so, out goes plato, aristotle, epicurus, epictetus, socrates, sophocles, and on and on and on.
how old is too old? 1000 years? 500? 200?
or is it not about the "oldness" of the document at all?
you know, it could be that we do still have things to learn from such stories, just not as reportage. maybe that's the big problem, the way the documents are read as the word of god. if that's the case, then let's ditch the whole "they're so old" argument and focus on the real point.
> To
> extend this illogic further, the christian bible would be a suitable
> source of information for car repair and surgery. If you want answers
> about contemporary questions involving your life, wouldn't you want to
> turn to the best available *current* information?
which questions? and what "information"? do you have a couple of examples, since we're not talking about car repair?
>
> I was a good Lutheran boy who went to religious school and was
> confirmed. I just don't understand why contemporary humans still believe
> in this nonsense.
and maybe instead of calling them insane because you can't understand it, you might do better to try to understand it. that's often referred to as learning and it might actually get you further with them. see below.
>
> People need the security blanket of religion ripped away from them so
> they can start functioning as mature adults.
come on, chuck. is this really a mature adult response to the issue? how exactly do you, tough-love father of the unwashed faithful, propose to accomplish this security-blanket feat? what would it even mean? how could it possibly be accomplished?
i'll tell you: it can't be accomplished. you can't browbeat people out of their religion. you can't intimidate them out of it or coerce them out of it . . . at least not without the power of the state (does 2+2=5?). so what are you going to do?
write them off? that's an awful lot of people. no wonder anarchism never gets anywhere: everyone is too st00pid or too insane to understand it.
j
-- Among medieval and modern philosophers, anxious to establish the religious significance of God, an unfortunate habit has prevailed of paying to Him metaphysical compliments.
- Alfred North Whitehead