iy47ab (01/21/83)
Strange things happened to my last letter, and it got smushed. Sorry. what I was saying was... Christianity, with its focus on the first part(belief in an overbeing) is based primarily on faith. I don't know exactly how this works, but although you are encouraged to be a good person, you are forgiven even if you are a 'sinner', as long as you have faith. The idea here is that with *true* faith, you would not sin as much. I get a little confused here, because the concept is so foreign to me. Offhand...Robin Pugh said a few years ago that people that "just don't care" if there is a god or not are "APATHEISTS". I liked that one, just thought I'd print it...I think personally I fall into the catagory someon just brought up...I sort of believe in a god, but don't find it necessary or desirable to pray to him/her/it/them. I dunno, what SHOULD it be called? Lady Arwen of U.C.San Diego
mat (01/26/83)
Lady Arwen's (c'mon, don't you have a REAL name, iy47ab) article intrigued me. When she speaks of the notion of an Overbeing being a secondary focus of modern Judaism I am left wondering about the Biblical tradition, and the real and mythalogical histories contained therein. (By the way, Nat'l Geo. had an article a couple of months ago about some interesting discoveries relating to Exodus). Are these also secondary? I have been led to understand that Judaism places an enormous emphasis on layers of community (family, synagogue, etc.) by Jewish friends of various traditions, but how does this have meaning outside the context of God? If there isn't a strong tradition of scripture (and I am sure that there is) then in this respect Christianity is closer to the Old Testament than Judaism -- and that ?can't? be so. For the record, my perspective is that of an observant, if not too devout, Roman Catholic. I'm also not afraid to reveal my True Identity hou5[ea]!mat Mark Terribile
arens@UCBKIM (01/26/83)
From: arens@UCBKIM (Yigal Arens) Received: from UCBKIM.BERKELEY.ARPA by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.300 [1/17/83]) id AA08260; 26 Jan 83 00:01:38 PST (Wed) To: net-misc@ucbvax In response to a question raised by sdcsvax!sdccsu3!iy47ab (Lady Arwen): "Deism" is the belief that a god created the world, but is no longer involved in its day to day management, so to speak. As a result there is no place for worship. This belief was rather common in the US in the 18th century, and was in fact shared by most of the "founding fathers". Jerry Falwell might wish to create a different impression, but he's wrong.