Andreas Engström wrote:
> The problem I have with most religious people is that they appear to think
> that it is impossible to live a happy fulfilled life _without_ religious
> faith. Or to do good without having a god that tells you so.
Then why not direct your criticism to this specific behavior rather than to the faithful in general? Imagine if I condemned all black muscians as misongynists because I was offended by 2 Live Crew's lyrics.
> I'm not talking about "god" either. I'm talking about "dogma". The only
> unquestionable thing in life should be that everything is questionable.
Are you dogmatic in your adherence to that axiom, or can you be flexible in your thinking?
> "When dogma enters the mind, all mental activity ceases."
> --Robert Anton Wilson
This is, I think, much of the problem of the modern delemma: direct experience had been discounted, and in its place all kinds of belief systems have been erected. I would prefer a kind of intellectual anarchy where whatever was pragmatically applicable was brought to bear on any situation; where belief was understood as a self-limiting function. Because, you see, if you believe something, you are automatically precluded from believing its opposite; which means that a degree of your human freedom has been forfeited in the act of committing yourself to this belief.
-Terrence McKenna
I don't believe anything I write or say. I regard belief as a form of brain damage, the death of intelligence, the fracture of creativity, the atrophy of imagination. I have opinions but no Belief System (B.S.).
-Robert Anton Wilson
Take care.
-KMO