<<I imagine god could order the universe and expiation any way he wants. Why blood? Why not blood?>>
On a gut level, rather than an intellectual level, I reject the notion that a God of love and compassion, who could order the expiation in any chosen way, would choose blood and suffering. I also have trouble reconciling the image of a loving, compassionate, God with all the divinely ordered smiting and slaying of the Old Testament, but that's another story.
<<You're right, it all hangs on whether we are born tabula rasa or wicked by nature.>>
I'm personally convinced that we're born tabulae rasa, with a choice. I've felt that way since having children. I don't even think most of us choose wickedness. Not that we don't all screw up, but I think that far more people do their damndest to live up to their own moral standard than choose deliberate, conscious, wickedness. Our problem, IMO, is not that we're all scum. Our problem is that scum rises to the top, and that we are conditioned - largely by our religious training - to follow those at the top without question.
Steve |
