Fourthbase, my complaint was that dear old Yathrib claimed to not want to be snarky, and yet still snarked away. Yathrib's response to Sunny seemed derisory, and I didn't think it was warranted. You are entitled to disagree, and support Yathrib's decision to seek to characterise Sunny's beliefs with scorn and derision. On the other hand, I am not sure why you saw the need to interject on Yathrib's behalf. Oh well, suit yourself.
I agree wholly that organised religion and priestcraft are awful things, but I hardly think Sunny is to blame for that. I could be wrong.
I think my notion that I am a religious person stems from my belief that there is an underlying moral order to the universe - yeah, what does that mean, you say, well, I'm not sure.
It might mean simply that my catholic upbringing brought into being a highly developed superego in my psyche.
Or it might mean that I cannot bring myself to believe that evil can truly prosper, and good truly fail to bring any succor, although I concede this certainly seems to often be the case within the context of a single human person's lifetime.
But I can't abide the sterile universe of "atheistic"* materialist reductionism, where the "good," or morality cannot be objectively studied, except as contingent facts of our particular human psychologies. In this worldview, it is "do what thou wilt," so long as you can get away with it. Why be good? Why refrain from evil? Within the narrow constraints of the worldview to which I refer, such questions have no answers.
I like to think that the evil will suffer for their evil. I guess I'm vindictive like that. I also guess I will suffer for that vindictiveness.
Karma, of course, being simply cause and effect, is, in a sense, amoral. Yet it is not simply a function of human psychology, but an objective fact about the Universe. I do think of the "good" as that which is conducive to the health and growth of the human organism. I consider this a "spiritual" belief, and I find for myself that selfishness, intolerance, and "materialism," create a contraction of consciousness, and a certain psychological malaise, whereas love, service to others, and a delight in the things of the spirit/mind are quite liberating and joy-bringing.
Strangely enough, I quite like Slimmouse's "medium cooky" version.
It's very difficult to talk about these things, which is why I usually don't. I have kind of studied religion for a long time, yet have few to no fixed beliefs. But you can't discount it out of hand, everyone has a "religion" of some kind, don't they? I guess you could replace the word "religion," with "worldview," or even "orientation," or probably any number of other terms, but it is what is central to our lives as thinking, acting human beings.
*strictly speaking, I am an atheist. I dont believe in, as Sunny puts it, "a distinct and actual Spirit Being." I don't believe in a personal deity, for the simple fact that my notion of "God," as perhaps ultimate truth or reality, cannot be said to be personal, anymore than it can be said to be not-personal. Not so much either/or as neither/nor. Not this, not that. In a sense it encompasses and includes, and indeed transcends the binary concept of person/not-person. This sort of thinking is quite common in "eastern" religions. Yeah, I'm a new agey kinda guy. I blame Fritjof Capra. And J Krishnamurti. And Alan Watts. And David Hume. And Bishop Berkeley. And a thousand other name checks too, for that matter, Jesus, the "historical" Buddha, and numerous Taoists included. Yes, even the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the Swami A C Bhaktivedanta. I'd better stop there because the list will just grow and grow. I guess I must have some sort of religious mania. Don't worry though, I shall draw the line at citing David Shayler.
