RE: would you vote for this man?

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Mon Sep 01 2003 - 17:57:37 MDT

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    Ok, Greg, I'll wade into these waters (though I realize it is
    probably foolish to do so). [Someday, the Extropian List Principles
    should include a list of people that one should never never
    argue with.]

    On Mon, 1 Sep 2003, Greg Burch wrote:

    > [big snip] Islam -- at least the Islam practiced in important parts
    > of the world -- has never put down the sword. Much more violent clashes
    > between Islam and the Enlightened world are yet to come.

    *But* *why* does one not see the violence associated with Islam with
    say Hinduism or Buddhism or even Catholicism? (Mind you I did see
    a news program the other night where it appeared that two Buddhist
    sects or perhaps some individuals v. a sect were fighting against
    one another in Japan.) Probably not too different from the differences
    between the Sunni and the Shiites in Iraq.

    IMO, the problem does not go back to "religions" but genetic "tribalism".

    So it would require a very well referenced paper distributed worldwide
    to even begin to resolve some of these problems. Really -- can you
    even imagine Buddhist individuals/sects actually *fighting* against
    one another? They just don't *do* that kind of thing.

    And how can you even take the position that there is a real "debate"
    going on? I can see the "Islamic" world -- though I do not know why
    it may be more violent than the "Hindu" world. But I consider probably
    most of what you consider to be an "Enlightened" world, i.e. a world
    where there are "laws" and "justice" to be extremely under the influence
    of ca-ca written in the Bible (therefore null and void). In all of
    the cases they have *NOT* thought things through.

    I have realized that there are close personal friends whom I cherish who
    may pick up the Bible and become "believers" as well as intellectuals such
    as C. S. Lewis who may go through the same transformation. In the back of
    my mind the only explanation I can find is that they desire "hope" over
    rational thought processes.

    I must admit, "hope" tends to be more satisfying. And because of that
    possible fact we may be doomed to deal with individuals who will
    sacrifice themselves for what they view as a "better" world.
    And the "rational" among us may suffer as a result.

    As I pointed out -- most of us are not trained to engage in "rational"
    debate.

    R.



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