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Is what you write tending gnostic here? I sure hope not, but you are wise to see the issue. What I wrote, I hope, recognizes the impulse, I hope, and the logic, I also hope, but avoids the conclusion. That you might have read it that way is a problem to be addressed. Religion, like art, is a cope. A very profound, vitally important cope -- giving meaning to the very concept of being human. Paganism is just more hands-on honest. No, no, no. That sort of reductionism is not only itself pure cope, but a serious cop-out. What isn't a cope, by such a vague standard? If a mode of life is "profound," "vitally important," and gives "meaning to the very concept of being human," isn't that of the highest value? "Cope," you call it? I don't get this "cope." To reduce religion to a "cope" is, well – and you surely know this – absurdly simplistic. If I may poke you with a stick, I suggest your analysis of "cope" is in turn your mode of "coping" with harsh realities that religion encounters, realities that are difficult to cope with. "To cope" means convenient avoidance of what is uncomfortable, when it should mean confrontation, defiance, and possibly even defeat of what is being "coped" with. In any case, you'll have to explain more: Paganism is more "hands-on honest?" What are your criteria of honesty? Surely if I believe Christ is Logos Incarnate, your claim of honesty is going to require more evidence than the mere sentiments of a fellow BL. We are tempted, as Boy Lovers, to think we can stand outside "religion" and "theology" and even basic "philosophy." Well, we can, and we can't. We have correctives, including evidence and arguments to offer, psychologically, sociologically, anthropologically, historically, philosophically... But it is folly to imagine that what we here know about BL trumps every tradition, however hostile. As far as "Nature" goes, I must object vehemently that the "equation" I suggested, (with Origen, Aquinas, Cusa, you name 'em) between Nature and Supernature, is an attempt to "cleanse" Nature of anything. It's nothing of the sort. Nature rests, however imperfectly, upon the supernatural: that's a matter of sheer logic. Again, I wonder more what you mean when you say that "paganism is more hands-on honest." Honest about what? About the nature, reality, essence, divinity, of human being? Christ was, is, all about that too... |