In its most basic form, without regard to specific ideology, it offers a person a "We" instead of an "I". Anyone can step on an ant but who would find rest sleeping next to their nest?
On Monday, October 13, 2014 7:03:02 AM UTC-4, archytas wrote: > > Many of our terms for freedom have religious origin in the rough phrase > 'freedom from debt' - more and much wider than than Xtian kicking over the > tables of the money-lenders. There have been many debt jubilees in > history, often on the death of a 'king'. Debt slavery is and has been much > wider in human communities than most seem to know. We are not widely > informed on biology and anthropology in this regard. Religion can raise > the best and worst in us. Much of it raises the notion of adherents as > some kind of chosen people, sometimes restricted to the in-group blood > line. The Yazidi are such an example. > > Chimps seem to have a form of 'religion' connected with the seasons - as > many of our belief systems. I saw footage of some southeast Asian spiders > this morning - they lay eggs in a central tower surrounded by a henge - > immediately bringing Stonehenge to my mind, though they don't hack stones > to shape. Religion raises Facil's 'we might both (all) be wrong' phrase to > my mind, something often missing in our argument despite knowledge that we > can make many equally powerful arguments about the same stuff (Sextus > Empiricus). To judge between arguments we need something mystical > (religious). I say this as a scientist knowing magic wands don't work. > Religion could be rebellion, a postmodern moment, oversimplifying to the > extreme, of incredulity towards metanarratives like government, law and > economics - a dreamtime against material and spiritual debt-rules. > > Black holes have recently become 'grey', but dreamtime might challenge the > geometry we use. Global warming and much else on pollution challenges us > to think 'This Changes Everything' (Naomi Klein) - the economics of 'we can > never afford to do the right things' in my view. So what does religion > offer on the postmodern moment of rebellion? > -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
