(Ron) Aristotle
Joseph Crea Joseph.Crea@worldnet.att.net
Wed, 27 May 1998 21:35:26 +0000 (00896322926, 19980527213526.BTM8433@LOCALNAME)
Hello, Ron!
At 11:02 PM 5/26/98 -0400, Brian Dean wrote:
>RON
>The largest and longest lasting government (the Catholic Church),
>established by Him, is still in existence.
>
>TILL
>Do you know any more jokes? Let's see you prove that the Catholic
>Church is a "government" that Jesus established.
>
>
>RON
> The Catholic Church was instuted by Christ. It is a government. It's
>been around since Christ established it. No secular government comes
>even close in longevity.
CREA
Sorry, Ron, but just saying that the Catholic Church is a "government"
doesn't make it so. However, for the sake of argument, let's assume that
the Cahtolic Church is indeed a "government". Please tell why the other
contenders you assume to be in the running for the longevity title should be
limited to "secular" governments? If the Catholic Church has been a
"government" since it was instituted back in the 1st century CE, then we
have to apply the same standards uniformly across the board and designate
all of the various and sundry autonomous/self-governing/self-regulating
institutions which can still be found in the world today as being
"governments". By this criteria, both the Jain and the Buddhist monastic
orders would have to be considered "governments", since they are
self-regulating/self-governing entities on the same level of organization
and complexity as the Catholic Church. And if we admit the Jain and
Buddhist monastic communities into the competition, then the victor's
palm/laurel wreath must be denied to the Catholic Church and awarded to
either the Jain or the Buddhist monastic community, since they both have
been around much longer than the Catholic Church (originating sometime in
the 5th or 6th century BCE).
With Mettaa,
Joseph Crea
<Joseph.Crea@worldnet.att.net>