[lit-ideas] Re: discussion or the same old slugfest?

  • From: "Stan Spiegel" <writeforu2@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 22:26:48 -0400

Mike - I don't think that "no good has ever come of it, save perhaps the
Gregorian Chant...." He's saved my life a couple of times. And we've had
some stimulating dialog over the years, especially in times of crisis. I
don't consider that "personal assuagement of narcissistic fear in the face
of annihilation." You're just too irreverent, Mike. Give God a break, would
you?

Stan Spiegel
a friend of God's in Portland, Maine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 9:56 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: discussion or the same old slugfest?


> Before I go on vacation again I must ask, as a poll more than discussion
> since I have no desire to argue it, am I alone in believing that the
concept
> of God is the most disastrous development in human history?  That no good
> has ever come of it, save, perhaps, Gregorian Chant and the personal
> assuagement of narcissistic fear in the face of annihilation?
>
> Mike Geary
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Omar Kusturica" <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 8:34 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: discussion or the same old slugfest?
>
>
> >
> > --- Scribe1865@xxxxxxx wrote:
> > > Omar, I was seeking to engage people on the value of
> > > the ancient near eastern
> > > influence on Western cultures. In doing so, we could
> > > be discussing attitudes
> > > toward authority, approaches to learning, etc.,
> > > styles of government,
> > > paradigms of our relation to the natural world, the
> > > impact of Greek thought on the
> > > ancient near east after 323 BC, etc.
> >
> > *I am afraid that the proposed topic is simply too
> > broad to result in a productive discussion, even if we
> > had the time, resources etc. There is little in
> > Western cultures that could not be traced back to
> > near-Eastern influences. The Greek philosophy
> > originally borrowed heavily from the Egyptians, the
> > Persians etc. It was later re-introduced in the West
> > through the Arabs.
> >
> > > Instead you and Mike Chase (who both should know
> > > better)  immediately engage
> > > in name calling, racist stereotyping, and ad
> > > hominems, as if I were some Bubba
> > > trying to say them thar  Ay-rabs were baaaad.
> >
> > *I think that both Mike Chase and I were responding
> > with a mild sense of humour.
> >
> > (snip)
> > > As for your Jesus reference and my Sufi reference,
> > > why not add G. Bruno and
> > > others to reinforce the point that orthodoxies tend
> > > to persecute individual
> > > thinking everywhere?
> >
> > *Surely most listmembers will have some awareness of
> > the activities of Catholic Inquisition, the wars of
> > Reformation etc. Islam has its own history of
> > persecuting religious dissent, but it is not nearly on
> > such a massive scale and in such a systematic manner.
> > Sufism became a tolerated and even respectable form of
> > Islam within 100 years from Al-Hallaj's death.
> >
> >  Otherwise you are merely making
> > > a covert political point
> > > about Jews killing Jesus and I am countering with a
> > > political point about Moslems
> > > killing Sufi mystics.
> >
> > *I was originally making a point about what seemed to
> > me to be a politically motivated misrepresentation of
> > the Kuranic view on the murder of Jesus ('The Kuran
> > says that Crucifixion never happened'), and some
> > covert suggestion that the Arabs or Muslims are
> > apparently not fit to even watch a film that deals
> > with this issue. It wasn't my intention to turn that
> > into an all-out assault on the Jews as you interpreted
> > it, and it wasn't necessary to activate the
> > pseudo-Nietzschean American Superman on me.
> >
> > O.K.
> >
> > __________________________________
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway
> > http://promotions.yahoo.com/design_giveaway/
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>
>
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