Hello from UK.....
Quite a hard-hitting site you have there. Many of us here find the extremism
and fundamentalism of many sects and believers in the 'States very
offputting and indeed, dangerous. The bellief in Armageddon and the 'Rapture' etc.
might see us off - if you have the 'wrong' president and so on, who believes
that 'God' has called him (or possibly 'her') to end the situation with a
nuclear war - Oh the Rapture as we all depart to the Glory!
On the other hand, some of us find your undefined 'God' (although,
admittedly 'Jehova' or the God of the Bible - with a tiny mention of Allah makes clear
the limited image you're on about) a little shrunken. Even Einstein had a
'feeling' for the Deism that focussed the vastness and grand vistas of existence
for him. We know we exist - we did not make the information (vastly complex)
for the system - the Laws of science, especially Physica - all outside
ourselves. Some vast structure is there a-priori ... No, I'm not starting to
argue about the God Of Genesis etc. you right on the ball about that ghastly
image, but Buddhism is a 'religion', (no actual god there as such - certainly no
priests...) would you symbolically 'burn that at the stake' as you do the
rotteness of Catholicism, fundamentalism, young Earth creationists etc. etc.?
What about us Pantheists (I'm not a Pantheist as such, but I do not find it
pathologically delusional...) . Do you burn us at the stake too?
I was slightly disappointed that the real ghastlyness of the christian
religion is mainly absent from your thesis. What about the - 'Christian Killing
Fields' (other that all thos babies of the New Testament) as the author Ludovic
Kennedy calls them in his book All In The Mind.
That chapter in Kennedy shocked me to the core - and I thought I knew
something about the sunject! (I knew Geordano Bruno was burned alive at the stake,
antil his body bubbled and burst sizzling... just to save his soul, as the
priest murmured prayers near him at the scene. That was just for propagating
the notion that the Universe went on infinitely, and was not just a finite
sphere around Earth. 'How dare you', the Christian authorities said, and burnt
him more or less there and then for this 'heresy'.
But it was the story of the teenager, Chavalier de la Barre who, walking
along a street in Abbeville, failed to doff his hat because it was raining, when
a religious procession passed. This was noticed by the religious 'thought
police' and la Barre was arrested for 'blasphemy'. He was found guilty and
sentenced to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers and then
these with the rest of him burned alive... It was carried out - as late as
1766, the age of Mozart, Gainsborough.... Voltaire said he was haunted by the
story for the rest of his life. 'So am I,' wrote Kennedy.
I felt a lump in my throat and had nightmares too. Whatever was God playing
at - oh sorry, it was us, that sort of God isn't there....
Well, that's enough from me, but a couple of chapters in your spiel like
Kennedy's might shock some readers out of their blind faith in that murderous
god fully invented my men for their own Power and Control freakery - and add to
the imaginary God model yopu espouse. (That last point is one you'll have to
watch - 'religion' is far too powerful an idea for you to destroy - powerfull
interests need the mass control it generates politically - sexually -
autonomy destruction - in the 'lower classes' or the masses.... You'll be
attacked - maybe destroyed first, before those dangerous power holders give up ---
so watch it as I say.)
Best rergards,
[Name], Canterbury, Kent UK. (I'm a scientist, at least...)
