From: Randy Smith (randysmith101@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jun 19 2000 - 05:29:13 MDT
>From: SpinV@aol.com
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.com
>To: extropians@extropy.com
>Subject: You may not believe in God but She still believes in you, most of
>the time
>Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 01:08:55 EDT
>
>I think it's about time to throw in my $US 0.02 First let me introduce
>myself, mercifully briefly. For a while now I have been lurking on the list
>and found the conversation for the most part quite interesting reading.
>When
>religion was brought up however I felt I had to respond, it being a theme
>rather near and dear to my heart. Officially I am a Reverend within the
>Church of Discord and, to my knowlege, am recognized as such by the State.
>(my official title is Chaplain of the Legion of Dynamic Discord and
>Episkopos
>of the Order of the Sleepless (k)Nights). It appears many people on this
>lists would describe themselves as atheists and are quite proud of it.
Yes. More on this later.
>In an
>attempt to offer some balance I will argue for pseudo religion. Personally
>I
>do not think all religions are invalid, but neither is one the True
>religion.
>Divinity can be approached in almost any fashion to my mind, some methods
>work quite well for me that are nigh useless to others and vice versa.
>Religion is nothing more or less than a framework to approach Divinty with.
>The problem arises with assumption of the One True Religion which I would
>say
>does not exist. Atheism, on the other hand, has the equally silly claim
>that
>since none of them is the One True Religion, then none of them are >True.
Atheism in a strict sense has nothing to do with religion. It just means
that a person does not believe in a god.
But, actually, atheism is more about atheists being the kind of people who
stand outside society, laughing at assorted silliness, such as the fact that
the belief in a god is an obvious sham.
>All
>of them are True in the sense that they can allow one to relate to
> >Divinity.
>I would also like to ask all of you to take a charitable approach to >the
>clergy for they do, for the most part, mean well. When I followed the
>Christian faith I was quite devout and would witness to all who would
>listen
>because I genuinely feared for their immortal soul. Now that I am no longer
>those who do the same to me seem incredibly irritating and small minded.
>So,
>having been on both sides of the fence I ask you to please be patient and
>somewhat forgiving for "they know not what they do".
Good intentions mean nothing when stacked up against the cold realities of
the universe. You see, THAT is the difference between atheists and
believers: atheists cannot fool themselves. Believers can. And THAT, my
well-intentioned friend, is the scary part!
>"There is absolutely no scientific evidence to prove life after death. But
>then there is no evidence to disprove life after death. Sooner of later you
>will KNOW, so why worry about it?" - Lazarus Long
>
But to assert something, you must have *some* evidence! Especially something
as radical as life after death. Instead, all the evidence runs the other
way. There is also tons of historical evidence that all religions are simply
embodiments of man's (quite understandable) fear of death.
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