Hi Arlo, 2009/3/9 ARLO J BENSINGER JR <[email protected]>
> [KO] > This makes faith sound like guesswork to me... > > [Arlo] > What it does (Michael's "to affirm experience as Experience takes faith") > is to > make ALL socio-intellectual patterns "faith-based". As I said a few posts > back, > this is the latest move by the "theists" to reduce everything to being just > another flavor of kool-aid (whether the age of the earth is 4000 or 4 > billion > years old is both simply a matter of "faith"). The age of the earth is 4 billion years old: i credit this scientific evaluation as a good approximation however I only ever read or heard other people talk about this evaluation so, to some extent, faith, in the strict meaning of the word, is involved. The age of the earth is 4000 years old: this is the biblical evaluation and people who believe this are, according to a more general meaning of the word, referred to as the 'the faithful' . I favour the scientific view simply because for me it is a more useful figure. If i chose to go with the 4000 figure i would also have to take on board other behavioral instructions in order to mesh again with other members of society; to avoid a feeling of duplicity i would have to forego the sheath, give up my Sunday mornings and donate regularly so the organisation i wanted to mesh with could carry on. If i was very 'faithful' (again in the general meaning of the word) i should give up all my worldly possessions, even my family, and go to help the most needy people of the world with the conviction that my deeds would eventually pay off when i arrived in heaven. This is why for Michael "Quality is just another God". Quality and God are > the > same, just different flavors of kool-aid, both the MOQ and Christianity are > equally "faith-based". Its why he tries to portray Marsha as a bible > thumper > every time she quotes the MOQ. For him, its no different than when a > preacher > quotes Deuteronomy. There is a desperation to "affirm" faith and theism > here, > and hence the attempts to redefine both to make them apply to pretty much > everything, including the MOQ. > Those who find themselves in the 4000 group can often still manage to have a long and active life, often even better than those in the 4 billion group; however there is always the risk in the 4000 group of anxiety and bad dreams resulting from the secret knowledge of their actual lack of full commitment to the groups most fundamental directives and injunctions. So its the 4,000,000,000 group for me - this group is so large, diverse and liberal that i am hardly aware of being in that group. For people in the other group it seems to me the reason they stay is the fear of isolation and exclusion they would experience on leaving the group. However, having personally taken a similar step some years ago i can report that after the initial wailing and gnashing of teeth my feeling of health, well-being and enjoyment in life has continued to grow. -KO 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/
