From: Blunderov (squooker@mweb.co.za)
Date: Mon Mar 18 2002 - 23:20:29 MST
Bill Roh [billroh@churchofvirus.com] Mon 2002/03/18 22:45
Wrote
<snip>
I have to oppose the "Death to the barbarians" thing.
Just cause we have made it past the "god notion" ok does not imply that we
are
not still barbarians. Speaking for myself anyway, I like the savage part of
myself.
Which reminds me, I had a good, and very old friend, say to me yesterday
during
a discussion.
"Bill, I thought you hated religion"
"no way" I said, "It's a simple fact that we, as animals, create and cling
to
religion. I have no qualms with religion, I have problems with the way some
people practice it, that is all. Religion itself is neither good, nor bad,
but
exists through the needs of people."
<snap>
[Blunderov]
Guilty, as charged, of hyperbole. Also, I freely admit that I personally
know people who are far better off with a chronic case of that \old time
religion\ than they are without. But on balance it seems right to express
strong disapproval of the practice of wilfully corrupting young minds by
encouraging them to accept the irrational, as it were, for their own good.
The more I think about it, the more important the Virian document \The Soul
in the Machine and the Question of Virian Ethics, L' Ermit, Tue 2002/03/05
22:04\ becomes.
At the heart of religion, I suspect, are two things: the fear of death, and
the fear that violence in large societies would become uncontrollable if
there was no "absolute moral authority" to back up the various taboos (and
exceptions!) pertaining thereto.
These ideas have become redundant however and so it is that I,
metaphorically speaking, say again:
Death to the barbarians!
Fond regards,
Blunderov.
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