Oh no worries at all. I needed to flush it out further anyway since I didn't fully state what I meant. And if I can't handle argument and appropriately directed derision I should just give up on writing anywhere -- so thanks. Glad this forum exists.
(December 8, 2013 at 4:27 am)Raven Wrote: theyear12013 wrote:Quote:Just a small correction -- I'm quoted as 2013. Its 12013, because I reject the entire framework of Abrahamic relevance and prominence in human history or that the conversion of Rome is some important milestone in human history we should celebrate. My advocacy for pilgrimage is not for you or the people on this forum who are strong independent thinkers whose seeds of nonbelief possibly grew on stony soil, my advocacy is about society and those who require rich and deep soil to survive. Many Atheists in the world like Dawkins dismiss ritual and community aspects of religion at their peril IMHO. How else do you explain the resurgence of Abrahamic faith in the US, in the Muslim world, in Israel? If you don't build alternatives to compete with them not just on the basis of rational individual utility but with ritual, pilgrimage, community, the calendar system etc -- how will you truly displace them? There is a way to do it without recreating a fascist outlook. Its the holy site of questioning, where you don't go to worship the Earth or evolution or the stars, but to stand in awe that we exist at all in any of it and have survived this long and have just started to truly figure it out.
Sorry about that. You may indeed have a point there now that you lay it out a bit more. It does indeed seem to "get" people in some kind of emotional, non-rational way. That is why it never appealed to me. Guess I came on a bit strong. That's because it really bugs me. Not what you wrote, but the whole business of ritual, pilgrimage, etc. But that's me it does nothing for, and I'm not everybody. I think perhaps you may be on to something there.
