[MD] God is dead.

[Michael Hamilton]

Folks,

I am no Christian, but I think Robert is talking a good deal of sense,
and many around here seem all to eager to misconstrue him in order to
paint him as a "religious zealot". For example:

[Robert]
> 'God would exact payment for such evil and destroy the thief. Pragmatically
> speaking, whichever method works is good.'

[Peter] so much for the benevolent 'God'.

Robert isn't preaching fire and brimstone here, Peter. He's saying
that, from the pragmatic point of view, a society of the past would
have benefitted greatly from instilling crude religious beliefs into
its citizens (for example, the belief that sinners would literally be
punished in hell). This was necessary because, unfortunately, not all
members of society have the ability or the inclination to internalize
the more profound religious teachings of compassion and creating
heaven on earth - the Quality teachings.

In other words, there are two ways of making sure that people don't
steal: a) teach them the benefits that compassion brings to this life,
b) scare them shitless. Ideally, method (a) would be all that we need,
and this would be a good end to work towards, whether you see it as
Quality, or as Heaven On Earth. Unfortunately, for the time being,
this is the real world, and not everybody is going to accept the more
profound teachings of Pirsig or JC. A shame.

It is also a shame that all religious people are painted as
literal-minded zealots.

Regards,
Mike