RSS Feed
|
|
|||||
|
for larger version       Religiosity Speaks To Life Henry VIII hijacked Catholic England for his own prurient, perverted interest; much the way Osama Bin Laden has recently hijacked Mid-East Islam. Religiosity speaks to the ways of life and death; and so, commandeering eschatology, the Tudor king and the salafifanatic have reached into men's souls...powerful & scary. That said though, these 2 events across 500 years don't make religion wrong, nor out of control, nor dangerous. Last week's Wave editorial on Religion and Humanism couldn't be more wrong in the extreme. The author - I believe - jumped to an amazing conclusion using as his basis for argument (1) actions of a madman in a cave; (2) a few assorted casual observations; and (3) a New York Times commentary (God Forbid!). Wave editor Howard Schwach identifies himself with Erasmus as a secular humanist. But he must know that it is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jesus and Mohamed that elevated humanism to its current status. Before these prophets, humans were considered a whimsical toy in the hands of "the gods," and life meant nothing, kingdoms everything, slavery a way of life. Pre-prophetical humanism is the humanism of Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot and Hitler. Post-prophetical humanism is the humanism of Maimonides, St. Francis of Assisi and Ibn Kaldun. Our Deist Founders wrote forcefully and beautifully. Here are the opening words from one of them... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Many in the world disbelieve these temperate words and act discordantly; but it doesn't degrade their significance, nor their value to all of us. God is alive and well in all our souls, even at 88-08 Rockaway Beach Boulevard...
PETE STUBBEN
|
|
||||
