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? what i really mean to say is that some religious rules are practical and some are not. the same for secular parameters. there are exceptions to most rules, however. 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. i never said the golden rule originated with jesus in the sermon on the mount. 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 Islamics and assuming all Islamics are like them. Surely you've been on brin-l long enough to know better, in both cases. Mauro Diotallevi sorry if i gave that impression, mauro. i've been a lurker on brinlist until recently, and i should know better than to make general statements. i certainly do not intend to give the impr]ession that fundamentalist extremists and literalist fanatics represent the dominant judaeo/christian/islamic tradition. i do believe that some of religions' purest ideals are practical ethical models, including the golden rule (which is not just found in western biblical sources). i also believe that deism and some of the eastern philosophies are far superior to most rigid theocratic faiths. i just find it hard to believe in an infinite, eternal, omnipotent, cosmic consciousness, or in spiritual, supernatural, or divine, corporeal beings that play a role in some universal, teleological purpose behind existence.. as an atheist my faith is based on the strong belief that there ain't no such thang as "the deity", life after death, reincarnation, immaculate conception, original sin, etc. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games. http://sims.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
