In article 9001@prime.mdata.fi, iikkap@mits.mdata.fi (Iikka Paavolainen) writes:
> In article <1992Dec24.234010.20861@u.washington.edu> jeon@carson.u.washington.edu (Sangyong Jeon) writes:
> >
> >To the optimists who expressed the hope that the atheist flag would
> >fly in the end, I hope you and me are right. But as long as there
> >remain people who feel powerless and helpless in a society, I am
> >afraid it will remain just that - a hope. Mind you, eradication of
> >poverty alone won't eliminate the feeling of powerlessness some feels.
> >Even eradication of poverty combined with (good) universal education
> >won't do that. In this sense, violence and religion cannot be
> >separated. They are just two different manifestations of one human
> >desire, the power.
>
> Thus if we eradicate religion we will eradicate much of the violence in
> this world.
Huh? wouldn't it be to eradicate the will to power? Religion is not a bad
thing in and of itself. In fact, is is a necessary oil for the machinery of
society. Violence comes from greed and fear, not religion. The conquistadors
didn't care about "converting" the natives -- they cared about gold. The
crusades were not religious, they were a land grab. Just because greedy
individuals use religion as an umbrella for impropriety does not invalidate
religion itself. C'mon, I would expect more serious inquiry from someone
who seems to care a lot about logic.
> What people really need is the ability to think with their own minds, not
> just mindlessly follow the opinions of the masses, "just because their doing
> it too". The amount of people that believe in certain ideas never tells the
> correctness or logic of those ideas.
Agreed. But what is "correctness" or "logic" other than a useful tool within
certain contexts. Religion is a tool to help point to a state of transcendence.
All of the dogma and seeming contradiction is of a superficial nature. At the
esoteric level all religions are centered on the "mystical" experience. It is interesting to note that the differences between Islam, Christianity, Buddhism,
Hinduism, AmerInd religions' expressions of this mystical state differ so little
as to be almost indistinguishable from one another.
To deny the importance of emotion or the need for self-transcendence can cause one
to lead a very shallow existence, indeed. You may be able to use logic to win over
the debating team, but it hardly helps one to woo women. I can tell you what I
prefer to do! :-)
>
> Well smart people tend to grab the riches, because they have the means.
> But, as I said, I think the environment is more important a factor.
Alas, this is about as far from the truth as could be (providing your version
of "smart" is in any way tied to success in academia or IQ tests). Financially
successful folks are those who possess a strong desire to succeed and the
