On May 24, 2005, at 10:07 AM, Dave Land wrote:
On May 24, 2005, at 9:30 AM, Warren Ockrassa wrote:
Heh, quoth the Card:
"As a religion, the Force is just the sort of thing you’d expect a
liberal-minded teenage kid to invent."
As opposed to Mormonism, which was invented by a conservative-minded
teenaged kid, and therefore is True.
OSC has absolutely no business critiquing anyone else's religion or
philosophy. Not when he believes in golden plates translated by dint
of magic goggles.
Let us not disrespect one anothers' pink unicorns. There are Mormons
on our list, and I credit a Mormon girlfriend back in the '80s for
helping me find my own vision of God.
The point wasn't to vilify Mormons. The point was that Card is not
qualified to play pot-and-kettle. Pretty much all religious thought has
at its core some suppositions and assumptions that can look -- well,
silly. It seems to me that someone who aligns with a faith developed in
the 1800s by a teenager really isn't in a position to criticize the
choices of others who want a more relativistic outlook. Unfortunately
three pages of ranting almost totally overshadow the significance of
the final graf, which poses a very interesting question.
Put another way, Card was disrespecting others' pink unicorns; I was
just pointing out he ain't wearin' no clothes.
I think Mr. Card's main point was that Mormonism (as well as, I
suppose, Islam, Christianity, et al) was at least intended to be taken
seriously as a religion by Jos. Smith, while Jedism is just another
sci-fi plot device gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Um, well, how seriously it was meant to be taken is also in doubt, or I
think it is anyway. I half suspect it was meant as seriously as
Scientology, FWIW.
--
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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