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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 11:22 pm
by Interbane
spot: "Interbane, are you telling me that oppression began with Christianity?"

No, that's not what I was saying.

In real life I'd have had a sarcastic reply, but that doesn't work here.

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 12:12 am
by seespotrun2008
What are you saying?

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 12:31 am
by Interbane
Simply that religion has oppressed people for a very long time.

Before that, I was picking DH's brain, but he left. There aren't many people crucified recently, at least that I know of, that offer a striking image that sticks with me. There are other modern symbols of oppression I'm sure. It depends on what evokes the idea within a person.

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 12:42 am
by seespotrun2008
Ok.

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 4:03 pm
by giselle
I'm still reading Dan Barker because I can only take a little at a time of his arguments and preachiness, and really I'm a fiction reader. So, in that spirit, I tried to think of something from fiction that might relate to Barker and his arguments about morality, the Bible and stories from the Old Testament, and this is what I came up with:

From the Prologue to Timothy Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage (Dr. Noyes is Noah)
And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons wives with him into the ark, because the waters of the flood ... Genesis 7:7

Everyone knows it wasn't like that. To begin with, they make it sound as if there wasn't any argument; as if there wasn't any panic - no one being pushed aside - no one being trampled - none of the animals howling - none of the people screaming blue murder. They make it sound as if the only people who wanted to get on board were Dr Noyes and his family. Presumably, everyone else (the rest of the human race, so to speak) stood off waving gaily, behind a distant barricade: SPECTATORS WILL NOT CROSS THE YELLOW LINE and: THANK YOU FOR YOUR CO-OPERATION. With all the baggage neatly labelled: WANTED or NOT WANTED ON THE VOYAGE.