Sinister: organised religion

[the original pixidustlady]

hey folks,
been reading with interest the posts about religion, and a quote sprang to
mind, although i can't remember at all who said it:

"It was Christianity which first painted the devil on the world's wall.
Belief in the cure which it offered has now been shaken to its deepest
roots, but belief in the sickness that it taught and propogated has
continued to exist."

i mean no offence to any believers who subscribe to the list, i am merely
putting forward some thoughts for discussion.

I think it's an interesting idea though.  i remember seeing a documentary on
telly about Christian missionaries who went to egypt.  The egpytians
believed that the world was created when one of their gods masturbated, and
thus their religious art was full of phallic symbols and graphic detail.  To
them there was nothing wrong with this.  but to the missionaries this was
utterly outrageous.  they proceeded to deface all the egyptians religious
art, and convert them to christianity.  then we can look a bit closer to
home, and see how christianity hijacked many of the pagan festivals and
changed them to suit their own agenda, wiping out paganism almost entirely.
this brings to mind another quote, but this time i know who its by:

"The Christian resolution to find the world bad and ugly has made the world
ugly and bad."  FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
i'm not going to go on at length about philosophy and religion, mainly
because i have very little knowledge beyond that quote and what i think of
it.  but the idea of western religions concentrating on saying you mustn't
do this and that, and eastern religions being more philosophical  and
concentrating on contemplation/aspiring to something higher is very
interesting, i think anyway.
 i could probably say a lot more about this, cos i've been thinking  about
faith a lot recently, my own etc.  but before i share that with everyone i
think i should sort it out for myself in my head.
bye
karen xxxxx

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