AtD blurb - "false" religiosity?

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 18/08/2006:

> "False religiosity" would imply an insincere practice of religion.
>
> David

Yes, that's pretty much how I read it too. I'll try and make my point 
again more clearly, and then leave it. An atheist making an observation 
about the negative effects on society of "religiosity" (or "religion" 
for that matter) isn't going to be concerned one iota about 
practitioners' sincerity, whereas someone who does subscribe to a 
particular religious faith is very likely to view that distinction as a 
meaningful one.

Add to that the other evidence from the novels and essays, his sending 
his son to the Cathedral School, Siegel's recollection in his Playboy 
article of P attending Mass regularly, and it's more and more difficult 
to continue to characterise him as an atheist or agnostic.

"Unless the state of our souls becomes once more a subject of serious 
concern, there is little question that Sloth will continue to evolve 
away from its origins in the long-ago age of faith and miracle, when 
daily life really was the Holy Ghost visibly at work and time was a 
story, with a beginning, middle and end. Belief was intense, engagement 
deep and fatal. The Christian God was near. Felt. Sloth -- defiant 
sorrow in the face of God's good intentions -- was a deadly sin." 
(Pynchon, 'Nearer, My Couch, to Thee', NYTBR 6 June 1993)

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_sloth.html

best

> I wouldn't be surprised  if Pynchon believed in some form of religion,
> but his  indictment of "false religiousity" does not logically imply
> that he does.  It is possible to percieve the hypocricy or calculated
> use of someone else's religiousity without being religious one's self.
>
> Ghetta
>
> On 8/16/06, jbor at bigpond.com <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
>> And, in-for-a-penny-in-for-a-pound, might as well raise the hackles 
>> of another subset of p-listers and observe that it's more and more 
>> apparent that P is a Theist or Deist of some stripe (why else the 
>> distinction implicit in "false religiosity"?) Again, the particular 
>> stripe isn't clear (and is his own business), but I think it's 
>> reasonable to assume that he's not an atheist.
>>
>> > "[...] it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false 
>> religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No 
>> reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."