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A MATTER OF FAITH
-NOT ABSOLUTE TRUTH.
*
Faith, hope and
what's become of the new religion.
by
Andrew Alexander
[Daily Mail, February 6, 2009]
RELIGION is not
about TRUTH. It is about FAITH. The 200th
anniversary of Darwin's birth reminds us of this.
The Origin of Species is no longer reviled, as it
was on publication, as undermining CHRISTIANITY.
But the anniversary
has spurred into action voices who argue that the
apparent incompatibility can somehow be explained
away. God must have ordained evolution, they murmur,
if it happened.
The sad truth is
that Christianity claims to reveal the greatest
truth of our existence, yet the Church's attitude to
facts has always been remarkably cavalier.
YOU DO NOT NEED
DARWIN TO SHOW IT...
We think of
Christianity as unique in its attractive moral
message combined with the promise of paradise in the
afterlife.
But Sir James
Frazer's ( The Golden Bough his epic work) argued -
daringly in Victorian times -that it was the
features Christianity had in common with other pagan
rituals that made it easy to spread in Asia Minor
[The same was so in
Britain].
With the energetic
evangelism of St Paul and the chance conversion of
the Emperor Constantine, Christianity's triumph was
assured. So, alas, was the savagery of its
progress over the centuries in the bloodbaths and
the persecution of non-believers and heretics.
[ It is the
Christians who are and always have been the heretics
in the eyes Of ISLAM and the slaughter of those of
the Christian Faith continues to this very day
. If other faiths were given the same
treatment as the Christian Faith there would be
blood on the streets, as there has been. A full open
debate about the beginnings and background and
substance of the religion would make a start (We
have read the book). The recent programme on
the Islamic Faith was a journey on the circumference
not in the heart of the matter. We look with
interest on such an undertaking in the near future.]
Yet , curiously, to
straightforward minds, it is the very
insubstantiality of the Gospels which fires the
energy of so many Christians to day.
THEY HOLD
'FAITH' TO BE SUPREME VIRTUE.
The more
questionable the historical evidence, the greater
the moral challenge.
They have something
in common with Communists, who brandished their
faith, despite its failures and human disasters such
as STALIN and MAO. Some converted to ardent
Catholicism, which is telling.
*
Now,
this leads to a related subject:
GLOBAL
WARMING
After wrapping up warm I went to
hear the former Chancellor Lord Lawson on
global warming and its evidence. He argues
easily enough that 'saving the planet' has
become a substitute religion.
FAITH NOT
EVIDENCE IS THE KEY
His audience for
the TALK about 'the big lies' told in the NEW
CREED was some 30 strong, made up distinguished
economists and academics and some intellectually
minded businessmen.
After the DEBATE, a
VOTE was called. With so many economists present,
this inevitably led to an argument about what the
question should be, Suffice it to say that
NOT A
SINGLE HAND WAS RAISED TO SAY THAT LORD LAWSON'S
-CASE WAS WRONG
and the wolf was at
the door.
Yet,
as he and others pointed out, our political
establishment has swallowed the NEW DOCTRINE whole,
unlike the more sceptical man in the street.
The adopted
policies will cost a FORTUNE, Lawson insists.
We have committed ourselves to more than any other
nation to CARBON REDUCTIONS. And-always a bad
sign -there is [as on EUROPE]
ALL PARTY AGREEMENT
[Well it is such a
wonderful bandwagon to belong to that any party
looking for POWER has to adhere to or possibly lose
the votes. But as the TRUTH finally begins to
come to the surface -which they will try to prevent-
there will be a stampede to be first with the GOOD
NEWS!]
DON'T EXPECT CHANGE
As a distinguished
former government adviser observed, the bodies
receiving PUBLIC MONEY to assist the SAVE-THE-PLANET
CAUSE are TOO NUMEROUS.
[Well! it is
after all lovely MONEY-and bags and bags more
of it to follow.]
ANYONE seeking a
RESPONSIBLE POSITION in WHITEHALL who is a
HERETIC will
NOT GET A JOB.
Moreover, as Lawson
put it, reversing the PRESENT POLICY would involve
all sorts of the committed- 'the chattering classes,
the NOTTINGHAM HILL sets, the environmental
correspondents' - admitting they had GOT IT WRONG
and their FAITH was FALSE.
WE NEED ANOTHER
[PLANET] DARWIN
*
THE SHEER FOLLY OF WIND FARMS
*
[Font
Altered-Bolding & Underling Used-Comments in Square
Brackets.]
FEBRUARY-2009
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