[Vision2020] Fragments of our Lord

[Art Deco]

Joe,

We may all have irrational beliefs.  However, the point Chasuk via Freud was making is this:

Part of becoming an adult is to begin weighing evidence to decide if important* beliefs are really true; and to begin weighing the evidence for our important* beliefs when they are challenged by evidence and logic, as in this forum, or by reflection and/or direct experience.

As for making fun of people's beliefs, religious or otherwise, a lot of great literature does just that.  Should we just throw this literature away?  Is it somehow unworthy because it uses humor to make a point about various irrationalities?

Further, some religious beliefs are very harmful, for example, those that led to the inquisition, those that support clitoridectomy or witch hunts, and those that promulgate racism, homophobia, sexism, ethnic discrimination, theocracy, etc.  If humor can be used as a tactic to emasculate/eviscerate/point out the folly these toxic beliefs, why not?  Humor often works in persuasive discourse when other methods fail.

[Not sent from an iPhone.]

W.

*Beliefs that shape and determine our actions especially when the outcome of these beliefs affects, directly or indirectly, other sentient beings.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joseph Campbell 
  To: Chasuk 
  Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com ; nielsen at uidaho.edu 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 7:31 AM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fragments of our Lord


  I don't think think it is good to make fun of people's beliefs -  
  religious or otherwise - just for the sake of making fun. All of us  
  have irrational beliefs since we have far more beliefs than we could  
  possibly support with argument and evidence.

  Sent from my iPhone

  On Dec 29, 2008, at 4:58 PM, Chasuk <chasuk at gmail.com> wrote:

  > I agree with Freud, and with Paul.
  >
  > Paul wrote:
  >
  > 1 Corinthians 13:11-12
  >
  > When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
  > thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish
  > things.
  > For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I
  > know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
  >
  > Freud believed that religion was a transitional stage between the
  > childhood and the adult phases of human development; that, as a
  > species, we currently see "through a glass, darkly," but that it is
  > now time for us to "put away childish things."
  >
  > Amen!
  >
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