"Mind the gap"!

It occurred to me just now that the Danish cartoons brought out a larger world issue that desperately needs addressing: the lack of cultural understanding that exists in the world. People don't respect each other because they don't know or understand the basic morays and beliefs of their fellow humans. When there's a lack of understanding, I feel there's a gut instinct response to say the beliefs are "bad" or are "inferior." This plays right into the hands of the people in charge, who would love to see us tear each other apart, rather than working together to create a better world.

I feel we need more speech, not less. I feel even hate speech has its own purpose in the world. But the only way to combat hate speech is with "love speech," so to speak.

So let be begin. I will state my beliefs, and then y'all may post what you believe in the comments section.

My beliefs

I believe that mankind is fundamentally good, though a few bad apples have created mass suffering. I believe that since mankind is fundamentally good, we all deserve basic human rights. With respect to those rights, I believe in Maslow's heirarchy of needs. Basic food/clothing/shelter are at the bottom, then the need to be safe, then the need for love, freedom, and respect, and then the need for self actualization. In order to achieve those needs, we all should be given the chance to achieve in life, without the artificial shackles that are placed onto us from birth (such as interest). I believe in karma. I believe that if you are good to others, it will eventually come back to you in the end. I believe in helping out my friends and family as much as possible. I believe it is all of our duties to extend a helping arm to our fellow men, but failing those duties, the law should only punish for actively harming our fellow mankind. I believe that the natural law is less law, and more communication and cooperation of individuals. That said, I believe the government should have programs that help those less fortunate in society, as the free market does not always produced the best results. I don't believe that there's some almighty being out there who gives even half a crap whether I live or die, or that I will be rewarded in heaven, but I do believe in the saying "what goes around, comes around." I believe we all should have the freedom to do what we want, say what we want, and think what we want, as long as we don't harm our fellow man in the process.

Those are my beliefs. What are your's?