[LINK] Weekend Philosophy 101 - More save the children silliness

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Fred Pilcher
> Sent: Saturday, 19 March 2011 9:50 AM
> To: link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [LINK] More save the children silliness
> 
> 
> On 18/03/11 19:11, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> > "Parental locks are mandatory for all new TV gear sold in 
> Australia, 
> > but they're ridiculously easy to bypass.
> 
> Another case of placating the Christian right without 
> actually achieving 
> anything.

But actually Fred, that's pretty much what the religious anything
(political) deserves.

For two thousand years we have been under the thumb of educated clerics
that had exclusive access to information (reading - the bible) and
became the man behind the curtain... "The all powerful Oz!".

In the name of their deity, they drove the infidel from their lands,
drowned witches, separated children from their parents and did
unmentionable things with altar boys.

Millions have perished because of the requirements [or the clergies
interpretation] of the different deities.

Looking around at the state of the world, I have come to the conclusion
that ;

Either;

1: all these different deities have in fact had a round table discussion
[G27 - as in 27 Gods] and decided to pop off to a world far far away for
the next two millennia for a well deserved holiday leaving humanity to
it's own devices. 

2: Religion is an artificial construct to enable humanity to deal with
the psychological concept of a finite lifespan and should be given an F
due lack of any real substance.

3: [insert name of preferred deity] is no longer accepting requests
unless said request is accompanied with a one hundred note in the
collection plate.

Let's face it, be it the Christian right, left, green, yellow or orange;
their time has passed.

The Internet is permitting an exchange of information that will
ultimately result in the ubiquity of all knowledge.
At that point in time, the old institutional constructs that are still
standing, will shut their doors realising that they are no longer
needed. (err that includes any university that makes it's money out of
foreign students and does not have any meaningful post graduate
projects]

It is now time to examine a new paradigm of existence...

Whatif... The Sci-Fi channel [Stargate] [and possibly Lobsang Rampa] has
it right... And at the end of our time we merge into the energy
consciousness of the ascended beings.

I like this theory because it doesn't require donations on Sundays,
allows naughties before marriage and it doesn't rely on Archbishop
anyone pontificating sanctimoniously over whether ladies should wear
hats in church or not.
(Plus the energy transfer on cells ceasing to function is an observed
phenomenon. [Ref A] [Notice I said observed, not necessarily proved].)

I think that until Cern can confirm either way the existence of the
Higgs Boson (a theoretical undiscovered elementary particle [a bit like
any deity really]) versus the alternative Hubble theorem that photons
suffer a decrease in energy proportional to the distance they travel, we
will remain stuck in this 2,000 year old religious dependency curve.

Unfortunately, the same psychological smoke and mirrors so effective for
the church for two thousand years, still now appears to have a residual
political effect. [I think the effect is called the "the long tail".]

Exponentially the long tail suggests that we may still be paying for
humanities lack of acceptance of [2] above for many more elections.

Unfortunately, [2] above also provides the majority of moral backbone in
the world. Damn, I though I was onto something positive there. If we get
rid of the only real source of ethics programming, then civilisation may
well enter the decline phase with no brakes.

Disclaimer:
I was baptised a Roman Catholic and was trapped in the catholic
education system until I was fifteen.
On my twelfth birthday, my father informed me of my Jewish heritage [on
his side] and the reasons he hid the same from the world for twenty-nine
years.

P.S.: 
Opinion:  Matthew 5:44 tell us; "But I tell you: Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you".
Nowhere can I find any mention of a Canberra lobby group, therefore I
can but conclude that the Christian right may in fact work for the under
down under team and are attempting to "covet" positions of political
influence.

As Christians certainly don't blackmail people, because they're
Christians, I expect to see that whole filter lobby group disappear. [Or
suffer the fires of Purgatory for at least 500 years].

[Ref A] Why death? An evolutionary perspective
http://www.nature.com/nri/journal/v4/n3/box/nri1308_BX2.html