Angry, as it is Sunday I think it's time for a sermon. I don't expect you are a fan of any organised religon so lets spin the wheel - Ahhh Catholic, your thoughts sir?
Angry says ...You know, it's almost impossible to talk about anything related to religion without stirring up the deepest-seated reactions (which in itself would seem to mean something about where religion resides in our make-up, does not it? Read more
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You know, it's almost impossible to talk about anything related to religion without stirring up the deepest-seated reactions (which in itself would seem to mean something about where religion resides in our make-up, does not it? Well, no, religions feelings do not actually arise out of the reptilian brain, but from the temporal lobes / the medial prefrontal cortex. More on that in Dean Hamer's "The God Gene".)
It's dangerous.
Remember the flames and the boycotts and the dead recently in the matter of the Danish cartoons ? I happen to know Denmark quite well. So let me tell you the Danish background behind the Danish Mohammed caricatures.
Danish political / public life is full of irreverent ribbing, of making fun of one's public foe, of public adversaries. It's all taken with tongue firmly planted in cheek - everybody understands the game, it's a way of not taking oneself too seriously, and of making public life not too boring - whereas the Danes know full well that, being a very small country, whatever they do and whomever they elect will have exactly nil impact on the wider global scheme of things. Internally, there is immutable consensus.
So Danish political life is all about show, and by Jove, let's give the people a jolly good show.
Now Denmark is also the home to very many immigrants.
There had been some resentment of immigrants over the years. The caricatures were in fact the Danish establishment's way of saying to its immigrant muslim community: Welcome. You are complete, full-fledged Danes. We totally accept you as part and parcel of the Danish community. You are our co-citizens, and we will treat you like we treat true Danes, like we treat everybody else in Denmark.
In other words, the caricatures were a back-handed compliment, a way of saying to the immigrant muslim community: you're our full equals. Welcome to your own country: Denmark.
Woefully, massively misunderstood, by people who thereby demonstrated that, perhaps, they were in fact not Danes at all.
Anyway there has been so many back and forth books and written debates on the subject of religion lately, that I'll bypass all this and tell you an anecdote instead.
The story of the one time I allowed myself to slip up and discuss religion at a Diplomatic cocktail party.
A (very charming) Diplomat asks me whether I'm worried about Iran's saber-rattling and I answer that yes, indeed, I'm worried. Then she seizes upon my answer to tell me that if everybody just happened to be a member of her (reputed Christian, although one wonders what Christ would make of it ) Church, all would be well, and all would be saved.
A whit puzzled, I made light fun of her Church's theology (in my educated in this case opinion a bankrupt, asinine, cretinous, childish theology).
In a bid to win her argument she tells me of salvation, and upon my obvious puzzled demurring - I do not remember exactly what led up to that - quoth she: 'But what if they're bad?' (meaning I suppose that they, the bad people, would have to be judged by God at the "last judgment " and likely blithely cast into the lake of fire.)
Hey - not only her denomination - several evangelical movements in the US actually sing about the glorious day when Christ will kill, no less, all the miscreants.
The 'Left Behind' series of so-called Christian fiction, 60 million copies sold worldwide, celebrates a Jesus Christ worse than Hitler: Quote ("them refers to non Christians.That's the Dalai Lama, for instance) "Jesus merely raised one hand a few inches and a yawning chasm opened in the earth, stretching far and wide enough to swallow all of them. They tumbled in, howling and screeching, but their wailing was soon quashed and all was silent when the earth closed itself again." Unquote. Christ recast by the evangelicals as a criminal, moronic, braindead Hitlerite God.
Anyway let's parse a little bit the Diplomat's question :
"But what if they're bad",
because it exemplifies so well what is thoroughly brain-dead about so many Churches and organised religion movements.
Number one - the question presupposes that you have solved the problem of free will.
Bravo.
The issue of free will is one that has preoccupied philosophers for hundred of years and theoretical physicists - quantum physicists - for at least 70 years . The issue is extraordinarily complex, and trying to solve it is in itself an enlightening journey. Our poor benighted dame not only did not understand the issue, not only had she not even begun to examine this incredibly complex issue - but she did not even realize that her question entailed the fact that somehow the problem of free will had then been solved. Staggering. Oogah oogah, I'm a religious human.
Number two - define bad.
The question of good vs. evil, or of good and evil, is also extraordinarily complex. Good things lead to bad things (as embedded in the old saw 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' - and a lot of evil, a lot of bad can arise out of and be caused by good. Samewise, the reverse is true. There are so many examples of bad, evil things, having led to some good - the silver lining of old saws.
In her short, pathetic 6-word phrase, which laid the groundwork for her worldview and personal philosophy, her weltanschauung and political views, there were two major contemporary and past philosophical and even scientific issues which she had not even identified, let alone thought about.
What a moron.
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