Re: virus: Religion

Eric Boyd (6ceb3@qlink.queensu.ca)
Mon, 26 May 1997 19:52:05 -0500


tom.holz wrote:
> how to put this.. I recall other posts on this list saying it's a sign of
> intelligence to be able to hold two contradictory meme's in one mind.
>
> God is omnipotent.
> God is not omnipotent.
>
> Does the co-existance of these memes suggest that god's potence not a key
> element of christianity? Personally, I do not much care that god can't

By the same token, I can argue that the co-existance of these two:

God exists
God does not exist

makes God's existance not a key element of Christianity. NOT!

The fallacy here is in the link to Christianity... god may not be
omnipotent, he may be both, but to a Christian, he /is/ omnipotent.
Any other stance on the issue makes you a non-Christian, as I see it.
(then again, this may just be my "fundamentalist" perspective on
Christianity... I can't see any way to escape my own views of the
subject... and since my own views are just a product of my experience
with Christians (my grandparents and my Christian friends are all
"hardcore") I'd say it might just be where I live that has influenced
me. Ahhh small backwater Ontario)

> format my hard drive [1]. I put more significance on the bible as a source
> of the truth [2].
>
> [1] Though when pressed, I can shift enough meme's around to change that to
> a "god can but i'm pretty sure it's not in the plan". Nifty, eh-what? I
> can fit right in with aitheists and fundamentalists alike.

And this is sort of what makes me think you arn't really a Christian...
just a pseudo Christian with some of their beleifs and many others of
your own making (or that you borrowed from elsewhere)

> [2] or should I say, "a large set of data from which set of memes have
> infested me because they are usefull in the advancement of my happiness and
> understanding of the nature of a possible underlying reality?"

Just so you don't think I'm totally antagonistic, I'll say that this is
exactly how I view the Bible. Merly a source of useful memes. Now if
it just wasn't so dense and hard to read...

> big need practice thinking.

Now that looks like a damn good motto for all of humanity!

ERiC

"I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery