-----Original Message-----
From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com] On Behalf Of
Eduardo Mauro
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 1999 5:33 AM To: virus@lucifer.com Subject: Re: virus: A simple question>>and self-respecting, then it will be difficult for them to believe in any
>>I think that no interest in, or knowledge of science, skepticism or
>>philosophy makes fertile ground for religion if the person is by nature
>>prone to fear. On the other hand, if the person is inquisitive, tenacious
I answered this to Tim, but will give a quick re-answer. I agree, education and basic desire for enlightenment are also important.
>But a person being inquisitive, tenacious and self-respecting does not
>depend in what kind of education received?
>If a person comes from a religious family, catholic or jewish, fear will be
>part of the education. And such qualitys can be found in religious people.
>I think my real question is: to what extent the idea of god is inmate to
us,
>and to what extent the idea is propagated by the society, especially in the
>childhood. God is a powerful idea but a false one. Why?
I don't think it is "inmate" at all. I think it is reasoning that gives us God. It is the Us vs Them of nature. Not understanding rain, or death etc... puts one in the position of looking for someone to assign blame or credit to. When the object of interest is beyond a mans understanding, then the enemy becomes a vague force - spirit - god - what have you. People talk, the word gets passed along, soon enough people believe it is real because it satisfies their need to know. The Monotheistic God is really a new idea (considering all of history). It came about as more and more became explained and older gods were easy to remove in favor of the newer, more ambiguous god. It's powerful because it uses our built in reasoning skills and our "Us" vs "Them" phobia to deal with our "cause - effect" meme.
Thought:
"It is raining" "why is it raining?" "Someone made it rain" "Who made it rain - it is beyond our power" "Maybe the "rain spirit" made it rain"
this is the birth of the rain spirit. After a few millennia of this, and populations in the millions, what do you think would happen?
Bill ROh