[MD] New Model Army, Mystic(DQ) Experience, and Religion (SQ) as Power

[Ant McWatt]

Steve H quoted Einstein August 1st:

“I do not think that it is necessarily the case that science and religion 
are natural opposites. In fact, I think that there is a very close 
connection between the two. Further, I think that science without religion 
is lame and, conversely, that religion without science is blind. Both are 
important and should work hand-in-hand.”

(Found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein)

>See even the greatest scientist of the 20th century was religious.

Steve,

That last statement is true as far as it goes but it needs to be qualified 
as regarding the term “religious”.

Firstly, Einstein identified himself culturally as a Jew but one who had 
lost his faith.

Secondly, if you read Einstein’s very readable “The World As I See It” (New 
York, 1949, p.28-29) you will note that when he is speaking about “religion” 
it is in the sense of harmony as illustrated by Poincaré in ZMM rather than 
the more traditional sense you are suggesting:

“You will hardly find one among the profounder sort of scientific minds 
without a peculiar religious feeling of his own. But it is different from 
the religion of the naive man. For the latter God is a being from whose care 
one hopes to benefit and whose punishment one fears; a sublimation of a 
feeling similar to that of a child for its father, a being to whom one 
stands to some extent in a personal relation, however deeply it may be 
tinged with awe. But the scientist is possessed by the sense of universal 
causation. The future, to him, is every whit as necessary and determined as 
the past. There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human 
affair. His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the 
harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority 
that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human 
beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding 
principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself 
from the shackles of selfish desire. It is beyond question closely akin to 
that which has possessed the religious geniuses of all ages.”


Anyway, to cut to the chase, I think the issue of religion (and especially 
the exploitation of Fundamentalist Christians by neo-cons) is just one of 
those smokescreens often used by unscrupulous politicians to ensure their 
materially comfortable lifestyle continues.  The “War on Terror” is another 
myth designed to scare the US and UK population into being more submissive 
and pliable for the same end.  More detail for these points is provided by 
the “Power of Nightmares” TV documentary that Khaled and Arlo recently 
highlighted; the entire scripts for the documentary being at:

http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares

Finally, I still think that most everyday people calling themselves 
Christians or Muslims are sincere about their beliefs but, to return to a 
point I made a couple of days ago, if you rely on the static baggage of 
someone else (whether that’s a parent or the Catholic Church) when dealing 
the Divine (rather than approach it directly), you’re going to leave 
yourself open to political and financial exploitation.  This type of 
exploitation is also why writers such as Mark Twain implied that anyone who 
_wants_ to hold high office should be carefully scrutinised for their 
motivations in doing so!

Best wishes,

Anthony.


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