Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id RAA00283 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 8 Feb 2002 17:24:23 GMT X-Originating-IP: [209.240.222.132] From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: Re: Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2002 12:18:45 -0500 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F307Vaonks9iF1aKkGL0001a69c@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 08 Feb 2002 17:18:45.0553 (UTC) FILETIME=[AA03AA10:01C1B0C4] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
>Subject: RE: Re:
>Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 15:40:32 -0000
>
><Do hindus, Monotheists and animists? atheism falls under the definiotion
>of
>
>religion as it cannot to my mind be irrefutably proven, and therefore
>requires an element of belief.>
>
>Nothing can be irrefutably proven. All knowledge is contingent,
>but_all_religions claim to have, divinely revealed, absolute knowledge.
>All
>atheism is, therefore, is the rejection of religions' claims to absolute
>knowledge. After all the fact tht some religions have one god, some many,
>some no 'gods' at all, is actually irrelevant, what matters is that they
>make claims of absolute knowledge and require followers to believe based on
>faith not evidence.
>
>Speaking personally, the balance of evidence against any particular
>religion
>being true is massively weighted against. Taking Christianity for
>instance,
>you have contradictory doctrines, historically problematic content of
>religious texts, implausible (or explainable) 'miracles' in the core texts
>(and lots of faked ones subsequently), evidence of contradictions of
>practice by believers, evidence of wider behaviour apparently entirely
>contradictory to supposed following of the faith etc. etc.
>
>To quote myself (from this list many times before) rain dances don't make
>it
>rain.
>
From reading the first parts of Daniel Gasman's _Scientific Origins of
National Socialism_ I'm wondering how devoutly atheist Ernst Haeckel was. He
seems to have been rabidly anti-Christian, but if truly atheistic one has to
account for his views on pantheistic nature worship and panpsychism.
There's an undercurrent of Aryan proto-Nazi pagan/occultist sun-worship and
Nordic mythos I'm trying to come to grips with, especially if it relates to
Haeckel's Monist League (Monistenbund?). Gasman's book reminds me of some
issues I pondered while reading Richard Noll's _The Jung Cult_.
I've no clue what Hitler's views were. I've managed to avoid any serious
study of whatever made him tick. I guess my interests in German science and
philosophy would give me some background for his pathological twisting of
things. Every time I see _Mein Kampf_ in the bookstore I shudder at even
touching it, not to mention what people might think if they saw me reading
it.
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