So about a year ago, Margie came home with this cool bumper sticker that says “COEXIST” on it — with each of the letters representing a different belief / tradition.
We both thought it was pretty neat — both clever in combining various faith symbols …
- The Islamic crescent
- A Wiccan pentagram (Baha’i also uses a 5-pointed star symbol, some have noted).
- An atheist/humanist e=mc^2 (I realize that atheism is not necessarily the same thing as humanism, and that neither is a religion per se, and that e=mc^2 is more a symbol for science than for either of them — but work with me here; this is trying to cram a lot of symbolism into (a) a fixed set of letters and (b) a bumper sticker.)
- The Jewish Star of David
- A Buddhist wheel of Dharma dotting the i
- The Daoist yin-yang
- The Christian cross
… and in its message — can’t we all just get along?
Granted, there are elements in some of these beliefs that cannot abide the existence of one or more of the others. But I firmly believe that most adherents, when not whipped up into a frenzy, are more than willing to live and let live — to appreciate what makes others happy, to follow their own traditions and beliefs, and, if in some sort of “competition,” demonstrate the value of what they follow through their actions and perhaps reasoned words.
I think that’s true of most people.
I stuck the bumper sticker onto a roll of magnetic backing, and we put it on the van. (We’re not big “believers” in sticking indelible adhesive strips to our vehicles.) And there it was …
… until a week or two ago, driving behind Margie, I noticed it was missing. Bummer.
Did it come off in a car wash? Possible, though it’s never happened over the years. Did someone actually steal it (presumably to hide the message, rather than for their very own)? More likely, though it seems like kind of a dickish thing to do.
This afternoon, I started looking for a replacement.
Hmmmm … interesting.
While I can still find this design, there’s another one (which I’ve also seen around) which seems to be much more popular:
I don’t like this one nearly as well, though it covers much of the same ground. But by substituting the Peace sign and making the “e” into a male/female set of symbols (unclear whether this is meant to be that the genders should coexist or as a symbol for gays or what), the message seems muddied — the commentary on religious conflict/coexistence is weakened, we lose some of the represented faiths (with either the Wiccans 5-pt star dotting the i or in some versions a Baha’i 9-pt star, so we lose atheism/humanism and Buddhism), and that yin-yang s is just ugly.
Interestingly, there are variations on this:
- This one (other versions exist) turn the e, i, and s into normal letters, which is fine if you want to focus just on Abrahamic religions (plus a peace sign).
- This one tries a bit too hard, loses some of the Eastern faiths for more pagan ones, and, honestly, wouldn’t be very readable at a distance.
- This one gets credit for including a Hindu Om symbol for the oe, save that it’s reversed.
- Others include substituting an ankh for the i, a peace candle for the i, or extending the word into COEXISTENCE to allow for more symbols.
- And, of course, there are the variations which spell out PEACE or TOLERANCE
.jpg){kind=link}
There are also a lot of people whom this message absolutely drives up the wall. Many of them think it’s silly to try to coexist with Islam (or with anyone else at all, especially all those unwashed, smug, slovenly, liberal 20-year-old puddin’-heads who live in LA or Austin or Portland or Boulder and who put COEXIST bumper stickers on their Priuses and Volvos … just like Margie*). The Freepers think it’s all a wild leftist-commie-fascist plot (or that gays and Jews are actually commies and Nazis … or maybe that’s supposed to be a Hindu / Buddhist / Jain swastika … it’s hard to tell with those guys sometimes). Others think it’s the wrong message, or is better adapted to a message of their own.
( *Though to be fair, I do believe Margie is, in fact, liberal. )
Aaaaanyway. I was just surprised, as I looked for a place to replace her bumper sticker (here) how many variations I found — and how insane some folks reacted to it. Which is fairly remarkable for a message that encourages people to get along with each other.
I saw the two “to”s in San Deigo last weekend. 🙁
Idjits.
There are a billion Muslims in the world. If they were all blood-thirsty maniacs, I think we’d probably be in real trouble.
It is a nice idea on a surface level. It also predominates in a culture where everyone says your truth is your truth. Problem is we all define truth somewhere, the only question is where?
Pretty deep bumper sticker.
For those who would like a little background and a deeper look at the COEXIST sticker check out the link.
http://engagethe.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/
I don’t think that Coexistence necessarily implies there is no truth. It can mean that (or, as the article suggests, it could mean that nobody necessarily has a monopoly on the truth, even assuming they have any). But coexistence doesn’t speak to the value or truth of any of the propositions given.
What it does mean is that treating the Other as an enemy is a short-sighted and destructive stance. It means that given a choice between coexistence and warfare, the former is usually a better course. And, while one coxists with one another, perhaps reason, and example, and dialog can lead to people choosing one way over another. But, then, it becomes their choice, which is far better than the opposite of coexistence.
Put in more pragmatic terms, I may not care much for the house paint, or yard decor my neighbor has chosen. And their taste of music is atrocious, when I can hear it. But does that mean that I have to egg his house at night, or tear up his ugly dahlias, or put threats under his door until he moves? Isn’t it better if I find a way to be a good neighbor, work out our differences amicably (and perhaps be surprised when (a) he admits he thinks my house is an ugly color, too, and (b) I actually grow to like dahlias)?
Maybe we won’t always get along. Maybe one or the other of us will feel we have to move, or his music will become so obnoxious that I’ll have to file a complaint. But if we can find a way to coexist, then I suspect our lives will both be a lot happier.
The web page linked above denouncing the bumper sticker is one of the poorest excuses for critical thinking and clear reasoning I have seen in a long time. The worst claim there, in my opinion, is that
The only way I can make any sense out of this is if the author means “observe” in a way that I think is inconsistent with science. I have no clue what it means to say that the “peace” worldview is weaker than science in explaining the totality of what we observe, and I tend to find scientific explanations of what I observe to be more fruitful than religious explanations of the same.
The author of the web page reads far more into the bumper sticker than I do, and I see no good justification for doing so. While I agree with the author that relativism is to be rejected, I can see in the arguments presented there the following fallacies: ad hominem, appeal to popularity, straw man, affirming the consequent, and perhaps equivocation. My motivation for accepting the idea of coexistence is intellectual humility: I recognize the limitations of my knowledge and accept that there are matters upon which rational, sincere, and good people can disagree without hatred or discrimination.
Amen, Brother David!
It’s not a “Coexist” sticker, but Instant Attitudes has one with a similar message:
http://www.instantattitudes.com/gifs/g104a.gif
The original Coexist one can be had at http://www.bahairesources.com (I think that is the way their website is written,
Cheers Chloe