Re: Gullibilty (Yoel)
Ian Dorion (dorioni@intellinet.com)
Tue, 01 Apr 1997 10:05:16 -0600
> >> >(Christ-Ian 4/1) You must not have watched the farewell tapes of the
> >> >Heaven's >>Gate people. They were very calm, relaxed, and happy to be
> >> >going.
> >>
> >> yoel-
> >> To anyone entrenched in any absurd philosophy, the absurdities of that
> >> particular philosophy seem normal. They convince themselves that they are
> >> happy... and they are. This does not prove the truth of a sect, rather, it
> >> proves the gullibility of the believer.
> >>
> >> Take the phrase "Jesus died for your sins". To Americans, even secular
> >> Americans, who are drenched in Christian culture and have seen the John
> >> 3:16's at football games, seen the banners outside the OJ Simpson trial,
> >> sung the Christian hymns, seen the Bumper stickers, been indoctrinated as
> >> children... that phrase "Jesus died for our sins" has lost some of its
> >> immediately apparent ridiculous nature.
> >>
> >> On the other hand, someone raised in a non Christian culture, unaware of
> >> the Christian world view, upon first hearing the phrase would say "What the
> >> hell does THAT mean?". In order to be fully converted, this person would
> >> have to acclimate himself to Christian culture and outlook... and only
> >> after he had saturated his mind with the absurdities of Christian claims
> >> and quelch all skepticism would he be able to say: "Jesus Died for my sins!
> >> Now I see!"
> >>
> >> So, when a Christian claims that Jesus is as real to him as his wife, that
> >> Jesus "lives in his heart", he is no different than the cult members who
> >> have acclimatized themselves to the philosophies and claims of the cult and
> >> forced their outlook and opinion to conform to the cult's absurdities. He
> >> just belongs to a much larger and socially more accepted cult.
> >>
> >> Another example: You have all heard the Christmas Carol "Noel, Noel... Born
> >> is the king of Israel" in Safeway, Burger King, TV, Church, School. You are
> >> not aware of HOW RIDICULOUS that song is, and how incorrect historically,
> >> especially to a Jew, who's history includes no king, queen, prince or
> >> princess called Jesus.
> >>
> >> yoel
> >>
> >> Hide, witch hide!
> >> The good folk come to burn thee
> >> Their keen enjoyment hid behind a gothic mask of duty.
> >> Jefferson Airplane
> >
> >(Christ-Ian 4/1) It doesn't change the fact that these people died happy and
> >in my opinion, a lot happier than most christians. Sure it's ridiculous, as
> >is the Judeo-Christian religions but the Christians are in my opinion the
> >more ridiculous.
>
> yoel-
> Oh I agree with you 100%. These people were caught up in the excitement of
> the newness of their faith. And they acted accordingly in faith. Christians
> have 2000 years of Christian history to prove that their faith is a farce.
>
> >At any rate, I don't really care what they believe if it makes them happy. My
> >beef comes when someone like Jerry Falwell or Pat Robinson try to shove their
> >beliefs down everyone's throat by attempting to get laws enacted.
>
> yoel-
> The problem is that if you take JC's words literally- then it is the
> Christian duty to "spread the gospel". Fundamentalists are not being
> hypocrites in that respect. I have a hard with missionary religions, which
> both Christianity and Heaven's Gate were.
>
> yoel
>
> Hide, witch hide!
> The good folk come to burn thee
> Their keen enjoyment hid behind a gothic mask of duty.
> Jefferson Airplane
(Christ-Ian 4/1) That's certainly part of the reason that I'm here. The problem
is that it is very difficult to deprogram a person once these fundies get them.
As anyone can see, if we ridicule them, they get upset.
My feelings are that if we can get to people before they get caught up in this
fundamentalist craze, it will die off for lack of converts.
The question is, "How do we do this?" At least half the people in this country
can't read at the eighth grade level. With few exceptions, this is where they
get their converts. So I wrote a book, "Holy Moses?" It's not a great literary
work by any stretch of the imagination. It just makes fun of the five books of
Moses and urges the reader to read the bible along with the book. Will it sell?
I don't have the foggiest idea. Prometheus Books turned it down so I sent it to
a literary agent. It's been two weeks and I haven't heard.
I feel very strongly that if we are going to stop the fundies, we are going to
have to educate the young people - preferably while they are in their rebellious
state. Your thoughts - please