tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post667557543078857068..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Does Religion Poison Everything?Stuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-83371101776271373052017-07-03T08:01:16.368-07:002017-07-03T08:01:16.368-07:00Deana,
Thanks. I'm one of those who thinks (I ...Deana,<br />Thanks. I'm one of those who thinks (I think Voltaire said it) God is a comedian who plays to an audience that's too scared to laugh. Of course when I go to the other side I may found that I've overplayed my hand.<br />TW,<br />"And, of course, the way that Exodus passage concludes is even more absurd. Nothing wrong with stealing, lying, murdering, screwing your friends' spouses, plotting to seize their property..."<br />Well there's not much to do out in the Sinai.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13642228725661059539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-75381135806271936772017-07-03T05:45:33.226-07:002017-07-03T05:45:33.226-07:00And, of course, the way that Exodus passage conclu...And, of course, the way that Exodus passage concludes is even more absurd. Nothing wrong with stealing, lying, murdering, screwing your friends' spouses, plotting to seize their property...<br /><br />All perfectly reasonable behavior for gigantic lumbering meat machines controlled by a molecule designed and planted here by space aliens (as we know from Francis Crick, devout Panspermian and co-discoverer of DNA).trigger warninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06310637474428322994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-79532937397355310752017-07-02T20:10:24.508-07:002017-07-02T20:10:24.508-07:00James -
I love your response!
DeanaJames -<br /><br />I love your response!<br /><br />DeanaDeanahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14447566763139743519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-62577316968133912352017-07-02T17:51:36.817-07:002017-07-02T17:51:36.817-07:00IAC,
"See what happens when you encourage It,...IAC,<br />"See what happens when you encourage It, James?"<br />Yeah, I sure do. I tell you this Ignatius, if the Lord had just delivered me and my people out of 20+yrs of slavery by turning staffs into snakes, raining frogs, turning the Nile into blood, dividing a sea, and putting a general whupping on the Pharaoh. I'm NOT going to be dancing around any golden calf or anything else for that matter a mere couple of weeks later or the rest of my life. Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13642228725661059539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-21590782884821502142017-07-02T16:36:21.014-07:002017-07-02T16:36:21.014-07:00See what happens when you encourage It, James?See what happens when you encourage It, James?Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222603717128565302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-26456006506601653982017-07-02T14:20:42.517-07:002017-07-02T14:20:42.517-07:00Depends on the religion.Depends on the religion.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-79992370585208312552017-07-02T10:31:30.493-07:002017-07-02T10:31:30.493-07:00p.s. A book I read a long while ago was called &qu...p.s. A book I read a long while ago was called "The magic of Ritual: Our Need for Liberating Rites That Transform Our Lives and Our Communities" talking about Christianity and wider applications.<br />https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Ritual-Liberating-Transform-Communities/dp/0060618973<br /><br />I won't say I understand it, but I liked the idea there was something I didn't understand here that is important. As best I can tell science is about an observer-observed relationship, while ritual doesn't work easily on an impassive neutral observer. It works on some more intimate presence. And so this is also were philosophy probably doesn't go. But how often religion can or does get there is an open question. Perhaps the simple "Christ be with you" collective greeting with eye contact comes closest on an average Sunday?<br /><br />I copied a list from the book:<br /><br />15 Maxims for the planning of Christian Rituals: <br />1. To do something while displaying the doing equals performance. <br />2. In theater, the display is paramount; In ritual, the doing. <br />3. A ritual is a "transformance" - a performance designed to change a situation. <br />4. Church ritual often becomes mere display, either just flashy or merely symbolic, with no hint of transforming power. <br />5. In ritual active participants should outnumber the passive ones. <br />6. Art is play done workfully, but ritual is work done playfully. <br />7. All ritual invokes power. A ritual is religious when those powers receive adoration. It is Christian when the powers are God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. <br />8. A Christian ritual "works" only when its participants are willing to make demands upon God. ("Ask and you shall receive.") <br />9. To be boring is to bear false witness. <br />10. To be sensational is to bear no witness at all. <br />11. Ritual loves not paper. <br />12. The form of a Christian ritual may be very traditional or very innovative or both at once, since form in ritual is nothing but technique, and substance is spirit. <br />13. Christian ritual is liminal and authentic when the people of God receive the spirit of God in the midst. ("The kingdom of God is among you.... Where two or three are gathered together, there am I....") <br />14. The liminality of ritual can be used by God to weaken the grip of oppressive powers. In fact, God has no other use for it. <br />15. Christian ritual is the opposite of servitude: It is the performance of freedom. Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-46167794641657937712017-07-02T10:19:06.691-07:002017-07-02T10:19:06.691-07:00Anything can be 'religious'.
Magic Negro,...Anything can be 'religious'.<br /><br />Magic Negro, Diversity, Celebrity, and Homomania are the religions of the West.<br /><br />We have to worship them. If not, you're a heretic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-24778009860218068392017-07-02T08:56:05.989-07:002017-07-02T08:56:05.989-07:00AO, I kind of agree with you. The thing is, whethe...AO, I kind of agree with you. The thing is, whether it's science, atheism, or religion, all we generally have to go on is people's behavior. We don't have the luxury the Old Testament Jewish guys had in direct communications, towers of fire, plagues, and assorted miracles. Though I admit if I did get a direct communication from the big guy I would tend to hang with him from that time out. But other than that, we today just have to do the best we can and then go see if it's all true or not.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13642228725661059539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-27464967795344053892017-07-02T07:42:26.138-07:002017-07-02T07:42:26.138-07:00I have the greatest respect for the late Christoph...I have the greatest respect for the late Christopher Hitchens. He was a fine writer (his <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2008/05/are_we_getting_two_for_one.html" rel="nofollow">comments</a> on Michelle Obama's senior thesis should not be missed), but writers need to make money and there are few more reliable literary money machines than the Provocateur Genre published by evangelical atheists.<br /><br />One need only note the financial success of Richard Dawkins (the man wears the most amazing ties), despite the fact that he is a self-described gigantic lumbering meat robot programmed by a molecule.trigger warninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06310637474428322994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-57696029416887651742017-07-02T06:39:54.265-07:002017-07-02T06:39:54.265-07:00Correlation is not always causation.Correlation is not always causation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-22199566261064957122017-07-02T05:58:55.552-07:002017-07-02T05:58:55.552-07:00Stuart: One is intrigued by the notion that a larg...Stuart: One is intrigued by the notion that a larger number of social interactions with people who share the same code produces psychosocial benefits. It provides a bulwark against feelings of abandonment and anomie. But, religion also teaches us principles that can guide us through life. (Something that, incidentally, science cannot do.)<br /><br />I'd agree on Gruber's hypothesis. And on the grounds it might be many agnostic-leaning people may attend church not as believers in rewards in a hypothetical afterlife, but in the immediate rewards of "fitting in", and finding common ground within a church regardless of its theological implications.<br /><br />I understand and agree with Stuart's assertion that science can't act as a guide, although arguments can be made that clear-thinking philosophy can lead to an objective standard of law and ethics. I don't know if religion teaches ethics with any consistency, but at least for Christianity, it does teach silly ideas like the dignity and worth of every human being.<br /><br />Philosophy does risk the same sort of reductive conclusions as libertarianism - that self-interest is the source of all good, and utilitarianism is the highest virtue, including things like abortion, suicide and euthanasia when society doesn't need you any more.<br /><br />Collectivism of any sort won't save us, but it reminds us to realize our mutual dependence, and common interest in not acting like a jerk just because you have enough money to not care what anyone else thinks.<br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.com