[NYer]

Catholic ping!

[Olog-hai]

Reminds me of how Lenin banned hunting and created nature conservancies where humans were forbidden to tread (zapovedniki) that certainly resulted in harming the poor, even to the point of starvation.

[steve86]

This is a completely off-topic comment other than being related to environmentalism.

We have a seasonal wildlife oriented convention near here based on a certain animal migrating through. There are tours and speakers and all that.

I was just looking through the speaker's brochure. It has photos of the individuals giving the presentations. I was expecting to see at least a couple of stereotypical pagan-earth-worshiping atheist human hating types and wasn't disappointed. One in particular -- some kind of ugly androgynous thing who fit the bill perfectly. I did a Google search of "its" name -- BINGO!

SENIOR OFFICER OF PLANNED ABORTIONHOOD

Sometimes you really can judge by appearances.

[Sherman Logan]

The book of Genesis was written in part to counteract a theory later known as Manicheanism. It held that a god of good created spirit and a god of evil created matter. In this view, the more spiritual we are, the less we are connected to matter. This position suggests that by withdrawing from matter, we will become more spiritual.

Is there any evidence that such a theory was even around when Genesis was written?

AFAIK, none of the Greek philosophers taught any such thing.

The Zoroastrians taught of a god of good and a god of evil, but I don't think they equated matter with evil. In fact, the good god created the world, and the bad god was trying to destroy it.

Hindu and Buddhist teaching was generally that the world is illusion, not evil, in fact often that evil itself is only an illusion.

[cripplecreek]

This is why I think the GOP should be more “Pro Choice”.

Choose, EPA or food stamps.

Choose, Department of education or granny’s health care.

etc