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To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (19181)	8/10/2002 2:51:51 AM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

"I find that sort of argument unimpressive. What creed isn't good if you look only at original intent?" Good point. But in fact that is the case. The religions of the world are quite fair in that they account for the good in humanity as well as the bad. The qualifiers of hypocracy, greed, corruption, etc are as present in the scriptures as they are among the critics of religion. Being a scholar of religion is no more likely to lead one to righteousness than being born with a mental disability. Your point is that if a religion is true, then the community of members would all be saints?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (19181)	8/10/2002 6:46:20 AM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

"Communism's original intent was quite good. Its practice was another matter" The concept was idiotic because it did not honor reality. Firstly, "from each according to his ability and to each according to his need" is an idea fit only for the insect kingdom. It is incompatible with the idea of moral agency or value. It removes all virtue, vice, and passion from the human arena. Naturally, no human would voluntarily live like an insect, so others must be assigned the task of taking from and giving to. So you have a group of non-communists pretending that the people they are exploiting are communists...when really they are simply victims of force and coercion. People without rights--slaves to an aristocracy of might. And I guess if people used their own judgement as to the distribution of ability and need...we would have capitalism, eh <g>

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (19181)	8/10/2002 6:59:01 AM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

"Myth? You know in medieval Europe Christianity was the only legal religion (besides Judaism) for decades?" Ironically, it was the superstition of Constantine which helped Christianity to prevail over Mithraism (from which it stole most of its relevant dogma--the virgin birth, Christmas, Easter, blood ritual, etc.) Actually, Mithraism is referenced way back in hindu mythology about 4000 years before the story of Christ. After Constantine, Julian made a brief attempt to revert Rome to Mithraism, but he either died an untimely death or his reign was ended in some other way. I'll look it up later.