I don't believe in religion but feel that there is a force behind creation which explains the order in all the chaos. You can call that force " Nature " or you may call it " God ".
On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 9:04 PM, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: > oops - drat this laptop! ... was caused over a sandwich. This turned > out to be the Balkan assassination story. My view these days is that > this war started with the British invasion of Iraq in 1913 and might > be better explained from the point where various imperialist navies > (British, US, French, German and Japanese) were queuing up in 1906 off > the Chinese coast (Boxer rebellion etc.) - such analysis is way beyond > school examination 'sound bites'. > > What I'd like to see is a much more open society that was no longer > printing myths. I want my beliefs and fellowship based in an accurate > version of what human life is about and the dangers involved in > denying this. I want control to be based in Reason that leaves > emotional understanding in. What I find personally is that I repeat > the mistakes of any elite thinking or practice in being so frustrated > about general ignorance. It's not intellectually honest to believe in > the will of the majority, though one can make a lesser claim for a > society in which votes matter than perfection. > > In the past, religion often had emancipatory aims - much of its > language is about freedom from debt - and I find myself wishing one > could take part in the fellowship of such religion without corrupting > into all the sacred text belief in god nonsense - just as I don't mind > feeling proud of my country and its people as long as it's not on the > basis of jingoism and false history. Much western history is little > more than dross versions of stuff peddled by the Vatican. > > Today's religion is economics based in imperialist myth - we hide a > holocaust, indeed deny one - as in the book 'Killing Hope' - though > one need not focus on the Americans. I feel the truth of this may be > so bad that figures like Churchill, Bush, Blair and others may well > have been bag men for international finance and the preservation of an > ancien regime. I wish in many ways for a religion that stood up to > this. > > On Oct 4, 4:07 pm, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: >> The ultimate answer for me is that belief in god lacks intellectual >> honesty. I wouldn't seek any argument on the existence of god - for >> me an answer either way is a rationalist fantasy - i.e. there is no >> answer. I reject most of the ideology I was brought up in as based in >> fables. The idea of scripture as revelation from god doesn't appeal >> in the slightest. Most of it is wrong and flatly uninteresting - one >> would expect any such conversation to reveal what we don't know and be >> less obviously made up by human beings. This doesn't make me >> unreligious, but does make me consider religion as person-made. >> >> Much of the non-religious ideology of my youth fails for similar >> reasons. I once believed the British Empire was a fine thing and the >> world wars were the fault of rotten Germans and Japanese. I now know >> this was because more accurate history was denied me. As a kid, I >> thought the Opium Wars must have been about our brave Royal Navy >> chasing drug dealing Chinamen around, and our empire about bringing >> civilisation, fair-play and cricket to the 'undeserving'. I couldn't >> understand why Americans had been so dumb as to reject our rule. I >> thought our society was broadly fair and you got by on skill and >> merit. I know this was all bunk. >> >> The essential component of intellectual growth is belonging to a group >> free of infectious diseases - average IQ (however suspect a measure) >> is reduced by this kind of disease. Over the years I've found some >> solace in science, but it's clear this form of reasoning is only a >> starting place. We lack any proper account of what science is, and as >> usual the widely held ideas are plain wrong. Science is not value- >> free or intellectually linear and requires massive effort, passion and >> some clear-break thinking and a gereat deal of training on what >> evidence amounts to and how it fits with theories. Its quest is truth >> but a quest is not truth. >> >> My grandson (14) is having a hard time at school just now and like >> most teenagers knows more or less 'sweet FA' - other than how to get >> into arguments with his mother and into detention. He came home with >> s story that WW1
