The claim that Christian idealism created modern society is misleading.

Modern Christianity is nothing like it's previous incarnations - the ones that perpetuated slavery, burned people as witches and spread itself by the conquest and the destruction of entire cultures have been there too and so modern society developed in spite of it.

There are many who live idealised Christian lives but there are "pew-packers" who use religion to justify their own personal prejudices. This makes it no different from any other religion and there are many who live decent and productive lives who do not associate with any religion at all.

It's the noisy minority that cause problems in all religions - whether they are the bomb-throwing Muslims, the ultra-orthodox Jews (who literally throw their own crap at schoolgirls) or the fundamentalist Christians who want total control of society.

If anything, religion has been and still is, a handbrake on the progress of society, not the reason for it.

Foxy said (1)"I am wary of "them" and "us" attitudes. (2) Of malignant thought that "other people are
the problem. (3) Yet a healthy society is not one in which we all agree. (4) It is one in which those who disagree can do so with honour and respect for other people's opinions and an appreciation of our shared humanity."

Answer sentence (1)- Everyone talks in these terms.

Answer sentence (2)- Malignant (cancerous) thought- You appear to be saying that people that disagree with you are cancerous.

Answer sentence (3)- Healthy Society- Another spin on the cancerous. But yes not everyone in a society will agree- need to be rules on resolution of disputes- to avoid escalation. In a democratic organisation one of the principles- vote of the majority.

Answer sentence (4)- In public discussion everyone gets two minutes to make their point so people don't dominate the discussion. If these people show disrespect to the public by pushing their views- the people are legitimately open to the consequences of their disrespect. Generally it's reasonable to live and let live (shared humanity) but mankind has a "will to power" that only stops with force. So unless feminism, gayism, immigration, etc is stopped they will demand more and more power. My aim is to find principles that will create stability in my view.
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Foxy said (1) "Without personal commitment to the attributes of fair play and integrity we are in grave danger. (2) Malice and intolerance stalk our society. (3) The only way to protect our freedom is to check the hatred in our own minds."

Answer sentence (1)- There are a few attributes to follow in society not just "fair play and integrity".

Answer sentence (2)- Everyone is intolerant of everyone. Generally I prefer to be polite but not if it's not reciprocated. There was recently an episode of Q&A where a distinguished panelist quoted research which concluded "everyone is intolerant".

Answer sentence (3)- Hatred- Everyone hates everyone (Bellum omnium contra omnes). But I agree that it's important to look at the basis of our own views and biases.

Foxy said "Our political conversations must shift away from the mass infantile finger- pointing that now pervades it."

Answer- Seems to be saying- everyone that disagrees with me is infantile.
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Foxy said "There is a tendency on so many people's parts to think that their way is the right way and that people who disagree with them are bad."

Answer- They are a bad "person a" to the "person b" if "person a" promotes something that is not in the "person b" interest. Because the results are bad for "person b". Generally it's good to separate the idea from the person but could be used as a shorthand.
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Foxy said (1) "We have to stop dangerous scapegoating, (2) hate speech, and (3) small-minded intolerance for the views of others."

Answer- (1) Scapegoating- When a lobby group promotes policy on behalf of a sub-community and the majority of the community disagree and attempt to put that sub-community back in "its place" (a place of power representative of its population)- this is not scapegoating.

Answer- (2) Hate Speech- This appears to be a widely misused term. This has already been widely discussed on the recent Free Speech thread.

Answer- (3) Intolerance- see my comment on intolerance above.

Foxy said (1) "I'm not sure why you see "multiculturalism" as a problem."

Answer-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is a problem because it appears to be...

-While Australia has had some immigration in the past- it has always been contentious
-immigration in recent years appears to have been very high due to education industry (which the universities have benefitted from substantially) and from skilled immigration.
-Australia should be owned by the Australian Culture as we created it
-it may not be supported by the electorate
-it is embodied by high levels of immigration
-cultures other than British culture that created Australian culture will dominate and change Australia very soon
-the new cultures don't care about Australian culture or Australians and will marginalise us
-it takes Australia from the Australian people
-it is more ethnocentric than any other political system in the end
-Australian's will come to be replaced by Indian and Chinese people
-it will destroy cultures
-it penalises Australian's for their relatively good environmental and population management
-it is supported by Corporate Australia to control wages at the expense of Australian workers
-it is supported by Socialist Australia in their "Comint" fight against the employers
-is part of the Identity politics agenda that is attempting to destroy traditional identifiers from Australian society.
-it won't be good for Australia or the world
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Foxy said (1) "Or what you think the "Australian" way of life is exactly."

Answer- Culture is difficult to define. Many of us believe that a culture can't be separated from the lineage of the people of that culture (closer to nature than nurture)

Agreed! Christianity should rule the world. :D

<<Anyway, when I said 'there, fixed'.....>>

Well it's simply a very easy way to opt out of any further discussion on this topic.

The reality is, when one looks at the wider community at large in Australia only around 36% of the population are volunteers. So making any claim that these people should be exempt from any criticism, is simply wrong. The volunteer rate isn't high, particularly when some people are taking on a lot of volunteer work and some do not volunteer much at all or do not volunteer at all.

https://www.volunteeringaustralia.org/wp-content/uploads/VA-Key-statistics-about-Australian-volunteering-16-April-20151.pdf

On the other hand, Christians (and other religions) are making a very regular commitment, whilst a lot of other people are not. That being like attending a Church or other religious sites once per per week or even more. How many other people are doing that, when one takes the above figures into consideration? Their focus is elsewhere.

Some community groups have folded or closed, simply due to the lack of volunteers. I know this myself being actively involved in volunteering.

<<Whose ability to operate and stand for core values is being diminished? How is it being diminished? What are they operating? What core values are we talking about?>>

A group or body in Australia will likely be established constitutionally having its own aims and objectives. Likely though receiving government funding and assistance, these aims and objectives or as I described it 'core values', will slowly diminish, to the extent the organisation will move away fundamentally from what it originally stood for when it was established due to receiving funds and revenue from large corporations and government.

I have seen this myself and have been appalled.