Re: virus: Limiting
SwiftRain (swiftrain@geocities.com)
Wed, 10 Dec 1997 22:37:29 -0500
Marie Foster wrote:
>
[snip]
> My *god* meme as you put it is very useful to me in framing my view of
> the world.
good. wonderful, terrific, splendid, great, fantastic.
but don't call it "god."
it's just not an effective way of doing things. it's like... well,
i will craft an analogy.
i am sure that most everyone here has a strong immune-response to
the word-concept Nazi. right? so imagine this:
someone comes onto the list, and notices a mention of Nazism. they
respond to this with a post saying: "i don't know why all of you are so
closed minded and angry about Nazism. i'm a Nazi and i think it's a
healthy, wonderful thing that i consider an important part of my life."
various people then respond in a critical way: "do you really think
there's any evidence for the claims of Nazism?" or even "you are a sick
person to believe in such a horrible thing!"
they then respond, clarifying: "one way of describing what Nazism
means to me is to say that Nazism = Love. my idea of Nazism is the
belief that humanity is united into a single brotherhood, and that we
should treat all people equally and with respect."
then later: "i don't understand how you can have a church that
doesn't believe in Nazism. Nazism is such a wonderful thing! Nazis are
loving and wonderful. if you won't accept Nazis, you must be hateful
people. let's have a vote on whether Nazis should be allowed in this
church."
do you follow what i'm saying? it doesn't matter whether someone is
a nice person or not, or what they believe in, they will not be accepted
by many people if they insist on calling themselves a Nazi.
and it does not matter what your beliefs are, or whether they are
rational or compassionate, you will not be accepted by many people so
long as you insist on calling yourself a theist.
i will *not* number myself amoung those people. if you wish to call
something god, i will not judge that thing on those things which have
been called god in the past -- i will simply consider you to be yet
another person who is unable to effectively express their ideas because
of their misunderstanding of the nature of language.
[snip]
--
http://www.sudval.org/users/swifty/