X-Message-Number: 15083 From: "Dani Kollin" <> Subject: RE: CryoNet #15068 Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 12:23:41 +0200 Message #15068 From: "John de Rivaz" <> References: <> Subject: Re: Whale hugging ?? and clearing old churches Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2000 12:26:01 -0000 In fact religion thrives on persecution. The only way that might eradicate religion is increasing affluence and a wide choice of things for people to do with their disposable time. Such activities might seem more interesting that endlessly repeating something they must know in their heart of hearts not to be true. Also other sources of fellowship similar to that offered by the church but without the coercion and authority structure would help. Gosh John, And here I thought believing in religion or more specifically the idea of ethical monotheism made me a better human being. If only I'd known it was just to distract me until a "more interesting" activity came along. And just to be clear, these are the tenets of ethical monotheism: There is a God. God's primary demand is ethics. God without ethics leads to religious evil. Ethics without God produces secular evil. To quote Dennis Prager, " In the twentieth century hundreds of millions of people have become passionate about "humanity", "progress", "the nation", "the Party", religious and psychological cults, race, liberation movements, drugs and every conceivable form of religion - but not about inextricably linking God and goodness" and further "... a religious person who is not concerned with ethical monotheism will use his religiosity to deflect attention from ethics. He can use religious faith or religious observance as a shield to protect himself from moral scrutiny. An artist can tell you that his art is so important that he is above normal moral considerations. A scholar can hide a contemptible lifestyle behind an array of books and verbiage. It is one of life's ironies that once a person dies, most of these things mean little to others. Every eulogy I have ever heard emphasized (when possible) the goodness of the deceased far more than his or her accomplishments. It is too bad that it often takes death to clarify what is most important in life." From Dennis Prager's "The Case for Ethical Monotheism", Ultimate Issues Volume 7 Number 3 (July-Sep 1991). Dennis's website can be found at www.dennisprager.com Meanwhile I think I'll stick to my current slate of "activities", Plebian as they may seem, thank you. Dani Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15083