Background for _Vineland_?

Tue May 22 11:46:48 CDT 2012

Woop, to be honest, not that it matters, I thought I was talking to Mr.K
there, not you, Mr.M.  I do not suppose that you are Christian.

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 11:39 AM, Madeleine Maudlin <
madeleinemaudlin at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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