----- Original Message ----- From: "William T Goodall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion" <brin-l@mccmedia.com> Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 10:59 AM Subject: Re: CoS in the news
> > On 27 Jan 2008, at 03:28, Robert Seeberger wrote: > >> >> On 1/26/2008 8:47:30 PM, William T Goodall ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) >> wrote: >>> On 27 Jan 2008, at 02:27, Robert Seeberger wrote: >>> >>>> ----- Original Message ----- >>>> From: "William T Goodall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>>> >>>>> Just ban all religions. That would solve the problem. >>>>> >>>> >>>> That might be a reasonable response if Scientology were in fact a >>>> religion. >>> >>> What makes you think that it isn't? >>> >> >> Considering your point of view on all things religious, this could >> be >> a difficult discussion. So if you consider The Church Of The Jedi >> or >> Pastafarianism to be bonafide religions, then there is no point in >> us >> wasting our time. > > 1) The intent of the founder of a religion is not part of the > definition of whether it is or is not a religion for very obvious > reasons: > > a) We can't know the real intent of the founder. > b) Discussion of religion degenerates into attacks on the character > of > the founders rather than the practices of the religion. > > 2) Whether the founder of a religion was a fraud who made it up for > selfish purposes or a genuinely insane person with voices in his > head > is neither here nor there - the religion is the same sick nonsense > either way. > > 3) An inscrutable god might choose a false prophet to deliver true > religion. Since inscrutable gods do those kind of things :) > > 4) Just because a religion is made up as a joke and everyone knows > it > doesn't mean it's not a real religion e.g. Discordianism. Being > *actually true* can't be part of the definition of religion for > obvious reasons. > > a) *At most* one religion can be true, yet there are thousands of > religions. So....... you concede there are no grounds for discussion.<G> Oh, BTW... 1 Apple 1a Apple 1b Apple vs MS 2 Apple vs MS vs Linux 3 BEOS 4 OSX 4a Unix and any derivation thereof <G> > >> >> If you do indeed draw a line between organizations with origins >> that >> arise from actual faith and those who are scams perpetrated for >> various reasons when defining religions then we might have >> something >> to discuss. > > > So Christianity is a scam because of the existence of greedy lying > televangelists and mega-church pastors? Or it's not a scam despite > them since some people genuinely believe it? But some people > genuinely > believe Scientology too. > Even you know that not all Christianity is televangelists and mega-churches, but you must be aware that all of Scientology is a bloated pyramid scheme regardless of what the common member believes. Lots of Christians have a low opinion of televangelists and the like and don't pay them heed. A Scientologist isn't allowed that freedom. xponent Totalitarian Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
