Michael, You mentioned transcendence, transcendence from cultural definitions, assumptions and prejudices. Once this is done, the word God becomes meaningless in a sense for how we know this word is defined by culture. Which is the problem and paradox of your idea. Even the asterek version brings culture back into the fray which leads me to think that God is a cultural word for a culturally transcedent expereince. This is why in Hebrew, Gods' name may not be spoken, in Islam the image of Mohammad or God may not be depicted, no graven images be made for it brings cultural prejudice into it. Both theism and atheism are culturally stigmatized words relaying the same cultural prejudices making both terms sort of a non issue in relation to the MoQ where belief is formed from practical experience. -Ron
________________________________ From: Michael Poloukhine <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, February 9, 2009 10:13:16 PM Subject: Re: [MD] Theism/epistemology > [Arlo] > I honestly don't know what the argument is here, expect over your wanting to > redefine theism for whatever purposes you have.. Other than that, we seem to > agree on most of this. As I've been saying, I have no trouble with a view that > considers theism (in all its world colors) as paintings on the mural of human > experience, metaphors that people across the globe and throughout history have > used to describe the indescribable. More than this, I don't know what I can > say. MP: LoL. And *I'm* the one seeking to redefine theism?? If you could just manage to say that as "considers theism as the belief in a god or gods" we'd be all set. ;-) It really is that simple. Anything else, is *you* redefining theism to suit whatever purposes *you* have, not the other way around. Why is it so hard to say "theism" is the *idea* that one *can* believe in a g*d, and "religion" *is that belief* defined? If one accepts "atheism" in exactly this way, one is obliged to do so with "theism." Period. Anything else is disingenuous. > [Arlo] > I would say you won't fully understand the MOQ until you understand Zen. MP: I don't doubt you. And I would say MoQ won't fully realize Zen until understands theism. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
