[MD] Terry Eagleton on Dawkin's God Delusion

[Case]

[Bo]
Now, of the three, Christendom has moved farthest away from its 
roots - which in a MOQ light is the social level - because of the 
Christ figure who IMO had picked up the SOM/Intellectual signals 
from the Greeks and began the same processs in the heartland of 
Judaism. A most difficult task as we know. 

[Case]
The leaves of the oak also move away from their roots and then fall back to
them so I must me missing your point. If you are saying that Christendom has
wandered far from the social level I will need some convincing. Jesus was a
historical figure rooted in Jewish tradition. I think the strongest evidence
suggests that he was actively opposed to the Hellenized Roman culture being
inflicted on his people.

The mythological Christ was a third century synthesis of Greek and Jewish
ideals. The difficult of forging this synthesis was eased by the support of
the Roman emperor seeking to end the bickering of factions in what was
declared to be the state religion.

If you are suggesting that the forced feeding of Greek intellectualism into
the Jewish ethics moved Christians away from their social roots I believe
many Jews in the modern world would agree. And there is imagery in the New
Testament about the grafting of new vines on older root stock that
acknowledges this.

[Bo]
Lutheranism has brought this process farthest while Catholicism 
lags behind as and certainly wants people to believe 
unquestioningly. Around here, in Scandinavia there are now 
clerics who don't believe in God and I hope this trend will move 
further and bring Christendom closer to a kind of Western 
Buddhism. 

[Case]
Jewish and Christian history documents the evolution of the "chosen
people's" understanding of the nature of God and their relationship to him.
>From the polytheistic tribes at the foot of Mount Sinai to the movement of
the Holy Spirit in modern megachurches believers have understood and
expressed their understanding in different ways at different times. 
 
[Bo]
But to achieve this the intellectual level has to be transcended for 
the meta-level of the MOQ. In my opinion the MOQ is a better 
"buddhism" than Zen because of the West's long sojourn on the 
intellectual (SOM) level, one that the orientals just had a touch-
and-go experience with before turning "mystics". 

[Case]
Church history is a study in the tension between Ardor and Order between
saints and priests. This tension is seen from Exodus to today. Pirsig
comments on this.

I try not to miss an opportunity to point out that renouncing desire and
surrender to God's will are functionally equivalent so it would be fair to
say that East and West approach the same place by wandering different paths.