In a message dated 10/23/1999 1:11:42 AM Eastern Daylight Time, jonkc@worldnet.att.net writes:
> I exclude Taoism from my criticism as it is not a religion and has no
> dogma, it doesn't even insist that anything about it is true. One of the
> most brilliant books I ever read was "The Tao is Silent" by Raymond
Smullyan.
>
>
> John K Clark jonkc@att.net
>
Excellent John. My concern here is that many atheists, without their
awareness of other cultures/faiths, still carries the anger of Euro -culture
(I like euro-culture too) from the previous centuries of racism/nationalism
etc. Religion can be a stumbling block, (an axeman's block) or it can
inspire, as Einstein indicated. Religion, as a psycho-social, crutch is
,indeed, as Marx said; "The Opiate of the People". Well, sometimes people
need opiates as pain-killers. This is true especially when solutions to great
dilemmas are centuries off technologically.
Spud, the Lotus Eater