Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 08:06:32 -0800
From: Ralph Dumain <rdumain-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: FROM THE UNCAUSED CAUSE TO CATHOLICISM


Very good post, Carroll Cox, even though it seems to be cut off in
the middle.  You remind me of something I wanted to say about this
presumably-celibate-and-not-supposed-to-masturbate Burns.  He is
arguing over atheism vs. atheism while his opponents are concerned
with his membership in the most horrible fascist institution in
human history, the ca-ca-Catholic Church.  There is quite a
stretch from some vague belief or hypothesis about the existence
of the Uncaused Cause and Catholicism, which Burns glosses over
even with all of his training in the arts of sophistry and
casuistry.

I have a lot of practical experience with religious people, and
I'm suffering down here in the Bible Belt at the moment.  In most
contexts I am not going to get into fights with people who have
some general notion of a Creator to explain the existence of the
cosmos, as long as that hypothesis does not interfere with their
rational thought processes or block critical thinking.  There are
many people with such vague beliefs who nonetheless think
critically and hate all religion and churches.  In everyday life,
that's good enough most of the time.  There are several stages
betwixt the cup and the lip.  Here are some of them:

1.  Proposition of the First Cause

2.  God as person, rewarder of virtue, punisher of sins

3.  Superstitious explanations of nature, history, and society

4.  Belief in unsubstantiated theogenesis & cosmogenesis

5.  Revealed religion, belief in authority of sacred texts

6.  Use of religious dictates to justify ideas, morals & policies
instead of autonomous reason and conscience, e.g. homosexuality,
evolution, etc. is wrong, how do I know, because the Old Testicle
tells me so

7.  institutionalized religion

8.  Christianity

9.  Catholicism

Interesting how Burns (he must be burning if he doesn't get blown
by his fellow SJs, molest kids, or jack off) doesn't bother to
argue for the rationality of Catholicism and the authority of the
Pope.  He thinks he can get by just arguing for the existence of
God as a reasonable hypothesis.  So sad one of the Pope's trained
monkeys can't do better.


     --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

     ------------------