Re: Any Christian Electronic Designers Here?

On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 10:26:39 -0700, D from BC
<myrealaddress@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:49:38 GMT, Jon Kirwan
<jonk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<snip.>

I don't mean any of this to suggest that being Christian means being
bigoted. It doesn't mean that. Quite the opposite can be true, most
especially for those who sincerely work to follow the principals
illustrated by the Sermon on the Mount. It's just that if you are
already bigoted and racist and have feelings of hate towards others
you don't even know or otherwise have a perverse need to judge others,
in the US at least, then it often serves you very well indeed to find
a way to garb yourself in religious cloaks to cover your ass should
someone call you on it. It's a great way to shield yourself when
caught.

Jon

I do feel a little bad poking fun at Christians.
That's only due to my respect for the mentally disabled.

'Let him who is without stupidity cast the first stone.'

Christopher Hitchens is out on the street as an "Anti-Theist" and
saying that organized religion must be eradicated. His launching
point being the 9/11 event here in the US, which singularly convinced
him that he had to dedicate the rest of his days at war with such
organized disasters to humanity.

In some ways, I sympathize. Justification at killing everyone
indescriminantly by thinking "let God sort them out" is uniquely
religious. The willingness to allow one's own children to die from
abuse and neglect, and worse to even accuse them of being infested
with the devil, if they should fail these trials and actually die in
the process, is uniquely religious. And it is a most sinister and
frightening thought to realize that actually I live among such people.

But not all religious beliefs can produce such terrible subgroups. For
example, it's simply not possible for Buddhist teachers (they tend to
not use that term and instead, as Buddha himself did, simply say that
they have found a way for themselves that may help others, or not) and
leaders to recommend organized violence to others. It's just outside
their belief system.

Not knowing them as individuals so as to know any better, merely
selecting one at random instead, I'd feel _much_ more comfortable with
a Buddhist nearby than with a Christian or a Moslem or a Jew. It's
just broadly safer for outsiders because of the belief systems
involved.

But I also have a great deal of respect for some tiny subgroups within
Christian faiths, especially those who struggle towards what the early
Christians sought prior to Constantine's domination over them -- the
ideals of the Sermon on the Mount and helping others without being
obvious about it or taking credit. The sad fact is that there are
almost NO such Christians at all -- very few have even the remotest
possible claim to the name. If it were the case that even 0.1% of the
world's Christians did even 10% of what the Sermon asks of them, this
world would be a vastly better place. The fact is, there isn't even
that tiny percentage out there.

Like Einstein, I hope that science can continue to work at removing
"the religious impulse of the dross of its anthropomorphism" while at
the same time encouraging those within organized religions to work
towards a "free and responsible development of the individual, so that
he may place his powers freely and gladly in the service of all
mankind." But like Dr. Steven Weinberg, I also recognize that it
takes organized religion to get "good people to do evil things." So I
kind of understand where Christopher Hitchens comes from, on that
score.

Ultimately, science and religion will continue to clash a great deal,
so long as religious organizations cling to the idea of superstitious
interferences within out lives. Science is all about studying those
relationships between objects and events and so long as religion
continues to insist on dominion in that territory, it will continue to
fight and claw and clash with science. Hopefully, religious groups
will give that up in time and find instead their important role in
understanding and aiding when suffering occurs, helping us move past
our more selfish impulses, and encouraging the free and responsible
development of individuals so that they can better place themselves at
the service of all mankind. That role mingled with science knowledge
will create a world to truly behold.

Jon
.

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