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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Why Bertrand Russell was not a Christian
Message-ID: <382@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Oct-84 13:58:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.382
Posted: Wed Oct 17 13:58:53 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Oct-84 19:11:31 EDT
Reply-To: mangoe@maryland.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 32
Summary: 

Mike Huybensz writes:
> I'd rather hear you criticize BR's arguments than his attitude.
> The question is whether his arguments are rational.  You can't 
> logically dismiss his arguments because his beliefs are polarized
> oppositely to yours.

> And as far as I can see, his personal experiences justify a great
> dislike for Christianity and many who practice it.  My volume has
> an addendum describing some of the persecution he suffered when his
> appointment to a NYU faculty position became the target of religious
> groups.

My volume does too, and that's precisely my point.  Russell's arguments
ultimately boil down to his resentment of christianity for things that
people did in its name; the "logical" arguments are nothing more than
rationalizations.

It has become popular to shoot at christianity for the things which people
who were not very good christians have done. If this standard were
universally applied, we could just as easily condemn atheism, or Taoism,
or anything else.  Since this standard of zero hypocrisy is applied only
to Christianity, I must conclude that the attacks are done due to bias
and not due to any logical reason.

Certainly "christians" have done their share of the world's evil.  I
believe in personal responsibility, and thus let the evil fall upon its
practitioners, not on their family or country or religion.

  Charley  Wingate    UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!mangoe
                      CSNet: mangoe@umcp-cs   ARPA: mangoe@maryland

"My wings are like a shield of steel."