Hi Arlo, On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 11:25 AM, Arlo Bensinger <[email protected]> wrote:
> [Steve] > > "So the demand for evidence and the corresponding obligation to justify our > beliefs only needs to come up when we are engaged in a common project..." > > [Arlo] > And the "common projects" are education, politics and law. Steve: So is any religion-based claim to historical and scientific truth since these are public projects. So is any claim that others ought to conform to someone's religious-based ethics. You are writing as though you are disagreeing... Arlo: > I don't think (and you can call me naive) that if this was just about > someone standing on the street corner espousing the divinity of the Great > Pumpkin I don't think many people would stop and demand evidence. And if > Focus on the Pumpkinpatch published a book extolling the that the Great > Pumpkin carved the earth in late October only a few hundred years ago, I > doubt many would be up in arms demanding evidence. > > But, if it is demanded that we teach The Great Carving creation as an > "equally valid" theory as archeology in our schools, or that businesses are > not allowed to operate on Thursdays because it is the day The Great Pumpkin > ate candy corn after creating the world, or that redheads are not allowed to > marry other redheads because such a union displeases the Great Pumpkin, or > that violence against the Wee Folk is to be tolerated because they worship > the a false God, the Leprechaun, or demanded books be removed from the > library that violate the moral teachings of the Great Pumpkin, or demand > that all government business begin with a prayer to the Great Pumpkin or the > swearing of loyalty on a copy of Peanuts, ... or any number of such > things... then I think "evidence" should be required. Steve: I don't think you are naive. I agree with you that there are real dangers in the way that religion is commonly practiced. My point, which you haven't addressed, is only that it may not be the best strategy to condemn ALL religion especially when there are so many varied ways of being religious and all of them are not evil. Do you agree or disagree? Best, Steve 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/
