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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (34909)	4/15/1999 1:48:00 AM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Steven, even though I attended some Catholic schools, my parents were agnostics. Why they sent me to any Catholic schools at all, is a long story: it was partially for my grandmother's sake; it was also a way of protesting against the Ku Klux Klan, etc. In any event, my semi-Catholic education (I went to plenty of non-Catholic schools, too; a new school every year) was not reinforced at home, and I knew very well there were all kinds of other religions and non-religions out there. I really don't know why I retain an interest in theological questions, considering that I am your "Compleat Skeptic". But I do. My late husband was a foaming-at-the-mouth atheist, the product of atheist parents; yet he was very well versed in theology (primarily Protestant). A contradiction? I don't think so...Religion has shaped people's lives for centuries, and their literatures, too. If you are interested in their lives and/or their literatures, you can't help but be curious about their religions as well... On your other points, I would go further than you: the most ethical people I have known have been non-believers. They were decent and fair because that was what they essentially were, not because they feared they would go to hell if they were not, not because they worried what the other members of the congregation might say about them, not because they wanted Jesus to approve of them....In other words, they did Good for the sake of Good, period. They were completely disinterested. The Dostoyevskian maxim -- "If there is no God, then all is permitted" -- may possibly be meaningful when applied to an entire society. But it simply does not hold when applied to individuals. That just makes God a policeman: one behaves simply because one is afraid of going to hell/jail. If nothing is SACRED to an individual, then perhaps he will consider that "all is permitted"; but "sacred" is not a synonym for "divine." Joan