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"...Casting this god as a father figure also
seems like a natural...."
Scientific American review
Not according to Engels, it doesn't seem natural.
As a matter of fact, it probably seems natural only to
a person who is in the habit of investing authority in
the male gender, not the female. Engels, in "Origin
of the Family, State, and Private Property", made the
point that since men were out hunting game, women were
the dominant force of the agricultural revolution,
proprietors of the means of production, and the
worship was worship of the GODDESS. She was replaced
by the male gods only when agriculture became
productive enough to produce enough food to make it
profitable to enslave rather than kill captives of
war, who were the property of the men, and who
therefore, became the rulers and selected the deities
in their masculine image.
Religion exists at the pleasure of the ruling
class -- if the ruling class is secure in its
dominance, it may tolerate others beside the dominant
one; but, let the economic status quo be threatened,
and heresy trials and fundamentalist bigot
know-nothings arise. If you want religious freedom,
do not attack the basis of the rulers. Stick to
pie-in-the-sky and you'll hear nothing from the Bush
Babies.
Technology must revolutionize itself constantly,
e.g., the computer and automation, but the relations
of ownership must constantly remain the same, or even
regress.
I, personally, was one of the unwitting objects
of change in U.S. capitalism. As machinists, our kind
of training and judgement made our production the
envy of the world. Our training and judgement was
analyzed, entered into computers, the options were
given to programmers, and Voila! the machines could
be put to producing with only unskilled labor doing
the human part! Hence, maquiladoras in Mexico, where
hundreds of young women are raped, murdered, and their
bodies abandoned to mummify in the desert just outside
Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso,
Texas, in the past few years. Now THERE is a
technological innovation in which the relations of
ownership don't progress! Lots of product, if you
make enough at Wal-mart to buy anything!
I wonder what the fascists who now control
automated capitalist production think of a religion
which is "natural" in the minds of humanity. Is that
another sweet way of saying
"intelligent design"? If it isn't based on humanistic
values, it can go down just fine with Shotgun Dick,
Cheerleader W, and the people who meet periodically
in the Carlyle Hotel, for which their group is named,
to decide which war industries to buy.
Actually, "natural history" is not the term which
should be used, unless some one has discovered dogs
and dolphins genuflecting and I haven't heard about
it. "Social history" may be more of an apt
designation for what Dennett talks about. That pretty
much limits it to animals like we are. Let's see:
nat·u·ral his·to·ry
noun
Definitions:
1. study of living things: the study and description
of living things, especially their behavior and how
they relate to one another NOPE. NOT HERE
2. study of whole natural world: the study and
description of the natural world, including minerals
and fossils NOT THIS, EITHER
3. natural phenomena of time or place: the natural
phenomena, especially plants and animals, of a
particular time or place
WELL, THERE IS THE PASSION VINE FOR CHRISTIANS
4. natural development of something: the natural
development of something such as an organism or a
disease over a period of time;
the natural history of the leech NO LEECHES EXCEPT
FOR CERTAIN
FUNDAMENTALIST ONES!
5. written account of aspect of nature: a written
account of a particular aspect of the natural world
OH, WELL....
Or am I just a bitter old atheist?
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