Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!okstate!romed!cseg!lag
From: lag@cseg.uucp (L. Adrian Griffis)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: The Ignorant assumption
Summary: Christianity also supports belief-as-a-performance as an ideal
Message-ID: <545@cseg.uucp>
Date: 29 Aug 88 17:05:34 GMT
References: <19880820041348.2.NICK@HOWARD-JOHNSONS.LCS.MIT.EDU> <1311@garth.UUCP>
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Lines: 37

In article <1311@garth.UUCP>, smryan@garth.UUCP (Steven Ryan) writes:
> I feel you have made the distinction between Christians and Christianity
> implicitly, and I wish to make it explicit.
> 
> The ideals of Christianity, tolerance, mercy, and love, would make an
> excellent system. Western Christians, on the other hand, still tend toward
> out German (cultural) ancestors. (I don't know about Eastern Christians.)

Another "ideal" of Christianity is the notion that part of what make one
a good person is believing the right things.  In other words, A great deal
of unpleasentness awaits one who does not believe in the right things.
It's not clear to me who tolerance, mercy, and love (Compassion) can ever
be meaningful when they are something that one must do to please others.
It strikes me that this is likely to lead to profound confusion over what
as individuals beliefs really are.

This is not to say that Science never indulges in this sort of intolerance
of beliefs.  But at least Science as a whole does not state as part of its
fundamental platform that you must accept such and such a belief as fact,
without evidence and without question (regardless of what individual scientist
may do).

It's not clear to me at all that any system based on the notion of belief-as-
a-performance can be as the root of an "excellent" system of government.

> 
> I do take issue that Christians are held in checked by the wider society. In
> this country Christians are the majority: it is eternal internal conflicts
> between the sects that holds things in checks.
>

And am I ever grateful for that.

                                     ---L. Adrian Griffis

-- 
  UseNet:  lag@cseg                      L. Adrian Griffis
  BITNET:  AG27107@UAFSYSB