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From: tim@unc.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Summary of Answers--2. Assumptions about god and fear of humanism
Message-ID: <6228@unc.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 13-Nov-83 16:00:49 EST
Article-I.D.: unc.6228
Posted: Sun Nov 13 16:00:49 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Nov-83 00:18:37 EST
References: pyuxn.348
Lines: 38

Rich Rosen is at it again.  Look at this statement from a recent article:

	Religionism does not promote the idea of human beings being
	held responsible for their actions; it teaches that they MUST
	adhere to a written code that they had no say in, or face
	eternal damnation; how is that responsible?; the tenets of
	humanism state that human beings determine their own moral
	code, and that it adhere to the concept that one person's
	rights end when imposition an another begins.  Thus it places
	limits on the indulging of whims.

Rich, if you have been reading this group for any period of time, or if you
have any knowledge of popular religions, you know that this is quite simply
not true of all religions.  It is true of Christianity and Islam, but your
use of the word "religionism" implies that you mean to say that it applies
to all religions.

My own religion, Thelemism, has no such idea of an externally-imposed
standard of morality, nor of eternal damnation.  Buddhism, Hinduism, and
Taoism are lacking in the idea of eternal damnation as well.  Judaism is
vague on this point, but there is no explicit concept of eternal damnation.

It is extremely offensive to those of us in other religions to see you
referring to all religions as if they were Islam or Christianity, two
religions which I for one strongly disapprove of.  It is as if I were to
expound on the faults of atheism as being ugliness and obnoxiousness, when
in fact I am only talking about Madelyn Murray O'Hair.  I must assume that
you either know nothing about religions other than those two, or are
deliberately hurling unfounded insults at us; either way, you have no place
on this group.

The real irony here is that I agree with you about authoritarian religions,
and the moral code of Thelemism is one which would be called "humanist" by
your definition.  By your overgeneralization, you have lost a potential
ally.  Let that be a lesson in morality.
________________________________________________________
Tim Maroney, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
duke!unc!tim (USENET), tim.unc@csnet-relay (ARPA)