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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (287804)	1/9/2016 4:53:25 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542193

I am truly sorry that post upset you John. Koan, your post didn't upset me. You should be upset with yourself for posting such wrong headed stuff. Religion/theology is a complicated social/political phenomenon and needs to be appreciated as such. The reason I thought it unwise to continue a conversation about it here is because much of the posting here about religion is simply much too thin to capture the wholeness. Religion has had a powerful positive and negative affect in this country and throughout history for that matter. To say it is a subject that shouldn't be discussed is what is over the top. Well, now that first sentence is markedly different from your previous post. Had you posted that I would have simply passed by. Good for you. It's positive and negative. As for whether to discuss it, no one has said it shouldn't be discussed. At least no one I know about here. I said I didn't want to discuss it here because it's reasonably complicated and I'm not eager to devote the time to it that it requires. A lot different from saying "no one should discuss it." Why is it over the top to discuss negative things in our society that need to be resolved? Or do you think there are no negative things pertaining to religion that need to be resolved? Sometimes I simply despair of about having a conversation with you. I've never said nor do I believe it's "over the top to discuss negative things in our society". Nor negative things about religion. My post pointed out much of the positive about religion. No where in it did I say there were no negatives. Please, if you want to talk, keep in mind what is being said to you. I know when I started writing a similar book I spent months trying to think how do I write this without offending the religious community. Not surprising since you apparently have a very narrow view of "the religious community." I don't know the book you have in mind but much of contemporary Protestant theology is not in conflict with serious science. Please check up on it if you wish to make the kind of claims you are making. As for the rest of the post, I can't help it if you wish to play the martyr. But if you are now concluding that religious conviction makes one unable to discuss negative things in society, then you are simply betraying your lack of knowledge, and perhaps your unwillingness to do your homework. I don't have time to work up a bibliography but I can recommend Paul Tillich's Dynamics of Faith which is based on his work wedding Protestant theology through Heidegger's version of existentialism. As for conflicts between science and religion, there is an abundant literature on such. Your illustrations for your argument are correct. And if needed, more than a few of folk on this forum who know a bit about religion could add a long list of others. But that's only a portion of the story. And betrays a basic misunderstanding of the various experiences/views/perspectives that go under the label "religion."