Why do we get so romantic over what Christianity and it's Christmas message stands for?
We all know that Islamic punishment for apostasy is death. An abomination of course - made all the more shockingly graphic and immediate when certain otherwise reasonable and "modern" Muslims of my acquaintance actually agree with this punishment - no hesitation! I wonder what can possibly motivate such a response in otherwise good and right-thinking people. Only a deep fear surely - a fear of god's retribution and the prospect of falling foul of an "honour" killing.
But read the Christian Bible, and of course, there too can be found the justifications for why the Christian church in the past at least, has treated the "de-converted" with similar such contempt. So I say - let's get real and not get too caught up in the loving and personal god romanticism that surrounds the virgin birth story.
Hurry up you religions of the world - especially those whose bibles promote veneration of a god that is extremely vindictive despite the modern "god loves you" obfuscatory veneer - hurry up and evolve yourselves out of existence back to the oblivion from whence you came!
And in the meantime we can all have a well-deserved end of year break, and I for one shall hope for a New Year replete with good deeds, performed not out of a fear of God, nor for want of advancing one's eligibility for the kingdom of heaven, but rather simply by reason of an innate responsibility towards one's fellow man - no prizes, no rewards - simply the humanist way.
Friday, 24 December 2010
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Religious Faith Purifies Reason? Yeah Right!
Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger): "Faith Purifies Reason" 2nd December 2010
http://www.youtube.com/vatican?gl=IT&hl=en-GB
Quoting the Pope (extract): "Politics and the Christian faith move us. Without doubt faith has a specific nature in the encounter with God, one that opens new horizons beyond the sphere of reason. Faith is a purifying force for reason itself, allowing it to better carry out its task."
What does all this mean? It might well be silken guileful papal prose making for sycophantic goosebumps, but it is so much nonsense.
First observation: the statement usurps the meaning of the word "reason". Semantics raises it's troublesome head yet again.
Second observation: If for a Christian the power of reason i.e. intellect, is a god-given gift (which it surely is) then how can "faith" in the unproven possibly eclipse reason? The disjointed non-sequitur nature of this 2nd December statement would suggest that the Pope has himself kicked his intellect into touch. Well, no surprise there!
The Pope effectively seems to be saying we should know when to turn off the power of reason for fear of being too rooted in reality. We can't have that can we! - well can we?
What could possibly lie beyond the sphere of reason? - wishful romantic thinking of course - for example, like faith in the hereafter born out of a fear of inevitable mortality. All very nice and placebo in its effect but rooted in falsity nonetheless. Damn it - if we weren't quite so exquisitely self-aware we would not have needed to concoct faith in god!
http://www.youtube.com/vatican?gl=IT&hl=en-GB
Quoting the Pope (extract): "Politics and the Christian faith move us. Without doubt faith has a specific nature in the encounter with God, one that opens new horizons beyond the sphere of reason. Faith is a purifying force for reason itself, allowing it to better carry out its task."
What does all this mean? It might well be silken guileful papal prose making for sycophantic goosebumps, but it is so much nonsense.
First observation: the statement usurps the meaning of the word "reason". Semantics raises it's troublesome head yet again.
Second observation: If for a Christian the power of reason i.e. intellect, is a god-given gift (which it surely is) then how can "faith" in the unproven possibly eclipse reason? The disjointed non-sequitur nature of this 2nd December statement would suggest that the Pope has himself kicked his intellect into touch. Well, no surprise there!
The Pope effectively seems to be saying we should know when to turn off the power of reason for fear of being too rooted in reality. We can't have that can we! - well can we?
What could possibly lie beyond the sphere of reason? - wishful romantic thinking of course - for example, like faith in the hereafter born out of a fear of inevitable mortality. All very nice and placebo in its effect but rooted in falsity nonetheless. Damn it - if we weren't quite so exquisitely self-aware we would not have needed to concoct faith in god!
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