From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Mon Oct 25 1999 - 08:26:37 MDT
From: "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@www.aeiveos.com>
>Rob, I would generally agree that for most people religion is
>handed to them on a silver platter or sold to them (as in a used
>car).
>However, there are people who see reality very clearly, and
>can?still choose to be religious because of the reasons I've been
>discussing in the astrophysics thread with Amara -- the Universe
>seems too "rigged". If people want to have "faith" that something
>caused the big bang or that multiverses exist and they choose to
>express or practice that faith in a particular religious form,
>then I don't think you can say that they are "universally weak
>minded".
>I would suggest where you want to draw the lines is when you go
>from using religion (as in faith) to explain the unknowns at the
>"edges" of reality to an organized system that evolves power
>structures, gatekeepers, wealth concentrations, systems for
>controlling "unacceptable" behaviors and organized genocide.
I've alway been intrigued at how the universe just happens to fit
together like a set of lego's. I long ago adopted the Jubal Harshaw
(Stranger in a strange Land by Robert Heinlein) tradition of being
agnostic on even numbered days and atheist on odd numbered days....
>Religion is not inherently faulty, it is mostly misguided.
Religion falls down when it pursues power and control, which
unfortunately is on a daily basis.
Brian
Member, Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
Life Extension Foundation, www.lef.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
Mars Society, www.marssociety.org
Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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