@Setanta,
Quote: Does this mean that before makind invented gods . . . Oh! . . . i'm sorry,
There is no need to apologise Setanta and even less, if that were possible, to make an unnecessary toodoo about it as an exhibition of your wit. It is a simple fact that makind invented God, gods, spirits, tooth fairies, leprechauns, jinns, alien visitations, placebos, spaghetti monsters and the like. Funny money as well. Patriotism. In fact makind invented makind once having risen in the world above the brutes.
God revealing Himself to makind implies condescension and affabilty on His part not far short of that Lady Catherine de Bourgh exhibits to the party of Mr Lucas at Rosings but with considerably less justification.
The style and content of your posts indicates a similar condescension on your part in praising Ms Austen's book so fulsomely when nothing has obviously passed from her to you. The suspicion aroused being that you only chose that part in order to have a literary stripe placed on your sleeve to go with all the other stripes you have awarded yourself from time to time.
Quote:that all of humanity were immoral and depraved
Which is quite true and I'm sorry you feel it so important to attempt to distance yourself from the conclusion with a few well chosen words.
Quote:If one group declares that the god of another group is a false god, does that mean that that second group is immoral and depraved (and therefore, ripe for rapine and plunder)?
Yes.
Quote: Does that mean that people who have never conceived of a god are immoral and depraved?
By our standards--yes, although I feel sure that those people were unaware of it.
Quote:Are people such as animists, who believe that all of nature is imbued with supernatural spirits, but don't believe in a god are immoral and depraved?
Yes--of course.
Quote:My, my, my . . . how did humanity ever survive and prosper?
A section of humanity invented Christianity. That's how. Can you not ask more difficult questions than that? Are we to be treated as infants forever?
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