From: Albertus Magnus Area: Metaphysical To: All 18 Sep 94 11:22:56 Subject: Why I don't like religion UpdReq Many have asked me over the years why I have little use for religion. It basically congeals into one primary point, and once that point is understood, all the rest makes perfect sense. I'm not going to get into a treatise on the existence of a 'god' or even a great 'Cosmic StarGoat' for that matter, although the latter does go a long way in explaining my particular position. That position is that religion is the creation of man, not the creation of any higher being. This being the case, religion is subject to all the whims, fallacies, faults, and maladies that afflict humanity as a whole. Humanity can't create miracles, and hence, neither can religion. Let us presume for the moment that there is a greater entity out there... a creator if you will. Depending upon the religion you wish to subscribe to, the genesis of all that is differs greatly from religion to religion. They all can't be right. There is a simple reason for this... that being that even if there is/was some form of creator, it created the raw materials of the universe, but the organized worship (ie. religion) was not a construct included. That was a creation of mankind looking to pay homage to said creator. We can use Christianity as an example, here. The issue of the actual functionality of the church isn't addressed until the book of Acts. Acts itself isn't really a blueprint for a religion, either, it's a collection of early 'ministries' conducted by the faithful. A ministry need not be a religion... in fact, really all a ministry is is a travelling oratory campaign, to 'spread the word.' The further presumption that a creator and/or supreme deity is omnipotent would seem to further preclude the necessity for religion. Religion essentially serves one major end: worship of the given god. Is it beyond the means of the individual to be able to relate to that which is omnipotent on their own personal terms and revelations? Of course not. It is certainly possible for the individual to have their own relationship with the deity-figure of their choice without having to attend human-created ritualism. Any religion which tells the individual that they cannot have such a relationship (without doing so in church-context) is engaging in either a profound doubt of the ability of their deity or a profound doubt in the ability of the individual. Each case, as is evident, is tantamount to extreme philosophical elitism. So why do so many rush to their churches on given holy days and so forth? Why the obligatory tithes and 'burnt offerings' if you will? One possible reason is that the organized religions of the world have perhaps gauged themselves accordingly on the herd mentality of the people. That the people, in an effort to want to belong, wish to roll themselves up in these human/arbitrary concepts and feel accepted. Is this acceptance from the deity or acceptance from the religion, however? Since, as has been discussed, the concept of religion is entirely a human fabrication it is relatively safe to say that this is a peer-to-peer acceptance between the devotee and the priesthood. It is not, however, a method of any greater connectivity to the chosen deity. So, does religion have any intrinsic value in society? Certainly. Religions all have behavioral templates which can be applied to the devotees who wish to partake of them. Many (if not all) of these templates contain generally sound advice on codes of conduct and relationships with one's fellow man. The larger issue is, however, whether these templates go to any great length to improve the standing of the follower in the eyes of a god. To that end, while they may not explicitly be a hindrance, they certainly aren't overtly necessary. Religion may help to connect the like-thinking to each other, but anything else is subject to skepticism. If you are seeking to make a covenant with a deity, the best covenant there can be is the one you make with yourself to that end. For there you are alone in the eyes of what you have opted for and in that solitude, you have no crutch and no one to blame when things go wrong except for yourself. .\ .\.\ ... I'm a SysOp, not a role model. 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718 From: Albertus Magnus Area: Metaphysical To: All 18 Sep 94 22:46:34 Subject: The Week in Death: September 2-8 UpdReq QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Beware! To touch these wires is instant death. Anyone found doing so will be prosecuted. -- sign at a railroad station. THE WEEK IN DEATH (September 2-September 8) HANK AGUIRRE (62), athlete. A three-time All-Star pitcher who played for several teams, but primarily with the Tigers. He was 75-72 for his career. He was also known as one of the worst hitters in baseball, with an .085 average. FERNDANDO CHAMORRO (62), Nicaraguan insurgent. Rock and roll! Whatever it was, he was against it. First, he fought against SOMOZA pere and fils; a 1960 uprising failed and he was jailed for two years. In 1978, he helped spark the Sandinista uprising by firing a rocket at the dictators' HQ from his hotel room in Managua (it missed). He later broke with the Sandinista's, and led an opposition group from inside the country (REAGAN's contras operated out of the Honduras). JAMES CLAVELL (69), author. A Brit soldier in WWII, Clavell was captured on Java and sent to Changi near Singapore, a camp where only 1 in 15 prisoners survived. Clavell called Changi his university, because while there he was able to gather stories, learn a few skills (like counterfeiting), and study people, all of which gave him invaluable background to become a first rate story-teller. He's best known for King Rat, Shogun, Tai-pan, and other really fat books, but he started as a screenwriter. His film work includes several classics, including the original version of The Fly, The Great Escape, and To Sir, With Love. ROSWELL GILBERT (85), the Ft. Lauderdale man who was convicted of murder in 1985 for killing of his wife, who had Alzheimers. He was granted clemency in 1990. Although he initially felt justified, he later said the act was one of ``complete desperation.'' MICHAEL GRIBBLE (42), entrepreneur. The Mike in the annual ``Mike and Spike Festival of Animation." NICKY HOPKINS (50), pianist. Coupled with his extraordinary talent, Hopkins' ability to hear a tune once and be able to play it kept him in heavy demand his entire career. TWIDman isn't completely familiar with every session man who ever worked in rock, but Hopkins might have been the only man to play with THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING STONES, and THE WHO. PETE TOWNSHEND, in fact, asked him to join the band, but he was about to cut a solo album, so he declined. TWID's CONTRIBUTING SIXTIES FOSSIL reminds us that a particularly noteworthy Hopkins contribution was his ivory-tickling behind JEFF BECK on the guitarist's first solo album, Truth (which also featured ROD STEWART). Our CSF also seems to recall Hopkins being a member of the QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE, but he's not sure. Yeah, we hear there was a lot of second-hand smoke hovering around in the olden days... MAX KAMINSKY (85), a trumpeter associated with the Chicago school of jazz musicians. MICHEL-MELTHON LYNCH (25), musician. The bassist for the Haitian group BOUKMAN EKSPERYANS. Lynch had bacterial meningitis. At first, he could not get needed antibiotics because of the U.S. embargo on Haiti. The red tape was finally negotiated, but the package of drugs mysteriously disappeared upon arrival in the country; Lynch died the next day (June 4). EDNA MANILOW (70), BARRY's mother. RICHARD MARTIN (75), actor. TIM HOLT's sidekick in the Zane Grey film series. BOB MATHESON (49), athlete. The man around whom the early-70s Dolphins built their famed ``53'' defense (that was his uniform number). Alternatively known as the No-Name Defense, that half of the squad was equally responsible for Miami's run of three straight Super Bowls. DENNIS MORGAN (85), actor. B's most of the way. He played opposite GINGER ROGERS in her Oscar role in Kitty Foyle. RAFIKI (NA), one of 30 sea lions found slaughtered in the Monterey Bay area in recent weeks. Although Americans have always poached animals that are protected or endangered, there has of late been a rise in the killings of sea lions, grizzly bears, wolves, etc. The violence is a backlash against conservation measures, according to the Wall Street Journal. A new law prohibits fishermen from killing sea lions unless the animals are attacking them personally; unlikely, since the critters are going after fish in fishing nets. Likewise, it is illegal for ranchers (anyone, really) to kill wolves or grizzlies unless they are personally in danger. Predators are not the only creatures under attack, however. The WSJ cites the bulldozing of a stand of trees that were home to scrub jays on a Florida plot marked for development, and the destruction of desert tortoise dens near the site of a proposed golf course in Utah. As if TWIDman needs another reason to love that activity (we're loathe to call it a sport). Some poaching is, of course, for profit. Grizzlies' gall bladders, rhinos' horns, and other exotic body parts fetch wildly extravagant sums from Asian men who believe these items to be aphrodisiacs. All of which moves us to pity our Asian friends. Really. Because at the prices they're willing to pay, we can only assume that they're such a sorry lot of limp-dick bastards that if they don't promote the slaughter of half the endangered species on the planet, the birth rate in the Far East would diminish by half. IKE WILLIAMS (71), athlete. The lightweight boxing champion 1945-50. He retired at 123-25-5, with 60 KOs. TERENCE YOUNG (79), director. The man in charge of three of the better James Bond films: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball. From the Don't Worry, It's Only A Statistical Glitch Department (DWIOASGD): We've had just a marvelously thrilling rash of juvenile murder recently, don't You think? First, we have ROBERT ``YUMMY'' SANDIFER (11) from Chicago, who was induced by his gang to murder someone, only he missed and killed SHAVON DEAN (14) by mistake. Sandifer himself was killed, reportedly by his gang, who wanted to make sure he wouldn't talk about the original contract. A few days later, JACOB TRACY (11) was shot in his suburban New Jersey home by a 13-year-old ``friend.'' The kids had earlier broken into a house that was up for sale; the owners had left their guns in the house. A couple days after that, an 8-year-old in Yonkers shot his 3-year-old cousin in the face. Some guy visiting the 8-year-old's mother left his gun on the TV. We are just so delighted that the NRA's program to help responsible citizens responsibly excercise their right to keep and bear arms is going so swimmingly. We just don't know how any truly modern country can get along without an NRA chapter of their own. It's quite a disgrace, when you think about it. 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718