Background for _Vineland_?

David Morris fqmorris at gmail.com
Tue May 22 11:50:01 CDT 2012 

Who was Mr. K?

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 11:46 AM, Madeleine Maudlin
<madeleinemaudlin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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 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 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 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 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>>     >>>
>>>>     >>>
>>>>    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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