On Saturday, August 18, 2012 5:04:28 PM UTC-4, Alberto G.Corona wrote: > > I can not resit to say something here. > > 1)Adivination may be very dangerous, because adivination can be a powerful > way of manipulation. an autoproclaimed adivine can manipulate you or your > society if the the adivine is a powerful person. It can gain the a status > of living god. In the past they were adivines or magicians, later they were > the philosophers. Nowadays they are mostly scientists. I´m talking about > the bad people of these groups. >
Sure, but doesn't the abuse of adivination pale in comparison to most other forms of political device? Has the Bible or Koran every been used as a powerful way to manipulate societies? Has financial power ever giving someone the status of a living god? To me, especially in a modern context, using divination is seen as a huge liability. The Wall Street wizards of quant magic are far more influential than any Bronze Age warlock ever dreamed of being. > 2) very related with this, it is very plausible that by natural selection > applied to the need to coordinate societies for common goals, we have the > capability and the unavoidable necesity, by instinct to deify something or > someone and to hypostasize it, that is to give it a personal nature it it > has not. this may derive from the cult to the authority of the founder of > the ancient tribe of our ancestors. > > If we have this instinct and this is unavoidable, the best use of it, to > avoid the manipulation of those who want to ascend in the mind of the > people, to what was in the past reserved for the gods, is to adore a > transcendent personal god that represent the unknown. > > There is no theology here. I´m, talking in practical terms. although it > may be considered of what Saint Thomas would call "natural revelation". I´m > fascinated o how much specifically Christian apologetics can be derived > from the apparently antireligious, simple and egoistic notion of natural > selection, which is none of the three. But this is not the place to discuss > that. > I think that our contemporary culture shows that society can bond to abstract conceptual brands just as well as an anthropomorphized personality. Our Gods are commercial abstractions of status. Any fears of charismatic religious power in the West are probably hysterical exaggerations at this point. Relatively few people care about someone claiming to speak for an omniscient God anymore - it's who speaks for financial success that matters. Craig -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/everything-list/-/u6E4l_QDWWwJ. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
