Duality--the fundamental error.

It is the Judeo-Christian-Islamic TRIAD that has its roots in the mythological writings of the Old Testament. A sacred relic, or not, it is the foundation on which all western religions and philosophies have been built. It is fundamentally flawed since it posits a duality as the basis of all realities, starting with the separation of god and man in Genesis. The trickle down is even more damaging as it justifies the me/them, good/bad, right/wrong, spirit/body, rationality/faith that poisons human relationships in the western paradigm. This is the sickness that is at the core of these religions that think right/wrong has anything to do with anything and is used to justify man's inhumanity to man. In all eastern philosophical systems unity and oneness is the ultimate truth and mankind is only separate from it because of ignorance and the sensory illusion of multiplicity. At the least the concept of Unity has precluded proselitization by those religious systems, leading to far less blood shed in the name of my truth vs. your truth. If Einstein had or future scientists ever prove the unified field theory we will be that much closer to an alignment of the nature of reality and the truths of the Hindu/Buddhist continuum. Not that slaves to any dogmatic system will be any more enlightened, but at least for those who think without prejudice they will enjoy contemplating more deeply a world that figured out one of the great riddles of life.

This is really just a definition,not a thought. If you want to read what the new Pope has to say about the inability for faith and rationality to coexist read today's (9/13/6) NY Times-- "Pope Assails Secularism, Adding Note on Jihad".

The Devil's Dictionary--now that's "benighten".

Turgid, n. pompus, inflated, bombastic....in the context of these three quotes this one struck me the most interesting (although inaccurate), not only in the context of religious faith but of broader disciplines of knowledge, art, music, poetry--actually any specialized area of knowledge in which one may not be schooled. It then presumes that contact with new supra rational phenomena cannot inform nor transform. However when communicated on a level of excellence this is the great potential of all art--confronted with embodied truth one can certainly embrace it and come to new levels of understanding. This is the power of art because it moves beyond factual analysis to the emotional realm of intuitive communication where apriori knowledge is not required.

Fabulous quote.

At the edge of the unknown man conveniently posits a higher authority that cannot be questioned as the source of truth. These systems of thought are turned into dogma that the undiscriminating thinker is easily seduced by. Those throughout history who have questioned the status quo of power and authority in both religion and politics have been attacked as heretics-the easy out for those in authority who want to eliminate opposition. From Copernicus to the Salem witches to those today who fight against the rigid authoritarianism of the Bush administration and its fundamentalist religious base it is fairly easy to see who is in the right.

The quote says it is the oppressed who will ultimately oppress their oppressors--not that the people who use the oppressed for their own self interest do not intend to do so. One inherent problem with many quotes, and people's general interpretation of them, is that they are expressed in the absolute, and nothing is ever all of one thing or its opposite. There are so many expampels of good intentions, good intentions gone bad, good intentions mainipulated by others and perverted...but yes, I also look at the good side of things in my analysis of this failed experiment we continue to call civilization.

I hardly think that a inconvertible case can be made for this idea. The history of movements in favor of social justice are filled with honorable examples of people who were sincerely working to remove the weitght of oppression from the powerless as their real goal. There was not the other insidious hidden agenda, implied by Hoffer here, of turning the tables and doing the same to their oppressors. America itself is an experiment in which we have moved towards greater social tolerance and not just a reversal of fortunes in which the jailor becomes the prisoner.