From: Scott Roberts (jse885@earthlink.net)
Date: Thu Nov 04 2004 - 15:58:30 GMT
Marsha,
> What is your objection to a secular view?
That it doesn't recognize non-empirical reality, that as a result it is
depraved (what Buddhists call fundamental ignorance, Christians call
original sin, and what I tend to call original insanity). We know something
is fundamentally wrong with us, but the secular viewpoint only offers drugs
to mask that wrongness, not cure it: material success, sports, TV, etc.
>
> You've previously stated that you tossed away your old Christian beliefs,
> and later gained a new understanding. Shouldn't all of Christendom toss
> away their old, outdated beliefs to allow a new understanding to dawn
> within?
I think they should all question their beliefs. I don't expect them all to
just toss them, though -- that's probably asking too much of human nature.
When I tossed them I was 14, and thought I was being clever. I later
realized that I wasn't, that what I was tossing was a caricature of
Christianity, and that there was something of great value that I had
missed. By the time I had realized this, though, I had learned to live
without the surrounding ritual and whatnot. I see no problem with living
with the ritual, as long as one recognizes it for what it is -- a way to
keep oneself focused.
>
> How long, do tell, do you think it will take the Christian establishment
to
> actually encourage it's followers to actually think for
> themselves? Another two thousand years?
I think it will be less than that, like a hundred or so, though of course I
am just guessing. But I see the current situation as rapidly (by historical
measures) reaching a climax, with the modern, secular view drowning in its
contradictions. And whether it is the Christian establishment that does the
encouraging, or whether it comes from the grass roots, I have no idea.
There are several "Christian establishments" after all, and I don't expect
them all, or even most, to be in the vanguard. I also have no idea whether
what results will be recognizably Christian.
>
> BTW Did you read Karen Armstrong's 'The Gospel According To Woman:
> Christianity's Creation of the Sex War in the West'?
No. I have read her History of God, which I liked. I'll keep an eye out for
it.
- Scott
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