From: simon@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Simon Clippingdale)
Subject: Re: Why? (was Re: THE MIND OF THE BIBLE BELIEVER)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England
Distribution: world,public
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 18:34:56 GMT

In article <1993Jan20.223704.29859@digi.lonestar.org> gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo) writes:
>
> [Mr. Karner's disparaging view of religion deleted]
>
> Another view is that religion has its origins in light and truth, but,
> the human bearers of it being human as they are, over the ages it becomes 
> encrusted with corruptions and superstitions, and also becomes sclerotic 
> and hardened, closing itself off to the new understanding and enlightenment 
> required by the human soul as it grows and evolves.
>
> The difference between true religion and Nazism is that with the former, even 
> if its form has become as brittle and crumbled as a dead leaf, you can still 
> detect traces of the once living form -- even it the fullness of its original
> intricacy and integrity cannot always be clearly discerned -- whereas the
> latter was constructed out of artificial, dead substances - lies - in the
> first place and was twisted and ugly from the beginning.

Well, at least it's poetic even if it means nothing.

At the output of the poetry decoder, the above strikes me as close to circular
and closer to special pleading on behalf of True Religion. True Religion seems
to be that which "has its origins in light and truth", whatever that means,
and once had an "original intricacy and integrity", whatever that means,
despite the rather convenient assertion that this is barely if at all
detectable now that it's all been corrupted by those useless bloody humans.

Really Nasty Ideologies, such as Nazism, are distinguished from True Religion
by the lack of this mysterious virtue which is, in any case, undetectable or
nearly so. They are also Rotten To The Core, unlike True Religion, despite
the fact that to the skeptical observer, adherents of each seem driven by
much the same kind of conviction that they are Right, and seem keen to invent
all manner of folklore and tortuous rationalisations to sustain themselves
in their neuroses.

> The living plant that ages and dies always brings forth a new seed from
> which it can rise again in renewed freshness.

I feel a tear of joy trickle down my cheek, and will buy Persil henceforth.

> The one that was dead to begin with must be reconstructed again by force
> of lies, by those who serve the "father of lies".

Drivel, and meaningless drivel at that. See "invent all manner of folklore"
above. For some curious reason, it is every bit as easy to envisage such
emotive nonsense about `those who serve the father of lies', `origins in light
and truth' and so forth coming from adherents of Really Nasty Ideologies
as from adherents of True Religion. I wonder if they are perchance related.

> Gerry Palo (73237.2006@compuserve.com)

Cheers

Simon
-- 
Simon Clippingdale                simon@dcs.warwick.ac.uk
Department of Computer Science    Tel (+44) 203 523296
University of Warwick             FAX (+44) 203 525714
Coventry CV4 7AL, U.K.
Xref: sparky alt.atheism:26992 sci.skeptic:22833