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| Down Under |
| Godless bigots beyond belief |
| 2006-12-30 |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #3 *yawn* |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-12-30 18:11 |
| #2 Arguments of cause and effect, either for or against religion, and its effect in history, are overblown and peculiar. On one hand it could be said that religion "flavors" our history without really directing it; on the other, that this kind of atheism is an outgrowth of religion--not just disinterested disbelief, but as much a reaction to religion as a whole, and Christianity specifically, as is Satanism. Did Christianity cause Galileo? Certainly not, though he thought himself a religious man. What he did ignored his own faith and reached conclusions that no person of faith at the time untempered by scientific reason, was *allowed* to believe. But it can be said that Rene Descartes philosophically tried to re-create the Garden of Eden in his "State of Nature", absolutely reliant on the mythology of religion to produce an ideal place in atheism parallel to it. And variations on this theme are found throughout communism, socialism, leftism, liberalism, the environmentalist movement, etc. That is, much of what the left craves is a return to the Garden of Eden. How self-reliant and unique from religion is that? In turn, this changes the complexion of the argument about the influence of religion to its secular power. Today we wisely distrust holy men who seek political office, especially Imams. But for a long time in human history, the church and the state were one. That being said, was it religion that created western civilization, or 1,500 years of conflict between princes and kings? While the actions of those powerful men may have been done with respect to religion, few of them imagined their actions as religious acts, instead of realpolitik. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-12-30 17:06 |
| #1 Some good spittle, but all in all, a generic rant. I give it a C. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2006-12-30 16:58 |