07-27-2003, 06:45 PM
"You sound like that long-dead rock star John Lennon"
23 years isn't that long. And, as the man says, he's not the only one. He'll live on long after you and I are dead.
"History has shown us this, yet amazingly there is never any shortage of people around who claim that religion is the world's REAL problem, and the secret to true happiness lies in a Godless world filled with Godless people all cheerily buzzing away headed only toward the blackness of the grave as the final and forever end to their existance... "
Nobody's arguing with the individual's right to practice religion, or even any collective right to organize into apolitical congregations. The problem is religion and politics riding (a la Herbert) in the same cart. Atheism is only a possible cure for the last, and, as you say, history has shown it to be a remarkably bad one. Nothing in this thread is about the first two.
I would also point out that you ARE headed towards the grave, and that it likely IS your final and forever end to existence (as a consious entity), and that nothing you say, do or believe will alter this. Perhaps that is a more reasonable cause for the problems of the world; when people screw it up, they know they won't have to live to see the concequences.
Jester
23 years isn't that long. And, as the man says, he's not the only one. He'll live on long after you and I are dead.
"History has shown us this, yet amazingly there is never any shortage of people around who claim that religion is the world's REAL problem, and the secret to true happiness lies in a Godless world filled with Godless people all cheerily buzzing away headed only toward the blackness of the grave as the final and forever end to their existance... "
Nobody's arguing with the individual's right to practice religion, or even any collective right to organize into apolitical congregations. The problem is religion and politics riding (a la Herbert) in the same cart. Atheism is only a possible cure for the last, and, as you say, history has shown it to be a remarkably bad one. Nothing in this thread is about the first two.
I would also point out that you ARE headed towards the grave, and that it likely IS your final and forever end to existence (as a consious entity), and that nothing you say, do or believe will alter this. Perhaps that is a more reasonable cause for the problems of the world; when people screw it up, they know they won't have to live to see the concequences.
Jester