Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pucc-k Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!amd!dual!zehntel!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:Pucc-I:Pucc-K:afo From: afo@pucc-k (Flidais(finder of lost beasties)) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: morals, and the low correlation with religion Message-ID: <453@pucc-k> Date: Tue, 16-Oct-84 23:13:38 EDT Article-I.D.: pucc-k.453 Posted: Tue Oct 16 23:13:38 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 19-Oct-84 06:06:42 EDT Organization: Society for the Consumption of Marsupials, Castrovalva Lines: 52 (watch where you point that cuisinart!) Random thoughts on religion, morality and the like.... About five years back (when I was a much nicer person than I am now), a friend of mine who had recently 'seen the light' came to visit. In between playing rather loud Swedish gospel music on my stereo, she tried to, ahem, convert me. Among her arguments were; even though I had the 'strongest set of morals she had ever seen' (I told you it was a long time ago) I would most certainly burn in hell because I had not accepted jesus christ as my personal saviour. Now, my first response was that since she was a guest at my place, I really didn't need the hassle. Also, I thought that the christian group has a rather bizarre set of criterion for saving people. When I asked her if a child in India who had never heard of her saviour, and died without ever havingheard of her saviour, would burn in hell, she said yes. When I asked her if a Buddhist monk, never having harmed anyone in his life would burn in hell, she said yes. Amazing. You can burn in hell for not being in the right place at the right time.... A long, long time back (when I was even nicer), the kids in the neighborhood and I would play games in the street at night (kick the can, four-square). Anyway, about every May, we would be deluged with students from the local baptist high school. They apparently had to 'save' x number of people to graduate from the high school. These people didn't even have any concept of what they were doing. They just wandered up, asked if we knew that when we died, it we were going to hell or heaven, and if we had accepted jesus christ in our lives. It got to be a game to see how many times we were going to be saved in a given month. Then again, this church was known for giving away shetland ponies to the children who brought in the most friends for sunday school. Well, the jist of this is that the fundamentalist movement appears to have a rather odd idea of what you need to be a *good* person. Apparently inherent morality isn't worth anything. It is the acceptance of *their* god into your life which makes all the difference. They qualify this arguement bythe supposition that those who are 'saved' will naturally act better and nicer than those who haven't been saved (holy albeginsian, batman!).It appears, in their frenzy to 'save' souls (is that like plaid stamps?), they have gotten their own morality distilled into a mere meaningless chanting of words. maybe instead, to try and prove what a difference it has made in their lives, they might try following the tenets of Zoroaster (a well known non-christian), 'good thoughts, good words, good deeds'. Think about it...... Laurie Sefton {decvax,ihnp4,harpo,allegra}!pur-ee!pucc-k!afo But honey, I need something I can use around the office