On Wed, 20 Sep 2000 22:37:50 EDT JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:
> Still, I would not overdo it. Most American religiosity is a civil religion
> without hard theological content....
I guess this explains why the gangster and the therapist story is always good for a laugh.
> As for the actual rationality of believing in the literal truth of Catholic
dogma, it's not supposed to be rational.
To which Freud responded, "Am I to believe every absurdity?"
> transmogrifications
Haven't heard that word since Calvin and Hobbes!
> My point is rather just that there is a lot of mystery and faith in things
even irreligious people here accept. Why not Catholicism?
What has really started me to think lately is that way in which "religion" (closely associated with ethnicity these days) has been put in the position to take the fall for "ethnic tension" "religious conflict" or "global violence." The UN World Peace Conference is a case and point. All these religious leaders are lumped together (most of which, rightly so, have nothing to say to one another), to take the responsibility for establishing peace on earth. The most interesting thing about this is the way in which 'modern' religion is 1) willing to take the fall 2) conforms perfectly to the public / private model of liberalism. What is most frustrating about this is the deliberate and structural avoidance of issues of political economy (as Bawa Jain noted, 'this is not a political conference') - in other words - ethnicity, violence, religion and peace have nothing to do with politics!! The The UN conference was organized by Ted Turner, the honourary Chair. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Maybe I missed this when I went on vacation... To shamelessly self-promote... see www.ccsr.ca for my introduction into this mess... which has now launched a post-doc proposal.
> However, demonic possession is over the top. That's just too silly. I don't
> understand how any sensible person could take that seriously.
Really? It is no more difficult to believe than the idea that some dude walked on the moon.
ken