Beyond tribalism; How well does your religious label serve you?

Re: Frank Apisa (Post 5280822)
Fine, and if it results in benefit, what's wrong with that? Being good has benefits, what a concept.

Perhaps I'm not communicating well.
My intended message was that communicating requires labels in the sense that all words are labels. A word is a label for some "thing", that thing may be an object or a characteristic or even something more abstract.
The meaning of a word is defined by the community.
You and I probably agree the word "red" means this color: ####
We might not agree what the word "Christian" means, however.
Perhaps I define it as someone who 'accepts Jesus as their personal lord and savior'.
Perhaps you define it as someone who 'follows the teachings of Jesus'.
Someone else might define it as someone who 'was baptized into the Church'.
There are many other possible definitions of course.
The point being that there are communication problems, if labels do not have an agreed upon meaning. I might be chunking together people in the Christian label ignoring perhaps significant differences.

I guess even a sadist can provide "good" to a masochist. (Now that is a concept...although I guess a sadist would have to be nice to a masochist in order to torture him.)

Nothing wrong with it at all, Frank. I am merely suggesting that it can reasonably be argued that even what we term "altruistic motives"...are aimed at self-satisfaction.

I guess even a sadist can provide "good" to a masochist. (Now that is a concept...although I guess a sadist would have to be nice to a masochist in order to torture him.)

Nothing wrong with it at all, Frank. I am merely suggesting that it can reasonably be argued that even what we term "altruistic motives"...are aimed at self-satisfaction.

And to your original point, what role will religion play?

I am vegan,

…. meats he serves are from Halal butchers…...one of the most barbaric and reprehensible practices.

I did become vegan for ethical reasons, primarily because animals are capable of suffering, so I should not participate in perpetuating that suffering.

…... often brings the accusation "you love animals more than people"……..

…..Veganism…….Saving a 90 to 99% loss in calories by "filtering" those calories through an animal.

Other considerations as well. Fresh water.

Nutritionally I have found no negatives so long as B12 is supplemented……...Vegan men also have higher testosterone levels (perhaps explaining my aggressive nature )

That is as much vegangelizing as I intend to do on the subject, at least here on this thread

Spinoza did not believe that God created the heavens and earth - the universe. For Spinoza, God was equivalent to all of nature. He believed that "false religion" created superstition. A "true religion," on the other hand, was liberating because it allowed freedom of thought.

The Europe of 17th century was a place of stifling religious orthodoxies, strife and war. Spinoza believed in freedom of thought and the principle of religious tolerance.

Spinoza also had radical ideas about the nature of politics. He believed in democracy. He is credited with helping to shape the revolution in human thought known as The Enlightenment.

This program is an introduction to Spinoza's life and thought. It features three Spinoza scholars:

Steven Nadler, The William H. Hay II professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His books include Spinoza: A Life, and A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza's Scandalous Treatise and The Birth of the Secular Age. A list of his books and publications are available on his website.

Beth Lord, Principal Investigator for the AHRC Spinoza Research Network. University of Dundee, Scotland Author of Spinoza's Ethics: An Edinburgh Philosophical Guide.

Susan James, professor, Department of Philosophy, Birkbeck College, University of London. Author of Spinoza on Philosophy, Religion, and Politics:The Theologico-Political Treatise.

Do you feel like your beliefs place you in a group?

Is your group label helping or hurting you?

Does the label help or hurt your group?

I did become vegan for ethical reasons, primarily because animals are capable of suffering, so I should not participate in perpetuating that suffering. Attempting to live while causing the least harm.

THE SECRET WARS OF THE CIA:

part II

CIA COVERT OPERATIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA, CIA MANIPULATION OF THE PRESS, CIA EXPERIMENTATION ON THE U.S. PUBLIC

by John Stockwell

a lecture given in October, 1987

...

I don't mean to abuse you with verbal violence, but you have to understand what your government and its agents are doing. They go into villages, they haul out families. With the children forced to watch they castrate the father, they peel the skin off his face, they put a grenade in his mouth and pull the pin. With the children forced to watch they gang-rape the mother, and slash her breasts off. And sometimes for variety, they make the parents watch while they do these things to the children.

This is nobody's propaganda. There have been over 100,000 American witnesses for peace who have gone down there and they have filmed and photographed and witnessed these atrocities immediately after they've happened, and documented 13,000 people killed this way, mostly women and children. These are the activities done by these contras. The contras are the people president Reagan calls `freedom fighters'. He says they're the moral equivalent of our founding fathers. And the whole world gasps at this confession of his family traditions.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Stockwell/StockwellCIA87_2.html

In short, being Vegan just makes you better than everyone else.