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a new way of looking at... religion >> comments - 1 |
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from: keith r. bearman
re: spiritual masturbation comments: "It strikes me as interesting that you seem to want to single out Christianity, when it should be religion in it's totality which deserves being excoriated. But, that might simply be your Mid-Western roots showing. That, and exposure to an unsuspecting street preacher. Yes, here in the West, our exposure to Christians and most especially the Christian Right (which seems to be the impetus for your "rant") far outweighs our exposure to the Eastern schools of God(s), but they are just as guilty as the followers and preachers of Christ. My problem with religion takes in ALL religions, not just those which proselytize here in the West. From my "research" into the gestation of faith, I have found that it seems to stem from early hominid's need to explain to himself and his tribe just why a thunderstorm destroyed his home/fields/neighbor/dog/child. From this early start we get to John-Paul (Pope, not Jean Paul, though he may qualify if you want to stretch things just a bit), Jerry Fallwell, any Ayatollah, and the Dalai Lama. Man's need to unscrew the inscrutable has led to two possible solutions for the same questions. Religion and science BOTH want to tell us the how of which. But only one uses objective reality while the other relies on faith and a belief in the "supernatural". If one is to accept (on faith?) my proposition, then one needs to accept the notion that the word "supernatural" is a contradiction in terms. If it is supernatural, then it is NOT part of the natural order of things and by definition can have NO affect on nature. If you want to disagree with this notion, then you need read no further. Your title suggests your indoctrination into the religious (mostly Christian, I will admit) fallacy that masturbation is inherently evil. The Christian (and Jewish, though the Jews have pretty much let this one go by the boards) Bible has been, once again, mistranslated AND misinterpreted. The stricture against masturbation was actually a ruling against the character Onan, who refused to impregnate his brother's widow, a "law" of the times which sought to increase the size of the tribe and to assure that the family "name" would continue. Another mistranslation which is widely accepted today (and in Salem, MA a couple of centuries ago) is "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". The problem with this one is that the word "witch" was mistranslated from the original (possibly on purpose) word and should properly be read as "Thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live". Just a minor difference. |