[MD] Journey to the Stars

[John Carl]

On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 1:49 PM, John Carl <ridgecoyote at gmail.com> wrote:


I'd also object to the notion that the cosmological picture painted by
>> scientific materialism even constitutes humanism.
>
>

mebbe.  My slant on Humanism is  a book called The Arrogance of Humanism by
David Ehrenfeld.  In it he portrays humanism as sort of modern day religion
which exhibits a great deal of faith in man and man's ability to solve
problems and interpret reality.

Wiki says: *Humanism*, denoting a philosophy centered around man...

and it says:Philosophical humanism can be considered as a process by which
truth and morality is sought through human investigation

Which doesn't sound too bad, as long as it is honestly "seeking" and not
preaching.  Which is what I term hubristic.  We're not guessing at the age
of the universe, we KNOW it, says Whoopi Goldberg.




> Glorifying humanity is about the last thing it does. As the bumper-sticker
>> so succinctly puts it, that picture portrays you and me as "a tiny speck in
>> a cold, ruthless universe". It paints a picture of reality that is entirely
>> indifferent to human interests. Christianity, on the other hand, portrays
>> you and me as the reason the universe was created and puts us at the very
>> center of a great cosmic drama, involving the sacrifice of God's only son on
>> humanity's behalf, that will determine the fate of our eternal souls. I
>> mean, if you're looking for signs of excessive self importance, I think you
>> might be barking up the wrong tree.
>
>

Well if you're gonna start blasting Christianity, you'll get no grief from
me.  Just because I know 'em doesn't mean I love 'em.  I have a bumper
sticker on the back of my car - a quote from Ghandi "I like your Christ.  I
do not like your Christians, they are so unlike your Christ."  Which pisses
a lot of people off.

But I do think there is an awful lot of interesting stuff in the bible.
 Especially in light of the MoQ and its explanation of the conflict between
dynamic and static quality - it really opens up a way of analyzing what is
good about the mythos which, after all, is the backbone of our western
culture and has many effects upon our lifestyle that can't be ignored.  Not
only that, but I'd say that if you don't craft a philosophy that can be as
friendly to christians as it is to taoists, buddhists, hindus and
zoroastorians, it ain't gonna get too far off the ground.

So with that understanding out of the way, I also carry a lot of biblical
baggage with me in the form of years of training, reading and concordance
bashing and I'd be glad to dialogue on biblical issues anywhere, anytime.

And just because you've heard a christian preacher saying he knows  the
reason for the universe,  don't believe him.




-- 
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There are differing interpretations of Reality, some are just better than
others, that's all.
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