From: utzoo!decvax!duke!unc!tim
Newsgroups: net.religion
Title: Re: The REAL Biblical Controversy (name-that-religion part)
Article-I.D.: unc.4841
Posted: Sun Mar 27 15:56:32 1983
Received: Mon Mar 28 02:24:33 1983
References: tekecs.700


	Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

	Randall Schwartz has posted a letter I sent to him on the
subject of my religion, Thelemism. The basic tenet of Thelemism
is a belief in the Will of the individual as the ultimate arbiter
of behavior. Mr Schwartz ridiculed this belief, saying: What if
my will is to impose my will on you? This is an absurdity. If
you feel that such is your will, you are acting in error. By def-
inition, the "Wills" I am speaking of do *not* conflict, and the
will to block another's will is no will at all. I am not speaking
of random organismic impulses when I speak of Will. Such are clearly
liable to conflict. The postulate of Thelemism is that the true Will
of a person is "good" (although that's not a word I like to use, it
may be the only way to convey the concept here). As such, it is a
reversal of the basic Christian orientation, which is that we are
all pretty "evil" and will sin at the drop of a hat if we aren't
careful.

	The reason that I hold to this assumption is that it cor-
responds most closely to my own beliefs concerning morality. It
postulates no improbabilities such as divine judgment or the
carrot-and-stick absurdities of "good" and "evil". Fundamentally,
it is no more than a paradigm for exploration of concepts and
experiences.

	In conclusion, Mr. Schwartz, you are without a doubt the
single most pretentious writer I have seen on this group since its
inception. I am including Dave Lee in this. You say: No, none of you
have it, but I do, because I can think in ways you can't, you poor
fools. Then, you effectively take yourself beyond the reach of
reasonable criticism by refusing to divulge any details of your
"truth", merely saying: If you fools will imitate me, perhaps one
day you can attain to my status. There is little alternative for
me, when forming an opinion of you, but to conclude that you are
suffering from a vastly overinflated ego and a deep-seated conviction
of the inerrancy of your own belief. Your attitude makes it impossible
for me to take anything that you say seriously, even as seriously
as I take Biblical apologists.

	Love is the law, love under will.
						Tim Maroney
						decvax!duke!unc!tim