Re: Dawkins was right all along

From: Robin Faichney (robin@ii01.org)
Date: Wed Sep 26 2001 - 15:35:43 BST

  • Next message: Vincent Campbell: "RE: On the origin of .... war"

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    Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 15:35:43 +0100
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    Subject: Re: Dawkins was right all along
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    In-Reply-To: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6D029@inchna.stir.ac.uk>; from v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk on Tue, Sep 25, 2001 at 11:53:04AM +0100
    From: Robin Faichney <robin@ii01.org>
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    On Tue, Sep 25, 2001 at 11:53:04AM +0100, Vincent Campbell wrote:
    > >> Surely, Wade was simply making a joke.
    >
    > <Humor is one of the commonest ways of evading a serious point.>
    >
    > Or of pointing to the absurdity of the comments that precede the
    > humourous comment.

    Are you saying that my comment was absurd, or just making a general point?

    > >> Citing Jesus and children is not wise given the absence of
    > >> information in Christianity of Jesus' childhood. Why is there
    > this absence?
    > >> Because he would have been brought up as a Jew, and you can't
    > have that in
    > >> Christian doctrine.
    >
    > <At the time the gospels were written there would have been no way
    > to
    > > find out anything about the period before he started to act strangely
    > > and therefore memorably.>
    > >
    > So, what about all the star of bethlehem stuff?

    I'm not a biblical scholar, but I see no problem in supposing that such
    events faded from memory during his unremarkable childhood, to be recalled
    during his highly remarkable adulthood.

    > There's a huge
    > inconsistency in the accounts of Jesus' life from the lead up to his birth,
    > and then his actions as an adult. There's not even an account of his
    > barmitzvah (I assume that they did that back then).

    Which can be taken to support my point just as well as it does your's.

    > <Wade said that religion commonly denies childhood. My point is
    > that
    > > doesn't seem to be the case for Christianity.>
    > >
    > As he said, in the sense that childhood curiosity is denied in
    > favour of every answer stemming from God, he is right. Christianity is as
    > bad as every other religion in that regard.

    See my reply to Wade.

    > >> (<"The distinction between mind and matter is in the mind,
    > not in
    > >> matter.">
    > >>
    > >> Except that, without any matter there'd be no mind.)
    >
    > <Where's the contradiction?>
    >
    > In the presumption of a distinction between mind and matter that
    > could exist only in the mind, when the mind must, by being in the universe,
    > be composed of matter.

    See my reply to Philip.

    -- 
    Robin Faichney
    "One person's mess is another's complexity"
    inside information -- http://www.ii01.org/
    

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