On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, Deborah Harrell wrote: > > When those articles have no measurable consequences, > > yes. > > <puzzled look> > Um, I was referring to particular core beliefs (like > "Jesus is the Son of God"), which can be neither > proven nor measured. Derivative beliefs (and I'm > using my own terminology here) like "I must convert > others to belief in Jesus" certainly have had > consequences, both bad/coercive/fatal and > good/life-saving.
I was considering things like "God made Adam from dust so evolution must be false" as being among (some folks') core religious beliefs. > OK. My personal agenda doesn't include "proving" > anything about my belief in the Divine, or ridiculing > anyone about their 'universe outlook' (well, privately > I might wonder what happened in someone's past that > made them need to think that a mediocre science > fiction writer with paranoid delusions of grandeur had > latched onto 'the Truth'). Oh, I didn't think so. It's just that my memory of the debate is that it was bit too complicated to be well summarized as "X refuted Y! Did not! Did so!" :-) [Not that I want to take it up again; I haven't the time. But I felt I should squeak for a moment on my own behalf.] > I said: > > time. The new gods are ideologies; God is a fetish; > > and wisdom as ever > > means reaching beyond the tenets of conventional > > belief. On further reflection, Gods and ideologies are a set of reciprocating fetishes caught in a perpetual orgy of mutual ideational S&M. Wisdom's about the same, though. [buddhistic gyrations snipped] > > [I'm going to assume that that's for Dan...] I'm not sure it makes much difference -- it's just interesting to note that in one system self-consciousness is commonly accepted as evidence for a unique and atomistic soul, while in the other a close examination of consciousness is considered to disprove the same. Marvin Long Austin, Texas Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Poindexter & Ashcroft, LLP (Formerly the USA) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
