RE: God

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Charles writes:>Your view sounds like Marx's. Marx doesn't say God doesn't
exist, but that God is alienated man ( which I take to be humanity). And
directly to what you say, he says the basis of irreligious criticism is man
(sic) makes religion, religion doesn't make man. ( A feminist critique might
note that it is indeed men who make religion, not women)<

I have been influence by Marx, a lot. It's also Freud's view -- and
Feuerbach's -- that God is a human projection of our own inner images.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Charles Brown [mailto:CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2002 9:07 AM
> To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [PEN-L:23256] God
>
>
>  God
> by Devine, James
> 26 February 2002 15:10 UTC
>
>
>
>
> JD: I wasn't raised as a Christian, but as I understand that
> faith, it's
> humanity that's the source of evil. (The Devil is most
> important to the
> fundamentalists, not the more sophisticated Christians.)
> "God" gave us free
> will and we mostly chose to be evil. In my view (as far as I
> can tell), we
> also created good (and God), along with the definition of
> good vs. evil.
>
>
> ^^^^^^^^
>
> CB: "Fundamentally" speaking, the Devil tempted Adam and Eve
> in the Garden of Eden.  The Devil made them do it and the
> Devil "do" exist.
>
> But consistent with what you say, the first act of free will,
> independent of God, is the original sin , in this mythology.
> The Devil seduced them to use free will.
>
> But then the Devil, the Ruler of the World and Earthliness ,
> is also sort of the moving force for materialism, and against
> idealism and religion.
>
> So, then "fundamentally", we materialists and free thinkers
> are the Devil's children
>
> Interestingly with regards to your "good and evil"comment,
> the forbidden fruit was from the tree of the knowledge of
> good and evil. I interpret this myth to mean , paradoxically,
> that the original sin resulted in the origin of morality (
> "knowledge of good and evil"). This is suggestive as perhaps
> a view through the glass of ancient mythology darkly of the
> origin of homo sapiens in the origin of culture or symbolling
> in the form of  , for example, the distinction between good
> and evil, between do's and don'ts.
>
>
> Your view sounds like Marx's. Marx doesn't say God doesn't
> exist, but that God is alienated man ( which I take to be
> humanity). And directly to what you say, he says the basis of
> irreligious criticism is man (sic) makes religion, religion
> doesn't make man. ( A feminist critique might note that it is
> indeed men who make religion, not women)
>