Richard Suitor <rsuitor at cjwrfs.net> writes: > On Sun, 01 Dec 2002 18:20:21 -0500, James and Mary Burbidge > <jamesandmary.burbidge at sympatico.ca> wrote: > > >>From a slightly different point of view, religion has often been made an > >excuse for things which had other, radically different motives behind > >them. > > The existence of the religion, however, provides the opportunity for the > abuse of power that leads to the atrocities. > > I'd go further and say that the concentration of power due to one > particular religion being widespread often comes about because of > atrocities committed to achieve the dominance of that religion. > > I still wouldn't blame "religion" for that. This is due to the acts of > people intentionally, for one reason or another, trying to achieve the > concentration of power. I suppose in some cases it might be for reasons > stimulated by teachings of the religion - in others, for more political > ends. Of course my thesis all along has been that it is natural for people > to develop religion and the two extremes mentioned are often hard to > separate. It's like leaving your guns around inadequately secured. If a child gets at them and hurts somebody, you bear a significant amount of blame. -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net / http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net Dragaera mailing lists, see http://dragaera.info