Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cci-bdc.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!cci-bdc!larry From: larry@cci-bdc.UUCP (Larry DeLuca) Newsgroups: net.religion.christian Subject: Re: Fun Facts and Definitions Message-ID: <161@cci-bdc.UUCP> Date: Fri, 8-Mar-85 13:02:08 EST Article-I.D.: cci-bdc.161 Posted: Fri Mar 8 13:02:08 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 10-Mar-85 02:25:44 EST References: <409@terak.UUCP> Distribution: na Organization: Computer Consoles, Inc., Cambridge, MA Lines: 50 > [] > > Some fun facts and definitions : i found your comments on evolution to be quite amusing. however, they wouldn't do you a lot of good in a serious argument with an evolutionist. to blindly poke fun at the scientific world is silly. Not only do you claim (you is a general you) to be oppressed in the same way, but each of you HAS provided many benefits. The scientific world is responsible for, among other things, modern medicine and the current longevity of our species. the primary credit i give to organized religion (that even a terminal non-believer can see) is that it gives its followers a pool of strength to draw on. it doesn't really matter whether that strength comes from a god or gods, from the group of people, or even from inside themselves. in any of these cases, they probably couldn't tap into it without help. religion is often the help they need. it gives shelter, explanation, promise of someone MORE responsible than them (a father figure), and hope for the future if not the present. in this way religion is responsible for our mere survival at times. while i can point to much in science that is tangible, I am hard pressed to be able to point out anything having to do with god and religion, though the socio-cultural benefits are readily ascertained. i'm not saying evolution was necessarily correct (though i believe it to be so), but to toss it out the window with no serious consideration whatsoever seems more to stem from a kind of snobbery among the higher members of the animal kingdom, a sort of self-righteous indignation at being forced to look back on the days when man glorifying god might have been when he went out foraging for food in the wild and feeding his family. or a day when man was less 'god-like' (or maybe more so, seeing as since he had no free will he must have done god's will at all times). if you expect people not to throw shit at you, you can't introduce yourself by pulling a used barf bag over their head. larry... -- uucp: ..mit-eddie!cybvax0!cci-bdc!larry arpa: henrik@mit-mc.ARPA This mind intentionally left blank.