"Floyd L. Davidson" wrote in message
...
"Edward Dolan" wrote:
"Floyd L. Davidson" wrote in message
...
[...]
I'm sure glad you pointed out in one article that you've not had
a religion since you were 16, yet in another article stated you
haven't forgotten your Catholic upbringing.

Otherwise, I'd have suspected you were a Baptist preacher, given
these Hell's fire and brimstone sermons and the narrow minded
racism that you've been dribbling out here...

A religion that is not full of fire and brimstone is a religion that is
not
worth bothering with. Hells Bells! If you can't threaten someone with
Damnation and Hell Fire, then how on earth are you ever going to get him
to
be good and do the right thing.

Ed you are just too shallow.

Whatever have you seen to indicate that threats of Damnation and
Hell Fire keep anyone in line? For Heaven's Sakes, the
*priests* have been abusing children right and left! And
historically the church has incited more war and mayhem than any
other institution. Clearly *that* is not the way.

Ah, yes, but those were back in the good old days. Now the only religion
inciting murder and mayhem is the Muslim religion.

But I'll give you a couple of things to think about. One is,
have you ever noticed how the religions based on written
documents are the worst? Jews, Moslems, and Christians... have
books written hundreds of years ago in languages that have
changed such that the words can be twisted to mean *anything*.

That is why we have the Church, to constantly bring everything up to date.

But the big difference is religions with a single deity are the
most violent. For example, the Christian religions all claim
there is one Almighty God, and they all claim that god is a
loving and forgiving god. Now, despite all the hate and
unforgivingness of the environment provided by that god, one
thing *always* happens... that god forgives *anything* done in
the name of religion! Which is to say, your threats of Damnation
and Hell Fire are tooth less threats from the start, and *every*
Christian knows *they* will be forgiven. (As opposed to how
they all know that other guy is going straight to Hell... :-)

Well, yes ... as a matter of fact I do know that I am OK but everyone else
most definitely is NOT OK. So what else is new?

However, all religions are fairly bloody minded including all the pagan
religions that ever were. I think they have to be somewhat like this in
order to ward off all those other false beliefs. After all, there is
absolutely no evidence for what any religion believes about anything in
connection with the gods and other supernatural phenomena.

You want a religion that does *not* encourage violence? Start
by making it a religion based on oral traditions and an oral
history. No written words to be twisted. Instead the *theme*
of each story is always the same, no matter who the teller or
the audience is, because it is the *theme* that is passed as
knowledge, not the words. But more important, a non-violent
religion must *never* be forgiving! And it must have not one,
but many gods, preferably an infinite number of them!.

All cultures based on oral traditions have just about disappeared from the
earth. Unless you have a very closely knit group indeed, oral traditions
will be lost in a trice. You must have written documents or you will end up
with nothing. That has been the genius of the Jews is that they have had a
great written document to fall back on, no matter how tough things got for
them.

Indeed, if *everything* is respected as having an equally
important spirit that can affect each and every person depending
on the actions of each and every person... there is *no* room
for moral violations! Any one person doing wrong can cause
havoc for everyone, because offending the spirit of even one
speck of sand, one breath of wind, or of even your wife, might
cause you *and* your family to suffer misfortune.

Now *that* is a religion!

Is there no strife and warfare among the Eskimo? It may be that they are
spread so thin that they seldom come into conflict. Another possibility is
that their major struggle is with their physical environment, not leaving
much left over for their fellow humans.

--
Regards,

Ed Dolan - Minnesota