In the discussion of religion in the podcast, Dr. Bezio talks about how each individual religion believes they know the universal Truth. According to Google, there are 4,200 religions, which means there are 4,200 believed truths about moral rights and wrongs, and probably thousands more from an individual basis. I find it crazy that there are this many religions all claiming to know the Truth. Honestly, it shows me that we really don’t know anything. Every individual human being looks at the facts of life that have been presented to them in a variety of ways, and looks to something greater to ground them and help them understand it. This often comes about in religion, but it also takes the form of individual made-up beliefs. (To be fair, all of the religions, although extensive and detailed, are made-up as well. It just depends on how many people follow it and agree with its beliefs.) The normative paradigm, as discussed in the podcast, is that there is a universal truth and we are getting closer to that truth everyday, but we can never be certain if we have achieved it. I find it very hard to believe, given that logic, that there is a universal truth. And, even if there is, what is the point in trying to find it if you’ll never actually find it? (Or you might find it, but you won’t know you found it?) I guess it just seems kind of pointless to me — why try to find something you’ll never know if you found? And then, let’s say for argument’s sake that for some reason it becomes absolutely crystal clear that the universal truth has been found, then what? Would that change the way we go about our daily lives and rebrand how we feel about right and wrong?

After listening to the part of the podcast about the feelings behind female and male circumcision and the ethnocentrism of westerners and the WHO in naming female circumcision “Female genital mutilation”, I was curious and started to look up some other cultural practices that may seem “weird” coming from my culture. One I found was endocannibalism, which is the ritual of consuming the flesh of a member of one’s tribe after they have died. This ritual is done to ensure the souls of the dead find their way to paradise. Without the context and the reasoning behind the practice, it seems bad in our eyes, however when you put yourself in these tribe members’ shoes, it becomes harder to see the bad in the practice. It is important to know that beliefs are strong and the emotions that go along with them are stronger. We may never understand a certain belief we do not hold, but we should accept that our beliefs are not the only beliefs. This is an easy transition, in my mind, into the state of affairs in America today. We are at a point in time where this country is more divided than it has been in decades, and I think that is a result of individuals’ inability to recognize their belief is not the only belief to be had. We have completely erased the forum for open debate in any aspect of American society by creating a cancel culture and shaming people for holding their own beliefs. Modern American society is one of letting people have their opinions, unless those opinions differ from your opinion, and it is sad. Just like with cultural practices, including female circumcision, we would be doing ourselves and our world a favor if we tried to see things from someone else’s point of view.