XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: toomuchspam@spammer.org   
      
   "Dan Drake" wrote:   
      
   >> No, my meaning of MC is supposed to be the same as Lewis's: the   
   >> irreducible core.   
   >   
   > Right.   
   >   
   > Oddly enough, this long and rambling and rather hostile thread has   
   > clarified my understanding of the original question, or at least given   
   > me time to think about it.  So I'll now state what I understand it to   
   > mean, and answer it without wasting space on irrelevant merely   
   > personal details such as what I think X would have done compared to Y   
   > in circumstance Q.   
      
   I honestly don't mind if you and Steve Hayes waste a little space in that   
   way. If I'm accused of overweening arrogance when I make points about   
   Japan, it seems fair to at least let me know whether the two of you agree   
   with one of the points I made. I don't think I'm misinterpreting   
   Christianity when I say that, but if I am, please explain how.   
      
   [cut what I'm afraid I found rather evasive and space-wasting]   
      
   > Here's my answer:   
   > It wouldn't make a rat's ass of difference.   
   >   
   > *Everybody* is screwed up and does not begin to live up to the   
   > Teachings, whatever they are, unless they're trivial.   
      
   So when Christians don't torture and persecute each other today, they're   
   living up to a "trivial" part of the Teachings. Otherwise they would be   
   torturing and persecuting each other. Which must mean that when they were   
   doing so, that part was serious.   
      
   > A Christian   
   > would call this Original Sin.  Others might call it Maya.  I don't   
   > know whether the Christian theological explanation is right, but the   
   > effects that it refers to are real.   
      
   Yes, in that it affected what happened in entirely Christian Europe and   
   in not-so-entirely Buddhist Japan. But not, I've been arguing, to the   
   same extent, which is why I think Japanese Christianity would have   
   behaved worse than Japanese Buddhism with the same power. If you think   
   the same, it would rather contradict what you've said about MC and MB not   
   making "a rat's ass of difference" to my imaginary worlds. That's why I'm   
   interested to know whether you and Steve Hayes do think the same.   
      
   > I could claim to recruit Lewis to my side; see "The Sermon and the   
   > Lunch", for instance.  Someone else might cite him on the other side.   
   > It doesn't really matter, but I want to give Lewis credit for the   
   > degree to which he clarified my thinking on these matters.   
      
   I'm not sure that Lewis would want the credit.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)