On 7/27/07, jon louis mann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > religion in it's purest form as an ethical model for society is an > ideal that has yet to be realized. religion tends towards dogmatic > morality rather than pragmatic models. compare the golden rule to the > ten commandments.
So are you saying that the ten commandments are religious and dogmatic, but the golden rule is secular and pragmatic? Perhaps you aren't aware that the most commonly quoted version of the golden rule comes from the Christian Bible. Matthew 7:12 says, in part, "Do to others what you would have them do to you." Check biblegateway.com for your favorite translation. In fact, Christianity is not alone in this sentiment. See http://www.unification.net/ws/theme015.htm for several examples from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Jainism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the beliefs of the Yoruba of Nigeria. Not all religions or religious subgroups are dogmatic, and in fact many are very pragmatic. Just google Deism for a good example. The mistake you are making is that you are looking at extremist fundamentalist literalist Christianity and thinking that all Christians believe that way. It's just the same as looking at extremist fundamentalist Islamists and assuming all Islamists are like them. Surely you've been on brin-l long enough to know better, in both cases. -- Mauro Diotallevi "Hey, Harry, you haven't done anything useful for a while -- you be the god of jello now." -- Patricia Wrede, 8/16/2006 on rasfc _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
