16th March 2003, 10:56 PM
Well. Several dozen new posts (while I was gone on vacation from Friday evening until Sunday evening)... given the subject maybe it is better I wasn't here... and I sure won't read it all. So much defense of the indefensible and/or wrong mixed in the posts...
Religion really isn't a subject that people who disagree on the issue can discuss. Why? Intractability. I can not see any possible way that people can believe in such a odd idea as god, or heaven, or whatever, in a serious way... do I see the appeal? Sure! Everyone wishes they could live forever! But is it even remotely sensible, or does it show up in the realm of the possible? Not even remotely close... and how people think otherwise honesly mystifies me.
Oh... and as for Jesus, did he live? Probably. Did he have a good message? Yeah... but no one has actually followed that message (well, a few people, but the number of people who actually do as Jesus wanted people to do is so small that its essentially no one...), so like most any reformer or 'prophet' who showed a better (if often less practical) way to live he should be listened to... especially when he has so many "followers" whose beliefs have almost nothing in common with his...
Oh, and LL, how does stuff like the Catholic practice of being able to pay the church to absolve yourself of sins work, exactly? :)
Religion really isn't a subject that people who disagree on the issue can discuss. Why? Intractability. I can not see any possible way that people can believe in such a odd idea as god, or heaven, or whatever, in a serious way... do I see the appeal? Sure! Everyone wishes they could live forever! But is it even remotely sensible, or does it show up in the realm of the possible? Not even remotely close... and how people think otherwise honesly mystifies me.
Oh... and as for Jesus, did he live? Probably. Did he have a good message? Yeah... but no one has actually followed that message (well, a few people, but the number of people who actually do as Jesus wanted people to do is so small that its essentially no one...), so like most any reformer or 'prophet' who showed a better (if often less practical) way to live he should be listened to... especially when he has so many "followers" whose beliefs have almost nothing in common with his...
Oh, and LL, how does stuff like the Catholic practice of being able to pay the church to absolve yourself of sins work, exactly? :)