Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> Anthony D'Costa wrote:
>
>>May be I wasn't clear enough: there is one thing as organized religion and
>>then there is spirituality. I meant the
>>
>
> Spirituality, not organized religion, is the evil. The left (when we get
> a left) must _of course_ include all religious leftists, even among the
> leadership. But the core of the left always has been and always will be
> materialist. "Spirituality" (in _all_ of its forms) leads to confused
> thinking and confused feeling.
>
> This is a long debate and I'm not going to carry it on now. I have other
> immediate interests. But I don't think that this banal appeal to
> "spirituality" should be allowed to pass without at least an indication
> that it can't be taken for granted.
>
and i am glad you did. i was hoping prof. d'costa would stick to the
stronger claim in his post (w.r.t respect for religion) and call
tim[?] on the unqualified platonist claims in his message, and i was
dismayed by the introduction of this term "spirituality". this is a
long debate and i am not going to carry it on now. in my case thats
because i am not smart enough to carry it on, but i will toss in a
stanley fish or PKF style claim that all this spirituality,
rationality, whatever is just another religion or an epistemological
equivalent. also, people arent stupid, and i dont think they are
brainwashed by religion - perhaps they evaluate its benefits and
choose it over what (as anthony d'costa called it) the left has to
offer, or what science and rationality have to offer, based on the
situation at hand (pray hard but eat the pill any way).
--ravi
