Well-I understand what you're saying, but it makes me nervous that you have separated religious indoctrination from any other kind. For the majority of Americans, there is a God, and the ethics they live by are based on biblical teachings. Without some mutually accepted system, it all becomes arbitrary on the part of an individual what's right and wrong. And when you say, well, everyone will teach their children the fundamentals of right and wrong, I wonder who has determined these? It gets a lot more complex than "be nice."
What I notice about the conflict between the believers and non-believers here at SI, is that they argue based only on the negatives they perceive about the other group. They choose to look for the "good" stuff in people who are Like Them and the "evil" stuff in those who think differently. You focus a great deal on the wicked things that have been done in the name of Christianity, when these are really the result of human wickedness using Christianity as an excuse for its own perversions. But you write paeans of praise to paganism when the same terrible human conduct can be found within that category also. Jane has labeled us as being "of Satan", and denounced us in ranting posts that border on paranoia and illness, when she knows very little about any of us. And really doesn't want to. She has judged precipitously and broadly. I don't want to do the same.
So I would hesitate to "umbrella" anything, in the hopes that the exclusion of one particular type of belief system, such as religion, would change man's basic human nature, which is made up both good and bad, no matter what it calls itself.
However, thinking about the idea is interesting.... |
