On 29 Jul 2007 at 0:29, William T Goodall wrote: > > On 28 Jul 2007, at 20:16, Nick Arnett wrote: > > > On 7/27/07, William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> > >> > >> > >> I'm not arguing with that. I'm arguing with the fact that religions > >> present their stories as being actually true > > > > > > That is patently untrue. > > Religions don't present their stories as being literally true?
Nope! Oh, there are parts which are historical stories told by real people, sure. But things like the story of the creation? In Judaism, taking the story of the creation literally is quiet literally heretical (although we don't burn heratics or anything, it's got a bunch of different connotations from other religions, and we most emphatically don't apply it to other beliefs). (There's about 12-15 thousand Kairite (litteralist) Jews in the world, for reference) You have to take the Written and "Oral" (from the same period, but only written down in a unified form later) Torah together - the Oral Torah explains that many of the stories in the Tanakh are not literal. The Christians don't accnowledge the Oral Torah, and that's where a lot of the issues in Christianity start. > don't claim that supernatural entities meddle in human affairs? They Panentheism. > don't claim that miraculous events actually happen? They don't claim > that divinely inspired prophets said things we must pay special heed > to because despite appearances they aren't the ravings of charlatans > or the mentally ill? So, what do you think of Steven Hawkins? *grins* > The Koran, Tripitaka, Bhagavad Gita, Bible et cetera are just texts > written by people and have no more claim to divine afflatus than the > Norse Eddas, the secret texts of Scientology or even my shopping list? Um, sharp differentation there. Scientology is an presently and actively dangerous *criminal organisation*. So putting it in a list with anything else is wrong. We don't tolerate the Mafia, why do we tolerate scientology again? Oh right, Tom Cruise. *thud*. AndrewC Dawn Falcon _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
