Background for _Vineland_?

Tue May 22 11:39:25 CDT 2012

I disagree with everything you say about Aquinas.  Maybe the question is a
little deeper than you're noticing.  Or you don't have a good answer, or
even a valid answer.

The stupid, undeep question, which neither you nor Orlando will answer, is
why *you* believe it.  I understand fully why an uneducated and stupid
child would believe it.  They're told to believe it.  But why *you*.  Who
should by all sane accounts, know better.

If neither you nor Michael are Protestants, or Christians, than forget
about it.  Laugh at the pathetic Christians with me.  I only asked because
I had decided that Bailey is a Protestant, and he said something about
Protestants.  Great scholars, poor on the religion choices.

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 11:24 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>wrote:

> On 5/22/2012 10:17 AM, Madeleine Maudlin wrote:
>
>> I suppose you can't answer as to why Aquinas doesn't have his own
>> Church.  Who knows.  But why be a Protestant?  What's it do.  What good
>> is it.  Is it the Truth?  Path to eternal life in Heaven?  Do
>> Protestants believe in heaven?  What is a Protestant?
>>
>> But more broadly, why be a Christian, is the question.
>>
>
> Because your parents were. Or more broadly because Western Civilization
> was. It's a tradition thing.
>
> If you're Jewish, it doesn't mean you believe in the religious aspects or
> practice them.  So why not the same for Christians?
>
> Aquinas didn't start his own church because he was quite happy with the
> one that was already there . Switching from one Greek philosopher to
> another doesn't really change Christian belief.  Philosophy is only a tool
> to try to clarify things with.
>
> Any more of these deep questions need answerin'?
>
> P
>
>
>
>> At first when I came across it on here I didn't believe it was a serious
>> vibration, but now I believe that people on here are actual Christians.
>>  This is shocking to me, because I've always been largely under the
>> impression that well educated and intelligent people are /not/ Christians.
>>
>>
>> Does it fit your personality?  Are you interested in the architecture?
>>  Do you really think Jesus, the supposed Son of God, was nailed to a
>> cross and died for your sins?  As that the clincher?  Does that notion
>> turn you on?  Do you repent yours sins?  Or is that just for Catholics...?
>>
>>
>> On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 9:38 PM, Michael Bailey
>> <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com <mailto:michael.lee.bailey@**gmail.com<michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>>>
>> wrote:
>>
>>    buncha good questions, here's another: that school that Mr Pynchon
>>    sent his son to and donated signed books to, isn't that a Protestant
>>    institution - I'm thinking Episcopal...
>>
>>    anyway, I was just opining - the Immaculate Heart College kind of a
>>    PR3 situation, struck me - I also do a lot of posting and not enough
>>    researching, but the nuns working out a new order of things and then
>>    getting shown the door and that wonderful college, of which I think I
>>    saw that Mary Tyler Moore was an alum, getting closed down, and
>>    liberation theology falling victim to conservatism, and the contras
>>    supported by the right-wing beneficiaries of Vatican conservatism,
>>    gunning down that dude serving Mass, and that wonderful priest who
>>    tried to unionize his brethren getting read the Riot Act by the wicked
>>    Archbishop of Nottingham...
>>
>>    well it's the kind of stuff Protestants protest about, is how it
>>    struck me
>>
>>    the jealous guarding of priestly prerogatives, the harsh disciplines
>>    and rigid hierarchies and the chauvinism
>>    (and just perhaps, untoward side effects of celibacy...)
>>
>>    -- like the Senator from Utah who really thought the ERA would spell
>>    the end of the Republic, McIntyres was (the man who squats behind The
>>    Man who works the Soft Machine) the kind of person it's really
>>    tempting to think ill of, the sender of emissaries like Brock Vond...
>>
>>
>>
>>    On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 10:25 AM, Madeleine Maudlin
>>    <madeleinemaudlin at gmail.com <mailto:madeleinemaudlin@**gmail.com<madeleinemaudlin at gmail.com>>>
>> wrote:
>>     > I suppose I should have also inquired, is Pynchon a Protestant,
>>    Aquinian?
>>     >  Again, flying without clicking the links...
>>     >
>>     >
>>     > On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 8:59 AM, Madeleine Maudlin
>>     > <madeleinemaudlin at gmail.com <mailto:madeleinemaudlin@**gmail.com<madeleinemaudlin at gmail.com>
>> >>
>>
>>    wrote:
>>     >>
>>     >> What's a Protestant do again?  Why be Protestant?
>>     >>
>>     >> I ask because I had reason to consider Christianity for a few
>>    minutes
>>     >> yesterday.  Now here's a passing question: you had neoPlatonism in
>>     >> Christianity for what, the first half?  Then Aquinas brought in
>>    Aristotle,
>>     >> and made Christianity much, more sane, maybe, kind of like the
>>    Protesters
>>     >> did.  Why didn't Aquinas get his own branch of Christianity?  Or
>>    did he?
>>     >>  Are there Animist churches of Christ, is that the line they'd
>>    be, are?
>>     >>  Animist Catholics?
>>     >>
>>     >>
>>     >> On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 2:26 AM, Michael Bailey
>>     >> <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com
>>    <mailto:michael.lee.bailey@**gmail.com <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>>>
>> wrote:
>>     >>>
>>     >>>
>>    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/**Sisters_of_the_Immaculate_**
>> Heart_of_Mary<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_of_the_Immaculate_Heart_of_Mary>
>>     >>>
>>     >>> Must say (as a Protestant, and you're free to say similar stuff
>>    about
>>     >>> John Calvin and most definitely Martin Luther if you're a
>> Catholic)
>>     >>> that McIntyre guy sounds like a real dick!
>>     >>
>>     >>
>>     >
>>
>>
>>
>>    --
>>    "Strength you will acquire naturally, if you do plenty of work; and
>>    dexterity you will acquire unconsciously with practice; but style you
>>    can only acquire by constant attention, and then only if you have a
>>    clear idea of what to aim at." - A. F. Jenkin
>>
>>
>>
>
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