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Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (22240)	11/7/2004 7:28:43 PM
From: kodiak_bull	Respond to of 23153

Mary, I was directing that comment at a discussion that was veering toward individual belief systems, etc. (I believe I heard the rhetorical question, "Don't tell me you believe in the magical idea that . . .""). I have seen these discussions go downhill, very quickly, in this regard and was acting to try to head it off. One day, several years ago, I met with some friends who had just returned from India. The wife of one is a devout, devout Catholic, and she was laughing at the temples in southern India. She said something about, "I mean, gosh, how many gods do these Hindus need? And did you ever see any of the gods--elephant heads and multiple arms??" I restrained myself from asking about why the Catholic Church needed so many saints, and smiling wanly at the procedure by which one becomes a saint, or mentioning that I had recently seen a touring show that included the finger bones, preserved, of a saint. I also did not ask exactly what they (the Catholic Church) meant by transubstantiation. Questions of faith (not the extent of the intent of the Establishment Clause) are, by definition, Category III beliefs and immediately trump, in discussions, Category I beliefs. By the way, it was the purpose of both parties in this election to turn their base's belief system from a simple Category I system (I vote Democrat because I'm a teacher, a union worker, a college professor, an egghead) into a Category III belief (I must vote Democrat to save the world and our nation . . .). To the extent it succeeded we had record turnout for both parties and a very narrow race (80,000 votes in Ohio). Kb