At 03:07 AM Wednesday 4/23/2008, I wrote: >At 06:07 PM Tuesday 4/22/2008, Charlie Bell wrote: > >>It seems to me you're missing the point, which is that all number of >>damaging behaviour is excused in the name of religion when it is >>otherwise not tolerated. Of *course* these things aren't exclusive to >>religion (as you rightly point out, politics is damaging too), but >>religion provides a shield. > > > >I think the bigger point is that rather than >being a "rational" species, humanity is most >often a "rationalizing" species. Its members >commit damaging behavior particularly against >other members of its own species but also >against most other things, living and non-living > and then look for an excuse to justify that >behavior. Sometimes that excuse is labeled >"religion." Sometimes it is labeled >"politics." Sometimes it is even labeled >"science" (e.g., the "eugenics" movement, >sterilization of the mentally retarded, the >Tuskegee syphilis "experiment," [ObGodwin:] the >"experiments" of Dr. Mengele and his "colleagues" . . . )
Interestingly, Eudora's spell check does not recognize "Mengele" and suggests as its first choice changing it to "Mendel" . . . . . . ronn! :) "If a burglar is someone guilty of burglary, if a glutton is someone guilty of gluttony ... then God is an iron." -- Spider Robinson (1948 - ), Canadian science fiction writer. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
