From: Kirk Steele (ksteele42@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Oct 21 2003 - 11:02:13 MDT
Fish, er. Gator On!
Where's Dees when you need him!?! ~o~
kirksteele
--- Calvin Ashmore <coa@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
>
> I'm not sure what you mean by less serious (as opposed to the level
> of
> gravity which doesn't seem to be too heavyhanded.)
>
> But regardless...
>
> You had stated that what separates you from one with any type of
> belief is
> that you have thought extensively about your beliefs and why you
> believe
> them, instead of accepting them passively.
>
> I highly highly disagree with this claim. The nature of belief
> systems is a
> precarious one, and many of my friends have belief systems that are
> different from mine- even theistic ones. They have *all* (note all,
> not
> some, not most, but all) gone through an extensive process by which
> they
> have come to their own perception of beliefs and what to believe
> through
> doubt, questioning, and ultimately constructing their belief system
> through
> analysis of who they are and what they see themselves as needing to
> believe.
>
> The phase at which I veer off from their systems is fairly early- at
> the
> metaphysical question of "is there something more?" (ie, beyond human
> consciousness, or capability for reasoning) I take the argument it's
> not
> something that can be proven either way, and if there is, than there
> is no
> sense that can be made of it. I have no use in thoughts of this life
> being
> only a shadow of something else, because this life is what I have,
> and to
> make it out to be only a figment of something else is to show a
> supreme
> disrespect to the natural world that we live in.
>
> Others don't follow the same line of reasoning, or do not wish to,
> and
> therefore they construct their beliefs differently.
>
> There are many different types of faiths and ways to follow them, but
> certain branches of Christianity do in fact encourage rational
> thought and
> doubt in their followers. Not all, probably not many, but some.
>
> Often times, things are much more complex than they appear.
>
> -Calvin
>
> ---
> To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to
<http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
http://shopping.yahoo.com
--- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Oct 21 2003 - 11:02:31 MDT