Saturday, May 03, 2008

If Only to Annoy Pepe and AI...


I was on this board told to think deeply about Catholicism. Perhaps it's time to think deeply about our secular world, too.
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2 comments:

Tecumseh said...

I don't fully share Hitchens' world view (especially his antagonism to everything religious), but I listen to him, and I think he's quite often excellent. And, at least after listening to the first half of the interview, it seems his fire is directed towards the clear and present danger posed to democracy and freedom as we know it by theocratic fundamentalism in the Middle East, not towards the usual pinko bogeymen, such as Catholicism.

5/03/2008 12:01 PM
My Frontier Thesis said...

Criticizing religion, particularly, as opposed to other manifs of human nature is reductionist and just plain false.

Platitudes on this board that come to mind: "reductionistic" and "non sequitur." The former used here, the latter in about every 5th response on this board. I'm going to start calling your non sequiturs non sequiturs.

Hitchens does more than criticize religion, but it's unlikely to appear in an otherwise short interview with Dobbs. I have a respect for religion, and don't get as militant as Hitchens does. Still, for me, the best kind of metaphysical pondering is done by oneself, contemplating it all and such. Some girl who hailed from Canton, China, approached me while I pumped gas on the high Plains about two weeks ago. The Dakota winds were whipping, and she said she wanted to give me a trinket for a donation, as she was offering to sell me a bit of Christianity. I said, "Jesus Christ," thinking about the Dakota weather and culture shock she had to endure for us to be talking with one another, and I put five bucks in her hand. I wished her well. She smiled and said "Thank you," with bow, and walked away, looking as though she'd almost blow away if the winds kicked any higher.

Beginning July 1st, I invite FCP'ers to come up here to my bumpkin provincial area and experience it some time. It's not as sophisticated as, say, eastern Europe, France, Portugal, Italia, Boston, Texas, Seattle, Taiwan (etc), but you've got a place to stay if you ever need one.

On another note: looking at it from one angle (there are many), I think we hold our respective views based on the context in which we think. I'd imagine AI and JJ, being within academia, are immediate to a majority of people who openly thrash on religion, Catholicism, and the Pope. On the other hand, I'm surrounded by Church-goers, ethnic German Catholics (see namesake of capital after Otto von "Bismarck"), Evangelicals, and all the rest, and simply project counterpoints I give in civilized conversation at the bar onto this board.

5/04/2008 6:13 PM

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