On May 16, 2005, at 10:38 AM, Gautam Mukunda wrote:
--- Nick Arnett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:When you write stuff like this, as if I'm another God-in-my-back-pocket prosperity-Gospel preacher, I'm pissed off. I'm angry when I hear you misrepresenting ideas that are very important to me, life and death issues.
I'm certain that you know you are way out of line.
Nick
Then _distinguish what you believe_ from that, Nick.
I don't think he has to. I don't see evidence of the nasty bite of fundamentalism in many of Nick's comments. What I see is someone working to reconcile a faith, but not someone using it as a beat-stick.
I posted on how your use of religion makes me - someone from a different faith - enormously uncomfortable. It was ignored. Instead I just got more appeals to the Divinity for whatever policy you appear to favor today. I would say that someone who dragoons God into supporting his own policies is out of line, not someone who is perturbed by it.
I don't see any evidence of Nick using any deity as a prop for supporting his policies, but then, maybe I missed something. It seems to me more that he's basing his ideas in his personal understanding of his faith, which -- and this is really remarkable -- is organic. Rather than falling back on a hardline stance that brooks no argument, Nick seems to be willing to discuss, concede and adapt.
Also, as an atheist, I feel I can ask you why others' discussing -- or even basing their views in -- their religion makes you uncomfortable. Do you feel they're evangelizing, and thus minimizing your perspective? Or do you feel they're overlooking other ideals, possibly from your own background, that are equally valid? If either, what would be the harm in pointing out the lacunae?
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
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