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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Dear Visionaries:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">For those of you who don’t read World Magazine, a conservative evangelical Christian publication, you won’t know that Doug and his followers spent most of the month of April hurling holy hand grenades at Doug’s theological foes, AKA his brothers in Christ.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you’ve an interest in Doug’s doings – or have nothing better to do on this rainy Tuesday afternoon, I refer you to the following:<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><A href="http://www.worldmagblog.com/cgi-bin/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=14287"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>http://www.worldmagblog.com/cgi-bin/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=14287</FONT></A><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><A href="http://www.worldmagblog.com/blog/archives/2005_04.html"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>http://www.worldmagblog.com/blog/archives/2005_04.html</FONT></A><o:p></o:p></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">It makes for interesting reading – professed Christians, followers of the Prince of Peace, beating the Holy Hell out of one another.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Read some of this blog fight, and then consider the following paragraphs from Spinoza, sent to me this afternoon by a thoughtful, kind, truly Christian friend.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think I need to pick up a little Spinoza myself and refresh my memory – it seems to me that he anticipated Doug, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and their ilk by more than a century.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And that, surprisingly enough, saddens me.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><BR><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Spinoza writes:<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>“I have often wondered, that persons who make a boast of professing the </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/ttpelws3.htm#Bk11Aevolution"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Christian</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> religion, namely, </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#LOVE"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>love</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>, </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#JOY"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>joy</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>, peace, temperance, and </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#Charity"><SPAN style="COLOR:!
windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>charity</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> to all men, should quarrel with such rancorous animosity, and display daily towards one another such bitter </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#HATE"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>hatred</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>, that this, rather than the </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#Virtue"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>virtues</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> they claim, is the readiest criterion of their </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#FAITH"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>fait!
h</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">.<SPAN st
yle="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Matters have long since come to such a pass, that one can only pronounce a man Christian, Turk, Jew, or Heathen, by his general appearance and attire, by his frequenting this or that place of worship, or employing the phraseology of a particular sect—as for manner of life, it is in all cases the same. <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Inquiry into the cause of this anomaly leads me unhesitatingly to ascribe it to the fact, that the ministries of the Church are regarded by the masses merely as dignities, her offices as posts of emolument—in short, popular </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#Religion"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>religion</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> may be summed up as respect for ecclesiastics.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The spread of this misconception inflamed every worthless fellow with an intense desire to enter holy orders, and thus the </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#LOVE"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>love</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="!
Times New Roman" size=3> of diffusing G-D's </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#Religion"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>religion</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> degenerated into sordid </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/e3elwes.htm#De.XLVII"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>avarice</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> and </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/e3elwes.htm#De.XLIV"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>ambition</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>. Every church became a theatre, where orators, instead of church teachers, harangued, caring not to instruct the people, but striving to attract admiration, to bring opponents !
to public scorn, and to preach only novelties and paradoxes, such as</
FONT><A name=P:28_multitude></A><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> would tickle the ears of their congregation. <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>This state of things necessarily stirred up an amount of controversy, </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/e3elwes.htm#De.XXIII"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>envy</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>, and </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/e3elwes.htm#De.VII"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>hatred</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">, </FONT></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>which no lapse of time could appease; so that we can scarcely wonder that of the old </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#Religion"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>religion</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Time!
s New Roman" size=3> nothing survives but its outward forms (even these, in the mouth of the multitude, seem rather adulation than adoration of the </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#Deus"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Deity</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>), and that </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#FAITH"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>faith</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> has become a mere compound of credulity and </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/e1elwes.htm#EndnoteAP:3_prejudice"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>prejudices</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>—aye, prejudices too, which degrade man from </FONT><A href!
="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#RATIONAL"><SPAN style="COLOR:
windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>rational</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> being to beast, which completely stifle the power of judgment between </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#Pragmatic"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>true</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> and false, which seem, in fact, carefully fostered for the purpose of extinguishing the last spark of </FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/e2elwes.htm#40:23_reason"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>re</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>as</FONT><A href="http://www.yesselman.com/glosindx.htm#RATIONAL"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3!
>on</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">!” <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>George Eliot was a fan of Spinoza’s, so those of you who aren’t up for more of the great man’s work might want to check out Eliot’s novel “Middlemarch” from the Moscow Public Library.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Unless, of course, you’re opposed to public libraries (re: Dale Courtney’s increasingly goofy blog).</FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><A href="http://www.auntie-establishment.com/"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>www.auntie-establishment.com</FONT></A></P></DIV>
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<DIV><A href="mailto:joanopyr@earthlink.net">joanopyr@earthlink.net</A></DIV>
<DIV>EarthLink Revolves Around You.</DIV>
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