On Mon, 24 Jun 2002 13:18:10 -0400 "Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Unfortunately, the current reigning religion in this part of the world > has always been numbered with those who prefer not have the common man > think. Don't think. Just believe what the shaman, priest, televanglist > says is in the book and paradise is yours. Never mind injustice. The bad > guys will get theirs in the next world, so just go along with the > political corruption, greed, environmental destruction and whatever is > necessary to make the payments on the SUV. Correction: All those who would rather manipulate you to their own benefit than show the Love only God can give you. These fall into that category. > In the Middle Ages we had the "Great Chain of Being." So what if the > local noble had raped your daughter on her wedding night and driven off > the village herd to pay for a celebration when his son became of age to > join the family firm of Robber Baron and Son, Ltd. If you were a serf > God had put you on the bottom of the chain just as he had placed the > baron on the top. To question your place was to question God. To demand > justice was presumption to take into man's hands that which was God's. Again, isn't it grand when something started for good can fall to the sins of greed for money and power? There is a trite phrase used among us believers: "I'm not perfect, just forgiven". I'm not sure that applies to many who were involved in the previous corruption. This is why the Protestants came into being. Martin Luther (and to be fair, others before and after him whose names I mostly forget) saw the difference between what the Bible said and what the Holy Roman Catholic Church of the time was saying. While I believe that corruption and sin has stayed in the Catholic Church through the centuries, I do believe that many areas of the Catholic Church have done quite a good job recovering... they've not had an easy road to hoe. To start seeking God instead of being misguided sheep? Again, back to the "thinking" discussion again. > Later, we had John Calvin, who preached "never mind what Christ said > about the rich not getting into paradise." The real truth is that God > already knows who will be saved and who will not. Therefore it is only > logical to believe that God pours his blessings on those predestined few > and the mark of God's favor was riches. A real double banger. No thought > required and God's blessings on riches swindled from the undestined. Now here's a slant I'm not quite sure I've heard before... I know that the church screwed up the Irish when the Potato-famine hit and they were told that it was God's will for them to die... but I'm fairly certain John Calvin wasn't ever quoted as saying that. If he was, I'd be interested in seeing it, since I'm quite sure (IIRC) that he said quite the opposite... > That mindless theology of greed still survives today in the heresy of > the Protestant Work Ethic. Along with Creationism, which is an attack on > all sciences that dare to claim that the universe was created before > 4004 BC Aug. 4th at 10:04 am. Couple this with the current efforts by > right wing non-christian fundamentalists to stifle stem cell research. > So what if a cure for cancer can be found or new organ produced. The > pain, suffering and death is acceptable as long as fundamentalist > religious beliefs aren't questioned. Then there is the Church's > objection to in vitro fertilization because somehow the soul can only be > fused with the embryo in a womb not in glass ware. Interesting opinion... I agree that there is a lot of "work ethic" issues in the world, though I'm not sure they are tied to protestants more than other folk. Creationism is a belief, as is Evolotion, The Big Bang, and any other myth about how and why we came to be. Truth is (if you do your homework beyond those lying high-school textbooks which show the "evolutionary path" from a museum, failing to include the wall-caption which reads "Many of these skelletons are artists' creations and are not supported by the fossil record.") that there isn't much science supporting the "Scientific" explanation of the world. I'd like to allow the inclusion of Carbon Dating to the discussion, but in reality, we only know what Carbon-14 has done in the last what, couple decades? To say nothing of our complete lack of historical knowledge prior to 6000 years ago (too bad Adam and Eve didn't write down how Carbon-14 broke down back then... At least 6000 years is better than 15 or 20). You will also find several books which disect the non-christian "Scientific" methods of coming up with outright lies which support whatever the popular evolutionary theory-of-the-month was. These accounts are really quite fascinating. One of them details how a non-scientist Satanist (I'm not bashing him, this was the fact) was "lofted" into a highly respected "research" position... and happened to be the leader of the research which "proved" that homosexuality is inborn... The really sick part was that his work was later debunked, but nobody wanted to hear it so the media didn't make a big deal about it. > Then let us not forget the Holocaust. At the time, Christianity claimed > that the Jews were an accursed race because they had killed Christ. > Funny I always thought it was Romans (Italians). But the Pope was > Italian so it must have that the entire population of Judah dropped into > Jerusalem to demand Christ's death from the innocent Romans. Therefore > it was ok to murder a few million decedents on the theory the sons bear > the guilt of the fathers. That by the way is called a Bill of Attainer > and is outlawed by the U.S. Constitution. A case where man appears to be > more just than the God he prays to. Truly, one of the worst abuses of Christ's name. I don't follow the stuff about the Italians and the Pope and all. The part about generational suffering is true, in the right context. Not that you need to kill the son for the father's sins, although at the time of the OT it was a societal thing that families and communities took more responsibility for each other (as opposed to our "I'm me, You're you, now ****-off" mentality). What you will see is that when one man sins, his family suffers for it, and as the duration of the sin increases, more generations are either mal-effected by it or carry it on. Even when the chain of sin stops, you will notice that the next few generations suffer for it somewhat. _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list - http://linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-users Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Archives,and Digests are located at the above URL.
