sdb@shark.UUCP (Steven Den Beste) (08/15/83)
If I remember correctly, net.religion is a ghetto formed to isolate a certain class of discussions and get them out of net.misc . It's primary purpose is to allow those of us who feel a need to proselytize a place to do it where most people don't have to watch. When I was in college, occasionally we would get some guy who felt the need standing on a soap-box in the middle of the quad shouting at the top of his lungs about how we were all damned and would go to hell if we didn't immediately accept Jesus as our lordandsavior. Generally foot traffic would alter to avoid him. I suppose he thought he was demonstrating his faith. There was at one time several people doing the electronic equivalent in net.misc and they were roundly reviled - but kept on anyway. Finally this group was formed to give them a place to do their thing. This is the electronic equivalent of a changing traffic pattern. That explains the Christians in this group. What is the excuse for the rest of us? Well, in my case I am here because I enjoy debates about undecideable subjects, and because I am something of a gadfly. My other reason is to prove precisely that some subjects cannot be said to be "TRUE" without badly bending the meaning of the word - among them Christianity. (The term "VALID" might be more appropriate - defined as "serving a purpose in terms of helping a person live and making them feel better".) However, I think I have learned a lot here - before three months ago I had never even HEARD of "thelema". Steve Den Beste [decvax|ucbvax]!tektronix!tekecs!shark!sdb