b0f0d368   
   XPost: alt.philosophy, alt.atheism   
   From: Hu_cares@blah.com.au   
      
   "Joseph Humming"  wrote in message   
   news:9a5dafbd-0245-487d-b44f-c74ea053bb5c@d4g2000prg.googlegroups.com...   
   > If a boy growing up in thrall to his family, desperate to allay their   
   > griefs, but believing nothing that they  belief, chances by a fluke of   
   > seeing on a vision of human striving very different to theirs, indeed   
   > completely reversing the entire basis of their morality... what can he   
   > do?   
   >   
   > Nothing.   
   >   
   > To voice his new-found faith would be to mortally offend his family;   
   > to explain his new-found faith would be impossible, given the complete   
   > reversal of emphasis.   
   >   
   > So he says nothing. And years pass, 30 years of dazed smiling   
   > restlessness. Still in thrall to people he allays his depression by   
   > becoming a buffoon, a "character" as we say, redeeming himself by   
   > telling one-tenth of the truth - but completely oblivious of the faith   
   > he once possessed..   
   > And if on the turn of this Millennium his desperation reaches a   
   > certain point; if he senses that this new anxious age of global   
   > warming and cultural disharmony needs a new belief, a new truth...a   
   > new truth superseding all the old bogus claims - and hopes - of the   
   > past, a new valuation for the human phenomenon, can he now finally   
   > voice his faith? Can he finally assert that human beings  -   
   > necessarily - took a stance upon truth before they knew the truth.   
   > That their need for certainty drove them to solidify their hopes and   
   > beliefs - but that they were wrong; That they created a vast   
   > superstructure of morality  - but that they were wrong; That their   
   > gift of creativity enabled them to impart form and plausibility on   
   > vast spurious hopes - but that they were still wrong. That the true   
   > story is of a gifted creature painfully fashioning a congenial society   
   > on a planet; that true morality must take cognizance of this reality;   
   > that such rights as they establish must also exist in the light of   
   > this  fact; but that they must be guided and inspired by their   
   > uniqueness as a creature on this planet and in the universe.   
   >   
   >   
   > Joseph Humming   
      
   I know exactly what you mean. Well said. Don't despair when others jump all   
   over it, and can't comprehend. :)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)