checking out the library book / Love - massively OT, mostly

[Aberforth's Goat / Mike Gray]

Kneasy knelled,
> > > And inaccurate to  boot.
> > > Buddhism holds that the world is a transient reflex *of the 
deity*;
> > > that the soul is a vital spark *of the diety*.
> > > 
> > 
> > Which Buddhism is this?
> > 
> Certainly doesn't apply to Zen, though. That appeared quite 
> late in the day (comparatively speaking) over 1000 years 
> after the original sects and is classified and described as 
> 'a contemplative philosophy'. Some have questioned whether 
> Zen is mainstream Buddhism and consider it a philosophical 
> offshoot. Me, I'm staying out of that one. I'd be a fool to 
> offer an opinion. 

I'm killing myself with a couple writing projects, so I haven't been 
following very carefully - but it looks from your response like 
someone pointed out something I wanted to say: to equate religion 
with theism is a pretty big undertaking, what with so many 
nontheistic religions out there, runningthe gamut from animism to 
communism. 

In fact, it's almost as big an undertaking as trying to define what 
it means for a religion to believe in "God": no matter what the 
dictionaries say, any theologian will be happy (or frustrated, or 
furious) to confirm that one man's god is the next guy's dog. 

Just one example of the above: think of Philip Pullman's Dust. (Don't 
have the book here, but I *think* he capitalizes it.) Is Dust God? 
Course not. God was the geezer in the box. Is Dust Supernatural? Hmm -
 all depends on what you mean by natural. Is Dust in some way 
Ultimate? Yes. Ist Dust Sentient? Yes? Is Dust Precious? Yes. Does 
Dust exert a final Moral Imperative on sentient beings? Yes. Are 
there individuals who can intrerpret this Moral Imperative for the 
Young and Un-dusted? Yes. Is there any chance that someone will 
eventually found a First Church of the Holy Dust? Well ... umm ... 
Pullman doesn't really want to go there, I don't think. 
(Bonus Question: Does Dust remind you of certain strains of Process 
Theology? Yup.)

And now, back to the first question: Is Dust God? Well, that all 
depends on what you mean by God ...

OTOH, I guess it all comes back to the same old chestnut: what do we
*mean,* and who decides, when we say "religion," "love," "life" and, 
of corse, "obfuscation."

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray) 
_______________________

"Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, 
so that may not have been bravery...."