X-Message-Number: 17746
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 12:06:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: religion etc

No time to go into all these interesting points about religion, but one
little detail jumped out at me: The suggestion that Timothy McVeigh was
guided by the US Constitution. Certainly he believed he was defending
constitutional rights against an oppressive political regime. However, it
so happens I have met the owner of the motel where McVeigh stayed in
Kingman. The owner told me that when he searched McVeigh's room, he found
various possessions, including a book in which McVeigh had marked key
passages, mostly justifying the use of violence against enemies.

That book was the Bible!

I suggest that McVeigh drew his outrage from perceived constitutional
violations, and supported the ethical validity of his retaliation by
reading that well-known guide to the Christian faith.

As for Christianity having done more good than bad, I certainly disagree,
because I think that any group which believes in a bunch of myths about
the afterlife is liable to make dangerously irrational decisions.

Secular dictators have of course been responsible for a huge number of
deaths, but the real problem is that they, in turn, were pushing their own
version of myths (such as collectivism), perhaps even more dangerous than
religious myths.

Perhaps we could agree that the real problem lies in uncritical
willingness to believe almost anything that a trusted leader says.

Skepticism is the antidote to religion _and_ totalitarianism.

Skepticism is also an antidote to wishful thinking in cryonics.

Skepticism (self-skepticism, especially) is a fundamental attribute of
any responsible scientist.

--CP

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