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To: IronJack
But I suspect that any religion which places Man in his humble station in the Universe would suffice.

Good comment, IJ, and a worthy topic.

Yes, it is sufficient in large part--mindful that relgion has a rather short life span when tied to a false humility.

Still you can get a lot of mileage out of that life span: Vaclav Havel is the noted public subscriber to the piety that began with Socrates and continued through Cicero--all for whom a higher order does not predicate the existence of a Judeo-Christian God. There is a difference, however, between the piety of the ancient polytheist and the politician that grew up in that ethic that defined the nation and its founders. That difference is a monotheism which nothing predicates, but predicates our existence. In other words, true religion is not a one-way street, an ascent of piety toward worlds (gods!) bigger than ourselves. Rather, it is enough to admit that true humility is that which responds to the divinity that recognizes us. It would be ridiculous (as much as the ancient Xenophanes laughed at the fallacy of Greeks anthropomorphism) to think that humility was one way and a matter of going it alone. There's a thread running with some talk about the universe in this Stoic sense.

I admire Havel and what he has done to move us away from the arrogance of the apes.

5 posted on 05/11/2002 7:56:46 PM PDT by cornelis
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To: cornelis
it is enough to admit that true humility is that which responds to the divinity that recognizes us.

Very pithy thought you've expressed there. It could be that if we look into the Universe and sense it looking back, we recognize our own insignificance, and in so doing, we sense that only our ideas outlive us. So it is in the preservation of our ideas that we validate our existence. Otherwise, it is as though we never lived at all, and the whole experience is rather pointless.

6 posted on 05/11/2002 9:25:12 PM PDT by IronJack
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