Beautifully said, Pamela. Regarding propping the Coptic Pope, all I can say is that I imagine he was pasta his prime after three days.
I suppose one could also present this event as proof that religion really does stink. -Doug Sent from Android. On Mar 23, 2012 11:35 AM, "Pamela McCorduck" <pam...@well.com> wrote: > Another skeptic here, and I don't think the Spaghetti Stuff is anything > like bullying. If you're going to believe the unbelievable without question > (have faith, they put it) then have the courage of your convictions, and > expect not everybody will agree. > > It seems to me the most egregious bullying has come from the religious > people who want me to obey their rules--most recently this whole > abortion/contraception flap. This *isn't* bullying? Do it my way or else? > And since I can't make my own faithful follow the rules, we'll make it a > secular law and make everybody obey? Please. And when certain politicians > fall all over themselves to seize control of my reproductive system, not > just the reproductive systems of their own female faithful, a little > spaghetti ribbing seems very harmless. Of course, in the old days I'd have > been tied to the stake and burned, which is bullying as ugly as it can be. > > But the true believers do try our--uhm, patience? Gravity? A friend just > back from Egypt, herself a Copt, told me that when the Coptic Pope died > while she was there, the faithful propped up the corpse in all its regalia, > mitre, crook in hand, so that the masses could shuffle by and pay their > respects. FOR THREE DAYS. IN EGYPT. We both had our hands over our faces > when she finished. > > Match that with your spaghetti, Doug! > > Pamela > > > "...almost everything conspicuously great is great in despite: has come > into being in defiance of affliction and pain; poverty, destitution, bodily > weakness, vice, passion, and a thousand other obstructions." > > > "Death in Venice," Thomas Mann > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
