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Dear Selma,
That was beautiful, and thanks for the sage advice.
You have expressed my point of view better than I can
imagine myself doing. The only thing I would add is
that I am not really interested in converting people
to my point of view. I believe in unabashed
individualism - the idea that every person ought to
educate himself or herself, think for himself or
herself, and arrive at his or her own convictions
about the world. Nothing moves me more into thought
and action than my high school prayer - one of the
most sublime compositions ever conceived by any poet,
living or dead:
"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held
high,
Where knowledge is free,
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls,
Where words come out from the depth of truth,
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards
perfection,
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit,
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action,
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country
awake."
I am certain you know who this great poet is.
Cheers,
Santosh
--- Carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Dear Santosh,
>
> To be honest, I am always fearful when I voice an
> opinion. Sometimes, it is taken as an affront on
> someone's deeply held beliefs. Sometimes, it is
> regarded as absurd and ridiculed.
>
> When I was more "Catholic", I would bring to mind
> the
> words of Charlotte Bronte's Mr Rochester, "I know my
> God approves of what I do, for the world's opinion,
> I
> care not". Now that I am more secular, I remember
> Desmond Tutu's words in a documentary about Thomas
> Mann, there is no black and white in life. One must
> believe by the skin of one's teeth that what they
> are
> doing is right and then do it.
>
> That is how I generally operate, by the skin of my
> teeth and to damnation with my detractors. I enjoy
> your posts on religion. To me they are just your
> personal hypotheses and not a reflection and assault
> on anyone's faith. If, we as Christians in our
> Quixotian desire to defend our religion, see you as
> a
> Christian basher, we really are tilting at
> windmills.
>
> If you want my opinion, write what you have to.
> Don't
> bother defending your views. Let the chips fall
> where
> they may. For every one person, you offend, there
> will
> be two that you will educate and perhaps convince to
> your point of view. We are all adult enough to
> discern
> for ourselves exactly what we want to believe. All
> this "defending the faith" by self-appointed
> crusaders, is self-serving aggrandisment at best.
>
> Selma
> ------------------------------------------
>
>
> --- Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
>
>
> > I think the advent of Aristo, Selma, Francis,
> > Roland,
> > Jerry and Kevin, and the re-emergence of Sunith
> has
> > been great for Goanet. Their arguments have been
> > extremely cogent, mature, well-articulated and
> > beautiful. Nobody has been able to refute them. I
> am
> > very confident that these good people will
> continue
> > to
> > express their views without fear, and I hope that
> > many
> > more like them become active on Goanet.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Santosh
> > _______________________________________________
> > Goanet mailing list
> > Goanet@lists.goanet.org
> >
>
http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
> >
>
>
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