Maggz c680910@showme.missouri.edu
"I am more than what you define and delienate me to be" Elizabeth Wurtzel
On Fri, 12 Mar 1999, Eric Boyd wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Reed Konsler <konsler@ascat.harvard.edu> write:
> <<
> That was very clear. Now, tell me this...when you dissolve <God> what
> will replace it?
> >>
>
> I can't help but think of this quote:
>
> "Every sensible man, every honest man, must hold the Christian sect in
> horror. But what shall we substitute in its place? you say. What? A
> ferocious animal has sucked the blood of my relatives. I tell you to
> rid yourselves of this beast, and you ask me what you shall put in its
> place?" -- Voltaire (1694-1778)
>
> In all honestly, I don't know why you would want to put anything in
> the place of <God> -- are we not better off without superstition and
> virulent Viruses of the Mind?
>
> <<
> What do you offer which is as resilient as faith? I understand
> Richard Dawkins quite well, and I see how for him, scientific
> development could fill the bill. For others, I'm sure, art will hold
> them fast. But for some people, especially people who don't have
> access to much education and are in the dire straights of life,
> nothing beats a little good old fashioned religion. It's a K.I.S.S.
> from God to those who aren't fortunate enough to be our position.
> It's the first word and the last word. You and I are just filling in
> the details in the mean time.
> >>
>
> You are probably right that the vast majority of people will go to
> their graves with their faith -- clinging to it like a saftey blanket.
> However, there are new people coming all the time, and I think that a
> good education program (especially one related to choosing a purpose
> in life) could place almost all of humanity into a position like that
> of Dawkins -- men and women who know what they want, what they like,
> and how to go about doing both. In my opinion, raising a child to
> depend on faith is like telling them to stick their head in the ground
> and approach the challenges of life like an ostrich. Faith is like
> instinct, useful when the world conforms to the history under which it
> developed, but actually counter-productive in many new situations. As
> the world changes more and more, I think we'll see that the old faiths
> die out and are replaced by new ones, like yours (which as far as I
> can tell is kind of quaint, in it's own way, and hardly what *I* mean
> by "faith")
>
> ERiC
>