On Nov 2, 2008, at 12:35 PM, Douglas Roberts wrote:
How many people on this list *don't* think that religion has been ,
and
continues to be a (the?) major factor in American politics?
Doug, I really do feel your pain. But cut us a bit of slack, OK?
Fundamentalism is certainly an issue, but not *all* religion is
fundamentalist. Friam is a fairly rich and diverse community, a
number of whom are religious. We have Christians, Jews, Muslims,
Buddhists and more. Show them some respect, please.
Would it surprise you to know that one of the first publications on
Chaos and Complexity is from the Vatican Observatory press? The first
chapter includes Crutchfield, Farmer, Shaw, and Packard?
Do you know that the current pope advised against single-issue voting
on abortion, and advised that religious voters consider that hunger,
homelessness, sickness, war, etc are also anti-life?
What ever happened to the precept of separation of church and state,
anyhow?
Christ talks about it: render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. So do
Buddhists. If politicians have forgotten that, then bad on them, not
the church.
I don't want to start a flame war on religion, but please remember you
have religious family and friends who are kind, gentle, compassionate
and as anti-fundamentalist as you are.
-- Owen
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