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

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Steve]
Again, do you see no POSSIBILITY for change?  Social level values are not inherently bad, they are just lower than intellectual values.  I'm trying to put the church in its place, you are trying to destroy it.


[Arlo]
The church functions as a social institution to control behavior by appealing to an Supreme Authority. Before Intellect was given dominance (and one sees frankly little evidence of this these days), social codes relied on Authority rather than reason. As a social institution, I see little reason to support this power. Certainly, we do not need a "God" to tell us what we can and can't do, do we? 

[Steve]
More blaming of the institution instead of the wrongdoers within it. This is like saying: "There are people in the media, who are attempting to manipulate the people's minds, and because these people exist, all media must be abolished."

[Arlo]
Well, now you're just conflating the "church" with "spirituality". We can abolish the "church" without harming spirituality at all. Just like The Church of Reason in ZMM. "Theism" as it pertains to metaphor, myth and exploring what lays beyond human intellectn has never been challenged here. Only "theism" as it is falsely paired with the social authority of particular power structures. You don't need the "church" to be "theistic". You only need to the church to enforce your brand of "theism" on others.

The Godhead, or Quality, or Buddha, is expressed everywhere in culturally varied ways, some say "angels" others say "thunder beings", still others say "valkyrie". Whatever the metaphor is practically pointless to argue, none of these are more "real" or "true" than the others. And if THIS was the message the "church" advanced, you'd get heap-hooraying woo-hoo's from me. But sadly, we all know it is not. And at that point, it is precisely why the "church" disinhibits enlightment and becomes a vehicle for social power and subserviance. If every sermon, service, prayer, accolade, hymn and Sunday School lesson began "All this is just an analogy", life would be a giant Candyland game. (Well, maybe not). But they don't. And they can't.  And they never will. (Well, maybe some Unitarian and/or Gnostic churches).

The Bible is a book of myth. As is the Koran. And the Torah. And the oral tradions of the indigenous peoples. And the Vedas. And the Sagas. These myths express the Unexpressable Godhead in the only way possible, through cultural analogues of the peoples of various geographic regions. A burning bush in desert lore. A whalecow in Inuit. A crow to indigenous North Americans. A fish to island peoples. One of the greatest gifts we have in modern times is the ability to "triangulate" myth paths (this was Campbell's goal), as Pirsig talks about noticing the convergence of paths in his travels in the high country of the mind, and see what commonality all peoples, historically and geographically dispersed have zoomed in on. (Although since this counters the xenophobia so many depend on to support their political agendas, I doubt it will have broad appeal in current society.).