tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280716074605791143.post4642633344278539437..comments2023-07-29T07:10:05.412-05:00Comments on peripatetic patter: How'd it come to this?Bill Boydstunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340611217845400427noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280716074605791143.post-48106362278946148412012-10-20T00:01:26.078-05:002012-10-20T00:01:26.078-05:00I think Monsieur Messelier was just a private citi...I think Monsieur Messelier was just a private citizen who had the perspicacity to have his will noticed, preserved, and quoted by some anonymous archivist. I found the quote in a book by archaeologist Robert J. Wenke, <i>Patterns In Prehistory</i>, an excellent and entertaining survey of "humankind's first three million years."<br /><br />I agree that religion - or more precisely, priestly religion - was fundamental to the Fall, but I think that it assumed this centrality only after it was co-opted by those who had a more, shall we say, secular bent. I've got no problem with the mysterium tremendum - it's always there and will forever remain just as mysterious and tremendous as it ever was. The issues arise when the priests, who claim special and exclusive knowledge of the mystery, presume to proscribe and condemn - whether sincerely or cynically - on that basis. I also think it's crucial to note that the absolute worst offenders in that regard, by far, are the monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; and to note that those same religions all had roots and arose in the Middle East, the undisputed Ursprung of literacy.<br /><br />More about all this later.hardheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541566842523030844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280716074605791143.post-13844183775288935552012-10-19T12:45:37.296-05:002012-10-19T12:45:37.296-05:00I think J. Messelier is on to an important point t...I think J. Messelier is on to an important point that Jean-Jacques might not have embraced. That is Rousseau's evident toleration (and public adherence) of religion. I don't know who Messelier was, or if he had a philosophy beyond ridding humankind of kings and priests, but it may well have been our early embrace of religion (or of some mysterium tremendum that evolved into our shamans and their preachments) that is the beginning of the end. What was it Robert Heinlein (so I agree with one or two things one or two of his characters may have said, this does not indicate that I give much creedence in any other area) put into the mouth of Lazarus Long?<br /><br />"The most ridiculous concept ever perpetrated by H.Sapiens is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of the Universes, wants the sacharrine adoration of his creations, that he can be persuaded by their prayers, and becomes petulant if he does not recieve this flattery. Yet this ridiculous notion, without one real shred of evidence to bolster it, has gone on to found one of the oldest, largest and least productive industries in history."<br /><br />This is all I find googling, but it doesn't sound quite like the quote I was thinking that I remembered . . . ahh well . . . and as Mr. Vonnegut noted, "And so it goes." (I'm referencing memory here - this last paragraph is actually irrelevant to the rest of what I think I remember typing above. I've got another article I want to find about how it is gossip that is the real, and securing, foundation of human communitarianism . . .Bill Boydstunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15340611217845400427noreply@blogger.com