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To: Coyoteman

Religious notions are like all other ideas. All ideas are open for critiques and acceptance. A religious idea is not protected, just because it it "religious" to some group. This leads us toward "heresy, blasphemy", and prohibited ideas.

As we know over the centuries, one man's heresy is another man's truth. How many "revealed truths" are we willing to accept--631 creation myths? The Genesis account is then only one; at equal probability, just 0.0016% of being right. (Probability works both ways for the creationists) Who do we trust to get the "revelation"?

There are oodles of priests, shamans, pastors claiming to "know the one and only truth". Rejecting one set of "revealed truths" is not blasphemy--it is in the tradition of the enlightment--no idea is so sacred that it cannot be questioned. There have been so many who claim to "know God's truth" with slick words and no evidence.....

It is dangerous territory if we allow religious leaders--with their own agendas, unelected, and tax-exempted--to get to decide what is blasphemous.

And in the discussion of ideas, all of satire, ridicule, parody are recognized as forms of expression of ideas. There is no exemption because an idea is described as "religious". I say there is nothing that is "blasphemous" Worry about affronting some ancient text or some god is mere superstition. (It used to be thought that the affronted god would send lightning strikes--this from Roman mythology; this does not seem to occur in modern times.) All ideas, whether pro-religion or anti-religion, have equal status.

Science has shown a great success in advancing human understandings and lives. ID has shown nothing.



If religious faiths like ID want to use science to support their beliefs, they have to use the same standard we all do. What is the evidence? What makes sense?


108 posted on 02/10/2006 6:57:21 PM PST by thomaswest (Labeling: My religion is the one true faith; yours is a cult.)
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Blasphemous placemarker.
109 posted on 02/10/2006 7:01:23 PM PST by PatrickHenry (Virtual Ignore for trolls, lunatics, dotards, scolds, & incurable ignoramuses.)
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To: thomaswest
I'm not sure what inspired your post, as my post that you are replying to in as innocuous as I get (sorry, I'll try to do better).

However, I can agree with what you are saying.

When I first began posting to the creation/evolution threads I tended to post creation stories; I have a large collection, from Native American to African, and everything in between.

You might go back and read some of the crevo threads (as they are called). Junior keeps a nice list, and posts the whole thing occasionally.

But back to your subject:

Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated out of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing - with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for the second and third place.

Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love, 1973


[Welcome to FR]
112 posted on 02/10/2006 8:26:36 PM PST by Coyoteman (I love the sound of beta decay in the morning!)
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