CF,
We found your Sam Harris article interesting! We're not sure about rhythmic gymnastics either but we can see the analogy of doing several things at the same time, or being influenced by several things at the same time. Being a faithful soul to Christianity, we can take comfort in what Harris said about the Mormon faith. His analysis is one of the best we've seen that delineates some of the absolute absurdities that make Mormonism a complete fraud and what mainline religions teach it to be: a cult! It is interesting to read some of the apostle St. John's observations on cults in one of his books as he faced the problem even back during the first century. Of course, we will acknowledge that there are those who think that the entirety of Christianity is also a cult, even those John spent some amount of time differentiating between the two!
We know that you are not a believer so we will leave any further discussions along those lines alone. However, Harris does make some nice comparisons to sports and generalities that can be made there to religion and the generalities that are so often made there. We would like to expand that discussion to include some of the positions that have been taken by very conservative and radical fundamentalist faiths inside of the United States when it comes to things like creationism and global warming and, most particularly, gun control. Some of the radicalism expressed by those of "faith" approaches, in our very humble opinion, the stands taken by those in the religions surrounding Islam in the middle east and elsewhere. How much different is it to want to die for Allah and be willing to die to protect some nebulous right such as the ability to keep and bear arms in excess amounts far beyond what might be needed to protect ones family? We know that those who perpetuate suicide attacks do so far more often in the middle east than those who do so in the United States. However, when you see someone like the shooter in Newtown or so many others of his ilk take their own lives after taking the lives of others, how much different is one from the other? We realize that most of these shooters here in America are probably mentally deranged but we wonder just how sane those overseas are when they are willing to offer themselves up for their God. And, we wonder sometimes just how sane those who are willing to offer their lives in military service are when some of the objectives like serving a person like George W. Bush and what he did back in 2003 with his invasion of Iraq has been practically proven to be against the national interest and costs thousands and thousands of lives lost and many more to be maimed for life. Bush was proven to be out of the mainstream but every time some one like him comes along it seems to forever alter what the mainstream is as we confront the consequences of actions that later prove to weaken the national character and the stability that good religions need to strengthen their own resolve.
We realize that we all have to believe in something if it be nothing more than the sun rising every morning but some of the things that are followed really make one wonder what and where this whole thing is heading. When we look at Christianity today and some of the avenues that it is following, it is damaging a great faith and taking it far away from its roots among a group of people led by a man--Jesus Christ--who was non violent in his complete approach. The big commonality between Christianity and Islam is that they both preach and espouse the idea that there will be a better world after this life is over for those who believe. Where the differences come in is that Islam promotes among the radical the idea that just about any day or any idea might be a good thing to die for, just so long as someone like Osama bin Laden says that it needs to be so. We were fascinated by Harris's statement that those in the middle east who hate us, hate us more for our policies there than they do for our faith.
Although Harris does not discuss it, at the base of most of the major faiths in this world is a espousal of love and peace, and a rejection of violence unless that faith is threatened directly, and, even then, most faiths espouse nonviolent resistance as the path to follow. We remember Buddhist monks setting themselves on fire in protest of things that they oppose in actions that took only their lives and harmed not another single soul.
As we have said previously, we are concerned with religion being co-opted by radical ideas that take it far from its roots. And we are really concerned with that rise here in the United States. It creates in our eyes a militancy that is truly frightening. We would give the example of the survivalist who killed the bus driver in the south and is hiding out in a bunker with a five year old autistic child that he took from the bus. And, we wonder just how many more individuals and collectives like this that there might be out there across the land. We have always thought of survivalists as being a product of the far west and plains states where there is a physical isolation in the geography, but, apparently this is not so.
We are beginning to think of these strange people as comparable to what OldCadusers article of the other day stated when it said that when areas like the south get left behind they and the entire nation do not do well. It has been that way in the middle east for centuries and that does not bode well for the world as a whole either. This Arab spring has opened many eyes and has highlighted the great disparities between those who are educated in a secular way and those who are only educated in the way of their religion. We feel that there needs to be a balance between the two spheres and it appears to us that it is becoming unbalanced more and more as each passing year goes by!
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.
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