| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"The Black Monk" |
| Date: |
18 Jun 2004 09:25:07 AM |
| Object: |
The Secular Religion |
Worshipers at the Secular Altar
By David Klinghoffer
David Klinghoffer is a columnist for the Jewish Forward. His latest
book is "The Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism"
(Doubleday, 2003).
June 17, 2004
Everyone knows that the place of religion in the public sphere is
facing serious challenges. There is some confusion, however, about
where those challenges come from. Is it from civil libertarians?
Atheists? Actually, no. The larger answer to the question may surprise
you.
Consider the Supreme Court's decision to overturn a ruling by the U.S.
9th Circuit Court of Appeals that struck the words "under God" from
the Pledge of Allegiance. Affecting 10 million schoolchildren in nine
Western states, the 9th Circuit's ruling was rejected on a
technicality: The Supreme Court felt that the California atheist,
Michael Newdow, who brought the case lacked procedural standing to do
so.
Or consider the battle over the official seal of Los Angeles County.
The seal includes a tiny cross, over which the American Civil
Liberties Union threatened to file suit. After the civil libertarians
successfully intimidated the county supervisors — who agreed to alter
the seal — more than 1,000 people rallied at the county's Hall of
Administration to keep the cross on the seal. Other American cities
and counties with crosses on their seals await suits or threats from
the ACLU.
What we are observing here is not what it may appear to be — a
struggle of religion against no religion. It is instead a battle
pitting one religion, broadly speaking, against another. On one side
we have, primarily, the biblical faith of Jews and Christians. On the
other side, secularism. If you object that secularism has no deity,
remember that other recognized faiths, for example Zen Buddhism,
likewise lack a belief in God.
What is a religion, then? Simply, a system of beliefs based on stories
that explain where life comes from, what life means, and what we, as
living beings, are supposed to be doing with our few allotted years.
Judaism and Christianity have their sacred stories — the biblical
account of creation, followed by Noah's flood and on through the
entire narrative of Scripture — along with their codes of right
conduct. For Jews and Christians, the meaning of human existence lies
in communion with God in the context of eternal life.
For each element of Judeo-Christian faith, secularism has its
counterpart. Like Christianity and Judaism, secularism promises
eternal life — well, long life, which is the central point of the most
common strain of secular faith and which explains the pop-cultural
focus on moral commandments having to do with physical health: Thou
shalt not smoke. Thou shalt not get fat. Thou shalt fight global
warming by taking the bus to work. Indeed, thou shalt vote for public
subsidies for mass transit. In secularist doctrine, a fat person isn't
merely unhealthy; he is a sinner in need of salvation. To address his
situation, one secular gospel preaches the good news of the South
Beach Diet, another that of the apostle Atkins.
There is a secular creation account — evolution through random
mutation and natural selection, a just-so story increasingly
challenged by scientists. A few years ago the Discovery Institute, a
Seattle think tank, took out advertisements in the New York Review of
Books and the New Republic listing a hundred distinguished
Darwin-doubting scholars, at institutions from Berkeley to MIT.
There is even a flood story, told in the new movie "The Day After
Tomorrow," wherein a modern-day Noah (played by Dennis Quaid) warns of
an impending inundation brought on by global warming. As in biblical
tradition, his neighbors pay no attention and subsequently perish. At
the film's end, a few survivors are picked up by helicopter from the
tops of Manhattan skyscrapers, just as Noah and his family survive
when their ark is cast up on the peak of Mt. Ararat.
It emerges that, in the controversies surrounding the Pledge of
Allegiance and the L.A. County seal, what we're seeing is an
unacknowledged interreligious civil war. Centuries ago in Europe and
the Middle East, intolerant faiths sought to suppress one another,
erasing symbols of their rivals wherever possible. Churches were
converted to mosques, their crosses removed. Synagogues were converted
into churches, their Jewish symbols effaced. Today the church of
secularism agitates against its rival, the Judeo-Christian tradition.
In the interest of honest debate, at the very least it would be of
benefit to recognize secularism for what it is: an aggressive religion
competing for converts, a faith lacking the candor to speak openly of
its aims.
Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
----------------------
BM
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| User: "Geoff" |
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| Title: Re: The Secular Religion |
18 Jun 2004 10:47:04 AM |
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"The Black Monk" <cherniymonakh@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:c21219d5.0406180625.2239b5b3@posting.google.com...
Worshipers at the Secular Altar
By David Klinghoffer
David Klinghoffer is a columnist for the Jewish Forward.
It should be the Jewish Fraud based on the content of the article.
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| User: "johac" |
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| Title: Re: The Secular Religion |
19 Jun 2004 02:40:41 AM |
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In article <c21219d5.0406180625.2239b5b3@posting.google.com>,
(The Black Monk) wrote:
Worshipers at the Secular Altar
By David Klinghoffer
David Klinghoffer is a columnist for the Jewish Forward. His latest
book is "The Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism"
(Doubleday, 2003).
From the article:
There is a secular creation account — evolution through random
mutation and natural selection, a just-so story increasingly
challenged by scientists.
This guy apparently doesn't know squat about evolution or current
science. There is no controversy in mainstream science.
A few years ago the Discovery Institute, a
Seattle think tank, took out advertisements in the New York Review of
Books and the New Republic listing a hundred distinguished
Darwin-doubting scholars, at institutions from Berkeley to MIT.
I wonder how many of his "Darwin-doubting scholars" have degrees in
evolutionary biology?
There is even a flood story, told in the new movie "The Day After
Tomorrow," wherein a modern-day Noah (played by Dennis Quaid) warns of
an impending inundation brought on by global warming. As in biblical
tradition, his neighbors pay no attention and subsequently perish. At
the film's end, a few survivors are picked up by helicopter from the
tops of Manhattan skyscrapers, just as Noah and his family survive
when their ark is cast up on the peak of Mt. Ararat.
Silly comparison.
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Men become civilized not in their willingness to believe, but in
proportion to their readiness to doubt." - H. L. Mencken
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: The Secular Religion |
18 Jun 2004 10:14:57 AM |
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On 18 Jun 2004 07:25:07 -0700, (The Black
Monk) wrote:
Worshipers at the Secular Altar
By David Klinghoffer
David Klinghoffer is a columnist for the Jewish Forward. His latest
book is "The Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism"
(Doubleday, 2003).
June 17, 2004
Everyone knows that the place of religion in the public sphere is
facing serious challenges. There is some confusion, however, about
where those challenges come from. Is it from civil libertarians?
Atheists? Actually, no. The larger answer to the question may surprise
you.
Consider the Supreme Court's decision to overturn a ruling by the U.S.
9th Circuit Court of Appeals that struck the words "under God" from
the Pledge of Allegiance. Affecting 10 million schoolchildren in nine
Western states, the 9th Circuit's ruling was rejected on a
technicality: The Supreme Court felt that the California atheist,
Michael Newdow, who brought the case lacked procedural standing to do
so.
Or consider the battle over the official seal of Los Angeles County.
The seal includes a tiny cross, over which the American Civil
Liberties Union threatened to file suit. After the civil libertarians
successfully intimidated the county supervisors — who agreed to alter
the seal — more than 1,000 people rallied at the county's Hall of
Administration to keep the cross on the seal. Other American cities
and counties with crosses on their seals await suits or threats from
the ACLU.
What we are observing here is not what it may appear to be — a
struggle of religion against no religion. It is instead a battle
pitting one religion, broadly speaking, against another. On one side
we have, primarily, the biblical faith of Jews and Christians. On the
other side, secularism. If you object that secularism has no deity,
remember that other recognized faiths, for example Zen Buddhism,
likewise lack a belief in God.
What is a religion, then? Simply, a system of beliefs based on stories
that explain where life comes from, what life means, and what we, as
living beings, are supposed to be doing with our few allotted years.
Judaism and Christianity have their sacred stories — the biblical
account of creation, followed by Noah's flood and on through the
entire narrative of Scripture — along with their codes of right
conduct. For Jews and Christians, the meaning of human existence lies
in communion with God in the context of eternal life.
For each element of Judeo-Christian faith, secularism has its
counterpart. Like Christianity and Judaism, secularism promises
eternal life — well, long life, which is the central point of the most
common strain of secular faith and which explains the pop-cultural
focus on moral commandments having to do with physical health: Thou
shalt not smoke. Thou shalt not get fat. Thou shalt fight global
warming by taking the bus to work. Indeed, thou shalt vote for public
subsidies for mass transit. In secularist doctrine, a fat person isn't
merely unhealthy; he is a sinner in need of salvation. To address his
situation, one secular gospel preaches the good news of the South
Beach Diet, another that of the apostle Atkins.
There is a secular creation account — evolution through random
mutation and natural selection, a just-so story increasingly
challenged by scientists. A few years ago the Discovery Institute, a
Seattle think tank, took out advertisements in the New York Review of
Books and the New Republic listing a hundred distinguished
Darwin-doubting scholars, at institutions from Berkeley to MIT.
I'd say the author loses whatever miniscule shred of credibility he
had remaining right there.
Crazy Chick
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| User: "Russell Stewart" |
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| Title: Re: The Secular Religion |
18 Jun 2004 08:50:06 PM |
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Worshipers at the Secular Altar
By David Klinghoffer
David Klinghoffer is a columnist for the Jewish Forward. His latest
book is "The Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism"
(Doubleday, 2003).
June 17, 2004
Consider the Supreme Court's decision to overturn a ruling by the U.S.
9th Circuit Court of Appeals that struck the words "under God" from
the Pledge of Allegiance. Affecting 10 million schoolchildren in nine
Western states, the 9th Circuit's ruling was rejected on a
technicality: The Supreme Court felt that the California atheist,
Michael Newdow, who brought the case lacked procedural standing to do
so.
I fail to see how the author can draw any conclusion from this, other
than the obvious fact that the SC was carefully trying to avoid a
potentially explosive issue in an already explosive time.
Or consider the battle over the official seal of Los Angeles County.
The seal includes a tiny cross, over which the American Civil
Liberties Union threatened to file suit. After the civil libertarians
successfully intimidated the county supervisors — who agreed to alter
the seal — more than 1,000 people rallied at the county's Hall of
Administration to keep the cross on the seal.
Interesting how the opponents "intimidated", but the supporters
"rallied". Orwell would be proud.
What we are observing here is not what it may appear to be — a
struggle of religion against no religion. It is instead a battle
pitting one religion, broadly speaking, against another. On one side
we have, primarily, the biblical faith of Jews and Christians. On the
other side, secularism. If you object that secularism has no deity,
remember that other recognized faiths, for example Zen Buddhism,
likewise lack a belief in God.
Here's the first contradiction in his argument, because many "recognized
faiths" (like, for example, Zen Buddhism, Judaism, Wicca, etc.) count
among their followers many people who call themselves secular humanists.
So how could secular humanism be a religion in itself?
What is a religion, then? Simply, a system of beliefs based on stories
that explain where life comes from, what life means, and what we, as
living beings, are supposed to be doing with our few allotted years.
One possible definition among many.
For each element of Judeo-Christian faith, secularism has its
counterpart. Like Christianity and Judaism, secularism promises
eternal life — well, long life,
Um, actually, there is a rather significant difference between
"eternal" and "long". I don't think it takes much math to understand
that.
which is the central point of the most
common strain of secular faith and which explains the pop-cultural
focus on moral commandments having to do with physical health: Thou
shalt not smoke. Thou shalt not get fat. Thou shalt fight global
warming by taking the bus to work. Indeed, thou shalt vote for public
subsidies for mass transit. In secularist doctrine, a fat person isn't
merely unhealthy; he is a sinner in need of salvation. To address his
situation, one secular gospel preaches the good news of the South
Beach Diet, another that of the apostle Atkins.
So I assume the author, then, is asserting that secularists are
statistically more likely to advocate that people quit smoking,
lose weight, and stay fit? I wonder if he has any statistics to
back up this claim?
There is a secular creation account — evolution through random
mutation and natural selection, a just-so story increasingly
challenged by scientists.
Perhaps if one uses a very weak definition of "scientists". What
is relevant is not who has and has not "challenged" evolution;
what is relevant is the content of those challenges (argument by
authority doesn't fly here. Sorry). And so far, the content has
always been lacking. Evolution has faced no serious contest since
its conception a century and a half ago.
A few years ago the Discovery Institute, a
Seattle think tank, took out advertisements in the New York Review of
Books and the New Republic listing a hundred distinguished
Darwin-doubting scholars, at institutions from Berkeley to MIT.
I don't care what institutions they're at; I care what they have to
say.
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| User: "Mark K. Bilbo" |
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| Title: Re: The Secular Religion |
18 Jun 2004 09:49:11 AM |
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On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 07:25:07 -0700 in episode
<c21219d5.0406180625.2239b5b3@posting.google.com> we saw our hero
cherniymonakh@hotmail.com (The Black Monk):
David Klinghoffer is a columnist for the Jewish Forward.
But not a very good one.
--
Mark K. Bilbo - a.a. #1423
EAC Department of Linguistic Subversion
"I think it's the worst kept secret in Washington.
That everybody - everybody I talk to in Washington
has known and fully knows what [the neo-conservative]
agenda was and what they were trying to do."
[Retired General Anthony Zinni]
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| User: "Carol Lee Smith" |
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| Title: Re: The Secular Religion |
18 Jun 2004 01:04:17 PM |
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So long as "under god" is considered to be de minimis, you will just have
to put up with the secular religion of ceremonial deism.
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