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From: pmd@cbscc.UUCP (Paul Dubuc)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Yellow Press in SciFi?
Message-ID: <4554@cbscc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Jan-85 09:17:54 EST
Article-I.D.: cbscc.4554
Posted: Tue Jan  8 09:17:54 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Jan-85 06:16:14 EST
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Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories , Columbus
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>[from Jeff Sonntag:]
>I seem to remember reading another story once where the man who discovered the
>fact that the earth revolves around the sun was put on trial by the catholic
>church for heresy.  And another where some religious nuts run something called
>the 'Spanish Inquisition', where they tortured lots of innocent people.  And
>another story where religious people accused each other of being 'witches'
>and burned, hung, tortured, crushed beneath stones, etc each other.  Those
>writers must really have some kind of private grudge against religion!  I
>guess I'll just have to agree with Mark Terrible on this one.  :-)
>    Wait a minute!  I just remembered where I read those stories!  My high
>school history class.

Forgive me for even bothering with this response, but there is still something
that bothers me about tounge-in-cheek statements like this.  The lop-sided
evidence Jeff marshalls against religion only seems to reveal his own private
grudge against it.  A more balanced approach to history might reveal far
greater atrocities in countries where religious belief is routed and atheism
is the rule.  In those cases it is often claimed that such perfideous actions
had nothing to do with the religious belief (or lack thereof) of their
perpetrators.  It's just a little strange that that it is often inferred that
the religious beliefs (especially if they are Christian beliefs) have a
direct causual link with things like the Inquisition and Salem Witch Trials.

Rather than discuss Mark's question relating to contemporary science fiction
works, Jeff seems to be trying to justify the anti-religious bias Mark seems
to find there.  It's easy to tack a ':-)' onto things and claim you are just
fooling around.  Nevertheless, I can't help put think that such oft repeated
remarks tend to inclucate an attitude of intolerance, the hallmark of which
it the impression that there is nothing whatever good about religion.  It
implies that the Inquisitors were living up to the highest standards of
Christian morality.  I find such belief to be equally, if not more, dangerous
as that of the Inquisitors.
-- 

Paul Dubuc	cbscc!pmd