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

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