tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post6140939712428413714..comments2022-06-10T22:26:42.828-05:00Comments on Looking In The Distance: God Is A Fundamentalist?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-6900910100027987542007-11-17T20:06:00.000-05:002007-11-17T20:06:00.000-05:00In my view Armstrong summed the present situation ...In my view Armstrong summed the present situation up perfectly in the Afterword to this book when she wrote:<BR/><BR/><I> A large number of people still want to be religious and have tried to evolve new forms of faith. Fundamentalism is just one of these modern religious experiments but it has lost sight of some of the most sacred values of the confessional faiths. Fundamentalists have turned theAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-41534385935162124642007-11-16T18:40:00.000-05:002007-11-16T18:40:00.000-05:00The fate of Millerism in the last century where th...The fate of Millerism in the last century where the attempt to treat the bible as <I>logos</I> instead of <I>mythos</I> led to the absurd "Second Coming of Christ" in 1843 apparently is a lesson that is still not learned today!<BR/><BR/>Regrettably, as Armstrong points out, truth today has been narrowed to what is "demonstrated and demonstratable" which religion aside would exclude the truth toldAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-80146789340546745332007-11-15T08:58:00.000-05:002007-11-15T08:58:00.000-05:00Did anyone pick up on the similarities Armstrong d...Did anyone pick up on the similarities Armstrong drew between the American Revolution in the 1770s and the recent Iranian revolution in our recent history.<BR/><BR/>Two statements struck me and I quote:<BR/><BR/><I>The leaders of the Revolution – George Washington, John and Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin were deists who experienced the revolution as a secular event. The Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-77932112064380049392007-11-15T08:46:00.000-05:002007-11-15T08:46:00.000-05:00I didn’t realize and was surprised to learn that C...I didn’t realize and was surprised to learn that Calvin and Wesley both seemed to see no contradiction between science and the bible. <BR/><BR/>Calvin did not believe the bible had any literal information on the geography of the earth or the cosmology of the heavens but that biblical language was ‘balbative’ i.e. a simplification of a truth that was too complex to be stated in any other way. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-46338091094638310542007-11-12T22:24:00.000-05:002007-11-12T22:24:00.000-05:00Armstrong did a very nice job in the introduction ...Armstrong did a very nice job in the introduction of the book in introducing the concepts of <B>mythos</B> and <B>logos</B> and describing how modern societies have tended to lose the <B>mythos</B> side of this pairing. <BR/><BR/>I particularly like the following where she writes:<BR/><BR/><I>We tend to assume that the people of the past were (more or less) like us, but in fact their spiritual Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-27240951830037966852007-11-12T16:49:00.000-05:002007-11-12T16:49:00.000-05:00Roger: Good debate! Thanks for the link.Shiism ...Roger: Good debate! Thanks for the link.<BR/><BR/>Shiism has 12 imams one of whom is "hidden" and will return . He will bring a reign of peace and justice. He is the light of God in a bad world and its source of hope. Hitchens said in the debate that Shiism is a parody of the Catholic faith. <BR/><BR/>That was the same thought I had as I read Armstrong’s account of the development of the Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-73702650089112021482007-11-11T17:30:00.000-05:002007-11-11T17:30:00.000-05:00Good points, Peter. I saw a debate on Monday, Octo...Good points, Peter. <BR/><BR/>I saw a <A HREF="http://www.tkc.edu/debate/" REL="nofollow">debate</A> on Monday, October 22 between Dinesh D'Souza (Christian) and Christopher Hitchens (Atheist) in whch Dinesh said: <BR/><BR/><I>"We live in a very unusual time in which atheism has emerged as a kind of militant phenomenon. On the face of that, it seem a little bit odd, because if you are an Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747503782613986319.post-45977274710119385252007-11-11T17:15:00.000-05:002007-11-11T17:15:00.000-05:00It’s been some time since I read this book but one...It’s been some time since I read this book but one thing that surprised me was the story of the persecution of both the Jews and the Muslims in Spain. In 1499 Muslims either had to convert to Christianity or be deported. Then Ferdinand and Isabella signed the Edict of Expulsion to rid Spain of the Jews. Prior to this the religions had all lived together relatively peacefully.<BR/><BR/>I Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com