Subject: Re: The Gangrenous Hand of God (was Re: Religion)
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Mon Feb 28 2000 - 03:49:32 EST
'... we need to take a decisive step back and draw
a clear distinction between the religion and its practitioners ...'
OK. And yet & yet.
On paper, the teachings of Jesus seem indisputably the wisest
& most wonderful guide to life. Why is it, then, that those
who attempt with absolute sincerity to put them into practice
become so arse-achingly unbearable? I'm not speaking of the
perfectly normal human hypocrisy that we all embody. I mean
the process whereby the kinder, the more forgiving, the more
prayerful, the more 'spiritual' an individual becomes - the more
dreadful, dreadful, dreadful he also becomes.
Human beings seem to form secular hierarchies as naturally
& as inevitably as ants build hills. There's probably nothing
to be done about 'institutional religion.' What I have in mind
is the true blue stuff.
Does the very decision to 'practise a religion' automatically
start some kind of corruption in the human heart? Or is
there something about the kind of people who are drawn
to it in the first place?
Scottie B.
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