic of religion is a very sensitive matter.
>>
>>>Then, to me, the answer is more education and the teaching of religious
>>>tolerance...
>>	     ...APPROPRIATELY.
>>
>And how, may I ask, does one determine what is appropriate and what is not? The 
>whole beauty (and burden) of this wonderful computer network is that it now
>lies on the individual poster. I think it was Voltaire who said, "I may not
>like what you say, but I'll protect your right to say what you want to say"
>[Or something like that]
>
>
>--Eka Ginting

You are right, of course. I just think it is inapropriate, that is all.

Donald
-- 
CS Department, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York.
Newsgroups: alt.culture.indonesia