Posted by pancho from pool0191.cvx25-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.216.191) on Thursday, January 09, 2003 at 9:20PM :
In Reply to: One could argue... posted by x from ? (160.129.27.22) on Thursday, January 09, 2003 at 6:12PM :
: ... that religion, since *at least* the time of the beginning of Judaism & perhaps even before that, has ALWAYS been used in politics... & in fact, one could also argue that religion *was* politics & vice versa in those ancient days.
: Why did Abraham or Moses feel the urge to make up a new religion? Because they felt like it? Or because they needed it - a unifying religion that:
:
: a.) didn't sound TOO different from that of the Egyptians (who had already developed the belief in one god) so that it was palatable to a conquered tribe residing in Egyptian territory & which crudely used Mesopotamian religious stories (perhaps indicating a Mesopotamian origin of that tribe of people), but
: b.) which was different enough (having different one god) from their conquerors religion to distinguish that tribe from the Egyptian "others" who had conquered them? & perhaps this is also why circumsion of the males was started as a practice - a relatively harmless surgery performed at the beginning of life which would be a physical sign that this boy or man was of this tribe & not of another?
: The modern day separation of church & state was also accomplished to meet political ends. & perhaps it's just a superficial separation, as some of us now see how much Bush's "religious" persuasion influences (to put it lightly) his political agenda.
-- pancho
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