[lbo-talk] Rationality of the Masses

Jeffrey Fisher jeff.jfisher at gmail.com
Fri Jun 10 09:12:52 PDT 2005


On 6/10/05, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Bill Bartlett wrote:
>
> >In other words, Americans regard religion as a personal choice,
> >rather than the collective expression of beliefs and even culture of
> >the society.
>
> Sure - and we're eclectic! A little Catholicism, a little wicca, a
> little Buddhism. Mix and match to create your own personal religion!
>

i lived my first year of grad school in the div school dorms. a few of us had a light div student classification project that would entertain us over meals. one of the categories was "divinity dope": those were the people who had no idea what they were actually doing there. the example we liked was a guy who described himself as, and i'm not making this up, although i might be forgetting labels, a "presbyterian/buddhist/rosicrucian/animist" . . . and he had runes on his dorm room door. seriously. and no, he was not joking. he had no irony at all that i could detect. and he was the sort of person who bragged when he thought he'd figured out some deep buddhist insight, especially but not only koans.

ick.

and, as i say, i had two students last term who insisted they had their very own religions. one was, however, belgian -- not american.
:)

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



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