Yes, our friends and neighbors live an exceptionally rich fantasy life.
On Sep 13, 2006, at 12:38 PM, William T Goodall wrote:
On 13 Sep 2006, at 8:34PM, Dan Minette wrote:
I think she used some four letter words in response to the poll that
stated
that somewhere about 30% to 35% of Americans believed that the US
government
was somehow involved in 9-11....besides questioning the poll's
methodology....she was rather upset that very many people at all could
subscribe to crackpot theories.
Most Americans believe in prophetic dreams; four in 10 say there were
once "ancient advanced civilizations" such as Atlantis. 91.8% say they
believe in God, a higher power or a cosmic force.
Crackpot theories are *very* popular in America.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-09-11-religion-survey_x.htm
--
William T Goodall
Sam Harris had a nice long talk w/Q&A at the Long Now Foundation late
last year that describes the lunacy that afflicts far too many of us -
his quest is to educate around religious tolerance and how much slack
we give people on this topic whereas everywhere else in our lives we
demand proof: legal contracts, structural collapses, scientific
findings, etc. I particularly like his take on religious moderates
giving vast cover to the extremists because they deny those motivations
are really religious and do little to stop them - because they fear
that they themselves are not sufficiently strong in their beliefs as
compared to the zealots, and have little authority to say No.
Some notable items I recall from the talk {apx}:
- Stem Cell Research: Since any cell has the capacity to be developed
into a clone/copy, then every time George Bush scratches his nose there
is holocaust of potential life being destroyed.
- God, after creating all the vast cosmos, galaxies, planets, chose the
land of Palestine for the Jews - acting in his role as an omniscient
real estate broker.
- In the wake of Katrina how absurd it would be for a Senator on the
floor of Congress to say we really need to pray to Poseidon more
because that realm of the sea and storms is his... and he's angry.
- Try to lecture someone suffering from an acute appendicitis rupturing
about "intelligent design"... I'd add the purists should be required to
waive their rights to inoculations for Bird Flu, etc.
- The arithmetic of souls: What happens when a cell divides into
twins... two souls, right? What happens when those cells sometimes
reform back into one living embryo: does this mean that a soul is
merged, or lost again, does it become a super-soul?!? I agree it
doesn't add up.
- None of the absurd Old Testament rules for owning slaves {just don't
beat them so their eyes and teeth fall out}, killing insolent children,
slaying unbelievers you come across {even if there in their own town}
as they worship at their own alters or even in their own homes...
Kill, kill, kill and more killing is justified - even essential - and
none of this {and more} was never repudiated by Jesus and still hold
true for the fanatics.
- He compares Islamic jihadis with Tibetan Buddhists and asks why one
is so ready to suicide-bomb and another is not.
- If Jesus comes back to the Earth and reveals his magic powers then
THAT would be the New Science and that all scientists worth their
weight would have to subscribe to that since demonstrable proof was
finally here - until that time, tho...
He has a number of interesting ideas worth a listen/watch. He's not
all about nay-saying and ridicule. He's interested in the pan-society
and time-honored traditions of mystical experiences, meditation, &
conscious minds looking inward are all valuable and worth pursuing, but
that science has yet to investigate and should w/o the trappings of
religious dogma.
http://longnow.chubbo.net/salt-0200512-harris/salt-0200512-harris.mp3
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3975633975283704512
I particularly enjoyed his analogy of religion to a diamond hunt in the
back yard of a churchgoing family... about how utterly convinced such
citizens are that a huge refrigerator-sized diamond is back there
someplace, what a bonding the experience is for them every weekend to
go digging together, how they don't want to live in a universe without
that diamond in their back yard... you get the idea.
And my own take: to Zues, we are all atheists.
Other notable Long Now Seminars
http://www.longnow.org/projects/seminars/
Jonathan Gibson
www.formandfunction.com/word
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