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Pastimes : Religion on SI -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Emile Vidrine who wrote (560)	9/4/1998 11:04:00 PM
From: John Arnopp	Respond to of 1542

Hi. This will be my first and last post on this thread, which I find here only for the sake of argument, but that doesn't bother me. Emile, you have the right to believe and worship (or not believe and not worship) any way you like, just as anyone else does, whether it's in this country with our constitution or any other country. It's just a part of being a thinking human being, which no one can take from you without taking your life (or, technically, your capacity to reason). However, the problem with some "organized" religions is that they cannot work in a free society. Like Socialism, Emile's Christian Utopia is untenable, unless everyone believes and acts the same way. That is why so many fundamentalist whatevers are trying to make everyone else into their image, or to create little islands of sameness. Any threat from non-believers destroys their system (Hollywood, the media, atheists, etc. -- all are threats to an unstable system that requires a lot of work to keep working. A free system of ideas and acceptance, however, proves that it does not need an artificial world of Stepford- (or Truman-) like robots populating it. Like Capitalism, the principles of knowledge and free exchange determine the true value. (This is still SI, after all.) I encourage all to cease posting on this thread. Not to stifle discussion nor to oppose the First Amendment. Rather, engage in open discussion with people you know. Seek out different people and get to know them. You will find they are quite similar, actually. You cannot discover that on this thread. And know that you cannot change people (especially on a bulletin board), which is why I will not post here again. People must seek themselves, not have it given to them in the form of organized anything. True value comes from knowledge and exchange, IMHO.