Re: religion bashing?

Steve C. Dotson (neuroknot@hotbot.com)
Fri, 22 Oct 1999 14:28:48 -0700

On Fri, 22 Oct 1999 11:44:55 Spudboy100 wrote:
>In a message dated 10/22/1999 12:06:55 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>zharadon@inconnect.com writes:
>
>My critiques of atheistic criticisms is that its mono-cultural. How many of
>you have steeped yourselves in Hindu or Buddhism, before your reject it?

I'm sorry to say that I wasted over 30 years trying to find something of substance inside OR outside of Christianity. I was a seeker. I lived, ate, and breathed every belief system that I could find. I lived over three years in a "Gurdjieff cult" in New Mexico. I checked out all of the eastern religions I could find. I perused, talked with, studied, opened myself to, every nit-picking little (or big) sect I could find. And I found many. I meditated with gymnasiums full of Buddhists, rubbed elbows and slept with the dolphin-swimming new-agers, and sweated in sweat-lodges for countless moonlit nights. In answer to your query, yes I went beyond white-bread Christianity and I finally found (It took me way too long) that it is all superstition. It is all basically the same. Blind Faith is the grey-goo of memes. It is sticky, unyielding and irrational. It is worse than useless, it is dangerous. It always involves various and sundry comforting beliefs that allow one to view the wor ld as one pleases rather than it really is. I know we all have "blinders" and I know no one sees the world as it really is, but at least some beings are interested in throwing off some of the shackles of pernicious philosophical concepts and outmoded beliefs. To the Faithful, questioning equals "bashing" because once the short end of the wedge of rationality is inserted, a resourceful, self-observant thinker with a penchant towards self-honesty will frequently reject comforting beliefs over freedom of thought. That is the greatest fear of all religions. People thinking for themselves.

Steve Dotson

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