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- Mar 19, 2006
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Buster,
Since none of us is God, to use the messianic vocabulary, we will be in an age in which the Messiah has come, when each of us takes it upon himself to behave as if we are such a figure.
This has not happened yet, but I believe it is one of the two courses humanity can take, the other course leading to extinction.
I also do not believe in the "great man" theory of history, hence my preference for a Messianic age, rather than a Messiah figure. How the hatred and egoizing will ever disappear is beyond me, not to mention beyond what we know of our parentage from the biological sciences. After all, we are all descended from the great grandaddy billy badass one-celled organism, and from that time, whoever thought more of his neighbor than himself died off. Even altruism has worked this way; You will almost certainly die for a pregnant wife, pretty certainly for a sibling, almost as certainly for a cousin, and relatively likely will lay down your life for a member of your broad kin group. But is someone does not even look like you, the urge to altruism is predicted to decline sharply.
But then we have the guy who saved the kid on the train tracks the other day. I do not know whether that guy was religious or just a good man. But somehow there is always the other reaction possible.
When that is the reaction of each of us, and when each of us defines the "other" as precious and acts on that definition consistently, what more will we want or need?
Anyway, this is not to gainsay a one-figure messianic outlook, only to offer the alternative outlook, which -- being a naturalist -- I find a tiny bit more likely. Also it's more democratic, and you know how we love democratic ideals in the west!
PFnV
Since none of us is God, to use the messianic vocabulary, we will be in an age in which the Messiah has come, when each of us takes it upon himself to behave as if we are such a figure.
This has not happened yet, but I believe it is one of the two courses humanity can take, the other course leading to extinction.
I also do not believe in the "great man" theory of history, hence my preference for a Messianic age, rather than a Messiah figure. How the hatred and egoizing will ever disappear is beyond me, not to mention beyond what we know of our parentage from the biological sciences. After all, we are all descended from the great grandaddy billy badass one-celled organism, and from that time, whoever thought more of his neighbor than himself died off. Even altruism has worked this way; You will almost certainly die for a pregnant wife, pretty certainly for a sibling, almost as certainly for a cousin, and relatively likely will lay down your life for a member of your broad kin group. But is someone does not even look like you, the urge to altruism is predicted to decline sharply.
But then we have the guy who saved the kid on the train tracks the other day. I do not know whether that guy was religious or just a good man. But somehow there is always the other reaction possible.
When that is the reaction of each of us, and when each of us defines the "other" as precious and acts on that definition consistently, what more will we want or need?
Anyway, this is not to gainsay a one-figure messianic outlook, only to offer the alternative outlook, which -- being a naturalist -- I find a tiny bit more likely. Also it's more democratic, and you know how we love democratic ideals in the west!
PFnV