From: Gordon Worley (redbird@rbisland.cx)
Date: Thu Aug 08 2002 - 09:21:20 MDT
On Wednesday, August 7, 2002, at 06:16 PM, Cliff Stabbert wrote:
> SA> I suspect their relgions are driven in part by the desires to
> SA> transcend the relatively dismal human lot that have been present
> SA> in the species from the beginning.
>
> This point raises another issue -- it can be argued that to a large
> degree, western religion (more specifically, western /organized/
> religion) is aimed at resigning people to the "relatively dismal human
> lot" by promising it'll all be fine /after they die/. Whether that's
> supported by the actual scriptures is a different question (e.g., the
> Bible's "on earth as it is in Heaven").
Depends on the religion. Catholicism got it right in encouraging people
to do good deeds (even if there is some serious confusion about what's
good) and be nice to each other if they wanted to get into heaven
(transcend). Calvanists messed it up by claiming that everything was
predestined (a more logical conclusion to make from the Bible).
Catholicism also provides a way for a regular human to transcend regular
human existence after a lot of time spent being a nun or monk. Of
course, as it turns out political games are played and the church isn't
quite as transcendent as they'd like us to think.
At any rate, either way the church is filling the desire to transcend,
either by making you do it now or promising to do it later.
-- Gordon Worley `When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty http://www.rbisland.cx/ said, `it means just what I choose redbird@rbisland.cx it to mean--neither more nor less.' PGP: 0xBBD3B003 --Lewis Carroll
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