🚀 go-pugleaf

--- Forwarded from mailing list.  Reply to uus-l@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu ---

On Sun 19Apr98, Robert B. Tapp, Dean of The Humanist Institute, wrote:

> A closer look at the role of human imagination, creativity, and
> wishful-thinking in the period of Gospel legend-formation should serve
> as a cautionary lesson to those among us still tempted to think that
> god/goddess creation is salutary.

A sad injection of the classical logical fallacy of Poisoning the Well,
aka Guilt by Association, into an otherwise informative posting.

There is no evidence of the baleful effects of god/goddess creation as a
general phenomenon, in the ill effects in one stream of tradition. Trying
to read one in speciously, is an affront to the integrity of the Jesus
Seminar. There were plenty of baleful forces in play, and to try to isol-
ate this one is like saying history is all economics or all psychology
(or, for that matter, all theology).

Robert, it has come to my attention that some scholars are getting revis-
ionist about the Inquisition, saying it wasn't real so bad, that torture
was used "sparingly" (I'm sure the people who say this have never tried
any), etc. I think your movement and mine have common ground in addressing
that kind of holocaust denial, and could better invest energy there than
in petty Humanist Pagan-sniping.

Blessed be,
Dave Burwasser