On Thursday, March 7, 2002, at 08:14 AM, Chris Doss wrote:
> Wow. I got called a "dweeb." First time that's happened since I got off
> the
> junior high schoolyard. Maybe if I confuse Avicenna and Averroes, I will
> become a doofus.
easy, chris . . . if you look again you might notice that i was actually calling myself a dweeb for bothering to suggest the correction. it was an apparently unsuccessful attempt at self-deprecatory humor in an effort to distract people from the fact that whether or not origen is the best example is probably only of importance to me, the dweeb.
>
> I don't recollect anything said about medieval theology.
well, origen is not technically medieval, but close enough. see
paragraph above.
>
> Anyway, I agree with the point that religion-inspired "horrors" can't be
> logically derived from belief in personal immortality.
indeed. a divinity professor i knew in grad school, and for whom i taught, had a few favorite lines that he would trot out once for pretty much every class, as far as i could tell. one of these was, "you can prove anything you want from the bible; two thousand years of church history have proven that." in case you're wondering, he was an anglican priest.
i wonder if one might say something analogous about nietzsche, given some of what we've just been reading, but being less acquainted with nietzsche than i am with (ancient and) medieval theology, and less than i should be, i'll defer.
j
>
> I tend to think in any case that many secular leftists -- myself
> occasionally included -- have a kneejerk negative reaction to religion
> and
> nonrational ideas in general that borders on the silly. The proper
> attitude
> to such things is not "pernicious irrationalism" but "how the hell do I
> know
> if it's true or not?" in my very humble opinion.
>
> Chris Doss
> The Russia Journal
> ------------------
>
>
> Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 02:24:13 -0600
> From: Jeffrey Fisher <jfisher at igc.org>
> Subject: Re: Nietzsche and the Nazis
>
> fwiw, origen is the better reference here than pseudo-dionysius.
>
> said the medieval theology dweeb.
>
> jeff
>
> On Thursday, March 7, 2002, at 02:21 AM, Chris Doss wrote:
>
>>
>> That's the doctrine of divine judgement and damnation, not personal
>> immortality. There was a great deal of controversy in the early Church
>> about
>> whether, ultimately, anyone would be damned (cf. Pseudo-Dionysius).
>> There
>> was even a controversial thesis that even the Devil would ultimatelt be
>> saved.
>>
>> Chris Doss
>> The Russia Journal
>> ------------------
>>
>>
>> Once you introduce the doctrine of personal immortality, there is no
>> theoretical limit to horror except a commonsense refusal by believers
>> to
>> proceed down the slippery slope. X makes you in danger of hellfire.
>> Given that, there is no horror forbidden at the level of theory.
>>
>> Carrol
>>
>