>Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 16:12:23 -0500
>From: "Eric Boyd" <6ceb3@qlink.queensu.ca>
>Subject: Re: virus: Antibiotics
>
>"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)
Do you see Voltaire's brilliance? He ended in a question. It is still a question.
>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?
Very Good! Are you better off than me?
>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.
"I wrap my fear around me like a blanket
I'll sail my ship of saftey till I sink it
There's MORE THAN ONE PATH, pointing
me in a crooked line. And the less I seek
the source of some definitive
the closer I am to f-i-i-i-ne...
YEAH!"
-The Indigo Girls
This is not a song about religion, but about logic. Can you see that?
The less I seek definition, the better off I am!
>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.
"I went to see the doctor of philosophy
with a poster of rasputin and his hair
down to his knee. He never did marry,
or see a B-grade movie. He graded my
performance and said he could see through
me...
I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper, and I was FREE!"
Free to do what, exactly? Why wasn't
she free in school? Why do we feel
constrained and prostrate before the
higher mind?"
>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.
Ostriches do that? I don't think so. But, it might sometimes be an effective strategy for humans. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
Reed
Reed Konsler konsler@ascat.harvard.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------