I don’t know the whole context of the story leading up to this moment, but it is good to see a scientist telling it like it should be. Lately, the antiquated views that are growing around the world have been hard to swallow, much less tolerate. Lawrence Krauss was a participant in a debate between atheism and Islam, and had the unfortunate experience of dealing with gender segregation. It seems that he had been assured prior to the start of the event that there would be no segregation, so he decided to attend. Upon arrival, he saw that the segregation issue had not been addressed. And this is where this important moment captured by Dana Sondergaard highlights someone standing up for a belief…his belief.
The fact that tolerance is becoming scarce in many parts of our lives is something that we should all be frightened of. And not only should we be frightened of the consequences of intolerance (just look through our history to see where it leads…it’s UGLY), but we should be standing up so that no one ever loses the ability to have their own belief. When beliefs become intolerant, then we lose the ability to respect one another because we are no longer seeing (and understanding) with clarity. That in this day and age we are still having to fight such ugliness shows that we still have a long way to go. That this came about during a debate on religious beliefs (or lack thereof, depending which side you’re on) is a sad testament that we seem to be backsliding all over the world.
This story is still unfolding as an investigation continues, though for now it seems that UCL is enforcing a ban on IERA for their actions.
If you saw this happening around you, how would you respond?
Read more about the story at the Guardian UK. Find as much as you can about both sides of the argument. That’s how we all learn from circumstances such as these, and gain a balanced view in the process.
– thank to Reddit for leading me to this important story
