[lbo-talk] Godless Good?

[Carl Remick]

>From: "Dennis Perrin" <dperrin at comcast.net>
>
> > But that's just it.  Politics *is* about "what can be immediately seen."
> > It's about making war or peace, delivering social services, ensuring
> > occupational safety, etc.  It's not about saving souls; it's not about 
>the
> > hereafter; it's not about eternity.  Politics is concerned *exclusively*
> > with the here and now.  That's why -- nutty as politics can be -- 
>politics
> > is not completely stark raving insane the way religion is.
> >
> > Carl
>
>I agree with that somewhat, but Carl, you of all people shouldn't dismiss
>the "stark raving insane" aspect of American politics. I know you pay 
>closer
>attention than that. And please don't confuse religion with faith -- two
>different things that many believers often conflate.

Well, yes, US politics are getting loonier because they're becoming less 
focused on material concerns (which are typically subject to bargaining) and 
more focused on spiritual values (which lead to vicious zero-sum conflicts).

Faith -- "believing what you know ain't so" (Twain) -- is that which can 
move mountains (Matthew 17:20) but more often makes mountains out of 
molehills (Carl 9/21).  Religion harnesses that powerful source of dimness 
to create weapons of mass delusion.

This was all a source of relatively harmless merriment as recently as the 
cold war, but now that we're entering the New Dark Ages -- with the world's 
Big Three monotheisms armed and bent on slaughtering each other, I say the 
hell with the whole idea of spiritual life.  Bring back Godless materialism, 
now!

Carl