[Vision2020] Fragments of our Lord

Sunil Ramalingam sunilramalingam at hotmail.com
Wed Dec 31 11:42:19 PST 2008


Chas,

I think you err in compiling your list of 'horribles' below:

 'When you are able to subsume logic to an "ism," then you can justify slaughtering tourists in Mumbai, blowing up children in Gaza, in mutilating the genitals of little girls in Egypt and Cameroon, in bombing abortion clinics, or you can become a member of the Khmer Rouge, or crash planes into skyscrapers.'

Several things you list have far more to do with politics than religion.  Some may go along because they believe they're fulfilling some religious ideal, but I think they're manipulated by those using them to fulfill their political goals. 

Sunil 

> Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:22:45 -0800
> From: chasuk at gmail.com
> To: josephc at wsu.edu
> CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fragments of our Lord
> 
> On Wed, Dec 31, 2008 at 10:00, Joseph Campbell <josephc at wsu.edu> wrote:
> 
> > . . . if I'm going to comment on No Weatherman's ridiculous, racist rants
> > against Muslims and Africans, then I should be willing to say the same
> > against equally ridiculous claims about Christian doctrines, or Chas's even
> > more ridiculous claim that religion is "a transitional stage between the
> > childhood and the adult phases of human development." A view where one's
> > opponents — and over half the population of the world — come off as
> > infantile idiots is a little too convenient and certainly worthy of
> > commentary. Not that I think that I've convinced you or Chas of anything,
> > mind you!
> 
> Marxism is a religious belief.  Nazism is a religious belief.  I'm not
> talking about in the sacred sense, but in the sense that they incite
> in their followers a fervor which they use to justify appalling
> behavior.  If your belief -- frequently an "ism" -- becomes so
> important to you that you consider it inviolable, then it is a
> religious belief.
> 
> Maoism, Wahhabism, Fundamentalist Christianity.  Look at their rotten fruits.
> 
> If you can believe in something as transparently idiotic as
> transubstantiation, then you have thrown logic (and your own pragmatic
> experience) out the window.
> 
> I don't believe that the doctrine of transubstantiation itself is
> dangerous, but that those who hold to it often are, given the wrong
> circumstances.
> 
> When you are able to subsume logic to an "ism," then you can justify
> slaughtering tourists in Mumbai, blowing up children in Gaza, in
> mutilating the genitals of little girls in Egypt and Cameroon, in
> bombing abortion clinics, or you can become a member of the Khmer
> Rouge, or crash planes into skyscrapers.
> 
> Maybe religion isn't a transitional stage between the childhood and
> the adult phases of human development, but I certainly hope that it
> is, because as the destructive capabilities of the common person
> continue to increase, the proponents of "isms" scare me more every
> day.
> 
> Chas
> 
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