From: B.K. DeLong (bkdelong@pobox.com)
Date: Tue Sep 12 2000 - 13:04:50 PDT
At 12:18 PM 09/12/2000 -0700, you wrote:
>Religion: good or bad?
Man.....talk about *FLAME* bait. My new copy of Eudora 5.0 is just spitting
out triple peppers today ;)
>Is Religion spiritually enriching and a guide
>to living a fulfilling life, or is it a bogus
>outdated concept, appealing only to hypocrites?
I tend to side with Cindy's POV. I had the benefit of witnessing hypocrisy
in organized religion at its best when I visited my father's church (born
again Christian...Presbyterian I think) one Thanksgiving. Everyone was
asked to stand up and give thanks and ask for forgiveness. One would think
that in a auditorium full of devoute Christians, they would be giving
thanks for all the good things in their life but person after person were
getting up asking for forgiveness for beating their children, drunk
driving, and adultery. Not one person gave thanks for their bountiful
lives. I was appalled to hear of such horrible activities as people who had
been more than happy to thrust the bible in my face many a time detailed
their violation of commandment after commandment. Mind you....this was just
*my* experience.
I've come to appreciate other religions like Wicca/Witchcraft that focus
more on the spirituality Cindy touched upon and which allow practicers to
ask their Goddess and/or God for assistance during rituals or sabbats but
apply such rules as the "rede" like "And ye harm none do what ye will" or
the three-fold law (basically anything you do will come back at you
three-fold. If you do good....great! If not, it will come back to haunt you
3 times as bad). There is less focus on organized religion in cases like
this....most Pagan's I know consider themselves solitary practicioners
But people who utilize religious teachings to impose moral law drive me
absolutely nuts. Especially in cases such as the one I mentioned prior
where the devoute were hypocritical to said teachings. This drove me into a
pseudo atheism/agnosticism for years....
-- B.K. DeLong Research Lead ZOT Group617.542.5335 ext. 204 bkdelong@zotgroup.com http://www.zotgroup.com
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