From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Fri Sep 26 2003 - 18:11:40 MDT
At 07:23 AM 26/09/03 -0600, Hermit wrote (in reply to Jonathan Davis):
snip
>[Hermit] In any case, I suggest that somebody's perspective is flawed and
>that cognitive dissonance is almost certainly at work. Particularly when
>it comes to your repeatedly rejected strange idea that I advocate any
>Theistic religions. The difference between you and I, it seems, is that I
>condemn them all equally, rather than reserving a fondness for the Anglicans.
I have come to appreciate religions in the same way that I appreciate
redwood trees. Both are highly evolved "living" systems, worthy of respect
on that aspect alone. My appreciation is partly because religions are
symbiotic to human minds. As such the combination of a human with a
religion is/was more likely to survive and reproduce than one
without. Religions of course *evolve* to the symbiotic state, typically
taking 300 years to move from dangerous cult to a more or less mutualistic
state.
Unfortunately in my case knowing/appreciating the nature of religions
precludes me from religious memes from being part of my active set. I.e.,
I can't take any of them more seriously than the Easter Bunny.
>This includes recognizing that your (and that of your sources) blanket
>condemnation of Middle Eastern and Asian culture is rooted in your
>apparently shallow perspective. Had you been brought up in, e.g. The PRC,
>your opinion would no doubt be different. Which allows me to condemn your
>judgements, They are not measured, but are rooted in cultural prejudice.
I share to some extent a cultural prejudice for "western", mostly Christian
culture. My bias is empirical. Western culture is the one which developed
tools of insight. Islamic cultural may well have been the highest in the
world at one time, but it is sadly eclipsed now.
Keith Henson
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