At 10:02 pm 05/10/2005 -0400, Stephen wrote: > <snip> > > Indeed, as I understand it, in the Middle Ages, the Catholic church did > not allow ordinary church members to read the bible directly, on the > grounds that it needed some interpretation to avoid misunderstanding it.
And a jolly good thing too. 8-) After all - Look at the situation in secular terms. Secular governments do not allow the great unwashed to experiment with high explosives since they may not only destroy their own bodies but they are very likely to destroy the bodies of their fellow citizens as well. I'm sure that all Vortexians would agree that this restriction is a reasonable one. Now if one believes that one has an immortal soul and that when one dies that soul is destined to go to heaven or to hell for all eternity, then it is perfectly reasonable to prevent the ignorant and uneducated from tinkering with the instruction book. After all, as the Penny Catechism <http://www.proecclesia.com/penny%20catechism/> puts it. ================================================================== 7. Of which must you take more care, of your body or of your soul? I must take more care of my soul; for Christ has said, 'What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?' (Matt. 16:26) ================================================================== Like Jed, one may not agree on the assumptions, existence of God, divinity of Christ, foundation of a teaching church with divine authority, etc. but I feel sure that even Jed would agree, that given those assumptions, to restrict the instructions on making the religious equivalent of nuclear explosives to people intelligent and responsible, is perfectly reasonable. Cheers, Frank Grimer
