[bodigami]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '(')...)
Does anyone who isn't Christian have anything positive to say about Judeo-Christianity's effects on the general culture?

[jupiters_release]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')Does anyone who isn't Christian have anything positive to say about Judeo-Christianity's effects on the general culture?

[JPL]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')Does anyone who isn't Christian have anything positive to say about Judeo-Christianity's effects on the general culture?

[bodigami]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JPL', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')Does anyone who isn't Christian have anything positive to say about Judeo-Christianity's effects on the general culture?

[BlisteredWhippet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')Does anyone who isn't Christian have anything positive to say about Judeo-Christianity's effects on the general culture?

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BlisteredWhippet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')Does anyone who isn't Christian have anything positive to say about Judeo-Christianity's effects on the general culture?

[BlisteredWhippet]

Thanks, I did edit that.

But my point is simply this:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Authentic shamanism interests me because the focus of the shaman seems to be helping detect food for the tribe and as a kind of healer for the tribe. But many modern day enthusiasts assume that tribal societies structured around shamanism are more noble, more genteel, superior in some way. I wonder if this is so.

[threadbear]

Well, BW, Your comments are duly noted, and heaven forbid I should attempt to defend myself from the insults of someone armed with a dog eared copy of Philosophy for Dummies, and a thesaurus.

Moving right along....One of the strengths of organized Christianity and most forms of Buddhism is they both place emphasis on the idea of the oppressor and the victim. The very reason we are motivated to criticize and find fault with Christianity is due partly to it's central doctrine of "loving your neighbour" etc... The emphasis on love and forgiveness provides a kind of self correcting mechanism for the culture.

New Age thinking, by contrast, creates a passive attitude towards the suffering of others, with a misunderstanding of physics that has the victim always choosing his fate. That idea, writ large, across a political landscape that is becoming more fascist, is a misreading of the locus of control. That misunderstanding can be incorporated easily into the body politic and then diffused, if it's limited to your addle brained friend with the tarot cards. If it gains too much traction, socially and culturally, it's damaging to the collective soul.

It takes the most socially destructive aspects of Hindu philosophy and welds them onto Norman Vincent Peale's false positivism. That false positivism,twisted to meet the ends of corporatism, by being further twisted through Social Darwinism, is quite a monster, and one we'll have to be prepared to deal with, in the future.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jupiters_release', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')Does anyone who isn't Christian have anything positive to say about Judeo-Christianity's effects on the general culture?

[BlisteredWhippet]

I vote this most boring thread of 2008. What do you guys think?

[Atlantean_Relic]

Whippet we get it, you're a hardcore atheist, now go play with your Richard Dawkins Action figure. I'm sure you haven't run out of way of having Mememan defeat the Evil Popeatine yet. And please let the others discuss religions and souls.

[jupiters_release]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jupiters_release', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')Does anyone who isn't Christian have anything positive to say about Judeo-Christianity's effects on the general culture?

[JPL]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BlisteredWhippet', 'S')hamans can do whatever trivially unique thing that it is they do, I'm just asking that if talking to the dead, for instance, they get some help on saving the fucking planet, while they're at it.

[threadbear]

JPL, Have the dead told you anything that you find useful, or that might be useful to others? I've never walked among the dead before, (except in Mal-Wart) but feel I'm in touch with something, as we all are, perhaps.

[threadbear]

Jupiter, Your thoughts give me hope, as in--the road is rough and rocky. If it wasn't we wouldn't be able to climb it. Thanks. We all need to stay focussed on the cultivation of personality and soul that we accrue through really tough times. Our first thoughts, if we have any spare energy, resources, wealth, is "how is this best directed to help others, not indulge self" It's only when we transcend self, that we find self.

[JPL]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'J')PL, Have the dead told you anything that you find useful, or that might be useful to others? I've never walked among the dead before, (except in Mal-Wart) but feel I'm in touch with something, as we all are, perhaps.

[threadbear]

Thanks JPL. That's interesting. How do you interpret this message?

[JPL]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'T')hanks JPL. That's interesting. How do you interpret this message?

[threadbear]

Epitomizes everything I loathe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHseRSX42v8

[BlisteredWhippet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JPL', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BlisteredWhippet', 'S')hamans can do whatever trivially unique thing that it is they do, I'm just asking that if talking to the dead, for instance, they get some help on saving the fucking planet, while they're at it.