Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2002 08:52:32 +1000
From: Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan-AT-qut.edu.au>
Subject: Re: BHA: For gods sake: FEW and moral theory



>I read Michael's post with a good deal of sympathy.  The phrase 'struggled 
>into atheism in deeply sectarian and priest sodden cultures' resonated 
>deeply with me as someone born in the north of Ireland.  I have to say 
>though that other phrases such as 'revolutionary party' evoked somewhat 
>less identification.  Been there done that.  Three years in the 
>International Socialist Tendency being manipulated and maneuvered by the 
>sort of people, who would be right at home in the Vatican, have been 
>enough to turn me off for several life times.

Nevertheless I think I understand Michael's reservations - the fear that 
somehow Bhaskar has taken a step towards accommodation with the status quo 
by embracing religious/spiritual ideas. However I am absolutely sure that 
this is not so.  Whatever one's thinks of Bhaskar Post FEW, he is in no 
sense any less radical.  Indeed his commitment to human emancipation 
continues to shine out in everything he has written of late.

I usually accompany these posts with a hearty condemnation of organised 
religions.  Certainly I feel contempt for them and saying so gives me a 
slight but satisfying feeling of vengeance consummated. However Mervyn is 
quite correct to point out that there are radical people within organised 
religions and we, spiritualists and non-spiritualists alike, should respect 
their choice.

In any case if we take the strands of the Critical Realist movement - the 
philosophical, the sociological, the political, the spiritual and the 
religious, then it is not impossible to re-configure them as a United Front 
for the 21st Century. A front which is conscious not only of pending 
ecological disaster, and capitalism gone mind numbingly feral but also of 
the failures and limitations of previous movements to correct these wrongs.

regards

Gary








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