Re: extropians-digest V2 #22

Steve Witham (sw@tiac.net)
Wed, 29 Jan 1997 04:06:20 -0500


Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:

>I must say, though, that I find not a single thing worthwhile about
>Jesus's teachings at all. He is the classic self-sacrificial altruist,
>mindlessly vengeful (e.g., the fig tree), praising "faith" (mysticism
>and uncritical acceptance of dogma), "hope" (begging for supernatural
>favors instead of working to better yourself), and "charity" (self-
>sacrifice and self-loathing). He was anti-capitalist ("camel through
>the needle's eye..."), pro-government ("render unto Caesar...").

You might have fun with Neitsche's "The Antichrist." There's a section
where he sort of off-handedly says what he thinks Jesus was *really*
trying to say, followed by an analysis of what he thinks Paul and the
Church did with it. Basically the idea is that sufficiently
metaphorical yet powerful liberating ideas can be used as fuel when
inserted into the right enslaving framework. (Yet I don't think
Neech anticipated the same thing being done with his ideas by the Nazis.)

On the other hand, if you're not sensitive to certain ideas about
inner peace and ruthlessness, you might not like anything Neitsche says.

--Steve

--
sw@tiac.net           Steve Witham            http://www.tiac.net/users/sw
"...the Vild, where the manifold was as dangerous and deranged as a
 Scutari shahzadix in heat." --David Zindell