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UPSG -> RE: My fellow citizens scare me... (2/25/2009 3:26:02 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Hippiekinkster
quote:
ORIGINAL: slaveboyforyou
quote:
And herein is yet another reason why some people scare me. They truly cannot distinguish between superstition and analytical thinking.
Hippie, you'll be hard pressed to find anyone more skeptical than I am. However superstitious folks don't scare me. If anything, they amuse me. One thing that bothers me in your OP is your insistence on turning your fear/bewilderment/whatever into a political argument.
It's funny but I hear liberals attack Christian fundamentalists for clinging to superstition, but I never hear them do the same with self-described neo-pagans, wiccans, buddhists, etc. Apparently for liberals, the "cool" religions get a free pass when it comes to superstition.
I just finished the Dalai Lama's "The Universe in a Grain of Sand: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality" An amazing read. The Dalai Lama is personal friends with the world's leading Physicists. Buddhist philosphy dovetails uncannily with physics (and my own "spirituality" or Cosmology, whatever term you prefer).
So I except Buddhism from the rest of the goofy whackjob cults like Wicca, Neo-Paganism, Islam, Catholicism, and the rest. (I'm undecided about Hinduism for reasons too complex to go into here)
The difference is that none of the other non-Christian cults have any sort of political power in the US, except perhaps for Judaism. And only the Protestant cults, like Assembly of God etc., are trying to dictate how I live. That's why you never hear Progressives opposing any but the Fundie Theocrats. (Dobson, Haggard, and the other headcases like them)
Hip,
John Paul II spoke something like 13 languages was internationally recognized as an intellectual and frequently held audience with scientists. Are you aware the Vatican sponsors an organization of scientists and to some lesser or greater degree always has for centuries? I doubt it. You apparently are unaware that the Dali Lama is a Bodhistava (spelling?) in Buddhism and hence regarded as reincarnated god who gave up life in one of the realms of Heaven to come back to this world to help end suffering.
It might also be worth noting the Dali Lama presided over a Tibet - where his position granted him great wealth and power - that offered less upward mobility (most lived in abject poverty) than people living in the Papal States centuries ago.
John Paul II and the Dali Lama where good friends by the way. (though one was born into wealth and the other suffered in secrecy for his religion under Nazi occupation and broke rocks, with little food to eat under the Communists - can we guess who spoke about "The dignity of work" and who was a greater friend to the working man? Wonder which one fought diplomatically harder for debt relief to Africa and for industrially advanced nations to stop pumping in arms to war torn parts of Africa with children soldiers?)
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