Dumb white trash America has spoken! I am going to say right off I have no strong cultural connection to Protestantism. My religious background is Catholicism and Judaism, and I chose the latter because it made at least a bit more sense. It was also fun to go to Hebrew school. while CCD or Catechism was rather dull. So given my choice I took the bar mitzvah, and while Judaism might be said to maximize regret that is a decision I did not regret.
With respect to puritans, the colonization of the Americas was filled with this. In England after Henry VIII separated the Church of England from Rome all sort of religious stuff happened. This was made more so by Wilberforce who translated the bible into English. In the Germanys John Hus began the Anabaptist movement and this helped precipitate Lutheranism. The puritans fought a civil war in England and put Cromwell in power. With the religious chaos that ensued, the reformation wars of the 17th century, many of these people left for North America. The result is the United States has a strong cultural backbone of religious wacko-ness. The right winged movement has inculcated most ideas and symbols in America associated with patriotism, faith and so forth. We now get language that to be a true American means being Republican. It even has taken on religious eschatology, where in the battle between God and His angels against Satan and his demons a vote for the GOP is for God and to bring Jesus back etc. This has also assumed the dimension of a cult, a personality cult of t'Rump where there is an identification of being a real American with supporting t'Rump. It echoes the "Hitler is Deutschland, Deutschland is Hitler" slogan during the Third Reich. None of these ideas have any meaning to those of us who think in a primarily scientific way. Comments about Augustine or other ancient theologians are only of interest in some historical sense. You do not hear this kind of discussion in a scientific meeting. It is otiose and anachronistic stuff that frankly all looks a bit like nonsense. One purpose of God is as a device to control people. It is not possible to see God as anything more than a sort of infinite projection of ourselves or our mental consciousness to cosmic or trans-cosmic scales. Human intelligence is good at such projection, whether onto fictional characters, or Einstein imagining himself on a frame moving with a light beam, or onto suppositional beings such as gods. What God then wants, as communicated by God's "righteous representatives" on Earth and their ancient scriptures, is not that different from what people in authority want. Monotheism started from some group of religious and political hustlers who drafted 10 commandments, which occurred of course with no other witnesses, and are meant to be a basis for moulding a society and controlling people. In growing up we put away childish things. LC [image: growing up and religion.jpg] On Wednesday, November 25, 2020 at 2:17:31 PM UTC-6 medinuclear wrote: > [email protected] [email protected] *Subject:* A > Lamentation on Thanksgiving 2020 > > *A Lamentation on Thanksgiving 2020 Philip Benjamin * > > *P*rogressive wickedness brings mourning, disgrace, contempt > > *A*wakened consciousness is transcendent, from death to life > * G*reat Awakenings Twice, with the third in order for respite > *A*merican-Puritanism-ousting by progressive paganism is rife > *N*on*-*pagan regenerated hearts and minds are rare and sparse > > *I*mago Dei defunct as humanist self is inflated and enthroned > *S*udden destruction, a historical imperative, is not off the pace > * M*an-o-man! *How* *is the gold** become** dim, most fine gold changed*! > > > * > Philip > Benjamin* > > __._,_.___ > ------------------------------ > > Posted by: Philip Benjamin <[email protected]> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/136d8483-fa06-423f-8669-86f919b16272n%40googlegroups.com.
