From: popec@fennec.sccsi.com (William C. Barwell)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Fundies: expensive
Date: 30 Aug 92 12:53:04 GMT
Organization: Fennec Information Systems, The World View Magazine

A. Lizard says, "Make it expensive", but how?
Well, I doubt that lawsuits will slow 'em down much.  They like to play 
the martyr, witness the pro-life groups antics.
  Seriously, I think it is time for a new movement.  An 
anti-fundamentalist, anti-ultra-conservative evangelical movement.
  What is needed is amovement to make Higher Bible Criticism a household
word.  For those who do not know what that is ecaxtly, it simply means 
reading the bible and noticing it's conradictions and errors and then 
using one's brains to think about what these mean.
  For example, one the first page of the Bible, Genesis 1 & 2, one can 
read two different and wholy contradictory versions of the creation.
What this means is that whoever cobbled together this book did not know 
what they were talking about.  Thus it could not have been Jehova that 
'wrote' this book or 'inspired' it.  Adam and Eve did not exist.
they aren't even 'names'.  Adami is babylonian for 'man', and 'eve' is 
babylonian for woman.  This was an old babylonian myth stolen and changed 
to make a new myth for the ancient hebrews.  However, Xianity built a 
castle on this foundation of stolen sand.  No creation, no Adam and Eve.  
No Adam and Eve, no original sin.  No original sin, no ned for an 
'Atonement'.  No atonement, no need for Jesus.  A few minutes of thought 
and orthodox Xianity crashes to the ground.
  1 Timothy 2  uses this tall tale to justify putting women in a second 
class below men, because "Eve" was fooled by a serpent.  This is 
unacceptable.  It's a tall tale.
  The 4 gospels are similarly shot through with contradictions that prove 
that they are books written by people who were not knowledgable or 
trustworthy about the events they portray.  
  Much of the Judeo-Christian heritage we hears o much about is not 
morality at all.  It is merely the biases of ancient bad tempered 
billygoat herders.  And I am tired personally of hearing the silly biases 
of 2000 year old goatherders being palmed off as the word of God.
  I do not like the Judeo-xian biases against women.
  I do not like the judeo-xian biases aginst gays
There is a whole bunch of this sort of stuff I do not like.  I think that 
the only way to fight this is for a movement to start that aims to 
eventually make Higher Bible Critcism part of the everyday understanding 
of every man, woman and child in America.  I believe that a person who 
thinks that god wrote this book or inspired it, (as the evangelicals use 
the word inspire), is intellectually corrupt and dangerous.  I believe 
that every American SHOULD be able to discuss the errors and 
contradictions of the bible and there meaning and understand how it has 
historically led us astray and caused 2000 years of harm for untold 
millions.  
  I believe that eventually, that in America, a politician that 'believes 
in the Bible' should be viewed by the population as a whole as 
intellectually lacking, dangerous to our freedoms, and therefor 
unelectable.  It is time I believe for a new 'Enlightenment' in America.
Time to say, no I don't want the opinions of ancient ignorant goatherds 
to be palmed off as God's Words and to run my life, thank you.
I no longer want to live under these illusions anymore. Thank you.
 Maybe this is as good a place and as good as time as any to start this 
'movement'.  'Sever root, tree dies'.
  More sophisticated Christianity I can live with, tho' don't believe.
But the rest is dangerous.  And wrong.  And unacceptable.
For those who haven't put much though to this sort of thing a fairly good 
book to start with would be Thomas paine's 'The Age Of Reason'.  It is 
usually readily available and also has the advantage of being written by 
one of our greatest founding fathers.  It is a good start.
  What to call this 'movement'?  For lack of a better name, 'The New 
Enlightenment'.  
PAt Buchanan has put it right.  We are living in an age of cultural 
warfare.  I think it's time to fight back by cutting them off at tyhe 
roots.

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William C. Barwell [popec@fennec.sccsi.com]  //  Pope Charles
Pope Of the Church Of The SubGenius for the Golden Triangle Area
Laughing at everything in the Universe...including the concept of 
laughing at everything in the Universe!
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