andrel wrote:
> I don't know if it is where I live or who my friends and acquaintances 
> are but in my experience the group that tries to express their believe 
> by living as an example of what faith can do to a person is so large 
> that you can not neglect them. The group that you refer to is more 
> visible as a group, but I are less likely to meet them as they tend to 
> stick together. The group I mean is not so recognizable as they are 
> friendly people and you have to know them better to understand what rôle 
> faith plays in how they interact with other people. Sometimes it may 
> turn out that that faith happens to be atheism, but we were not talking 
> about those.
> 

Hmm. Just to be clear here, what "faith" are you talking about with 
atheism? Last I checked the only "faith" involved there was the same 
ones those who have "faiths" apply all the time, like, "I have faith 
that the laws of physics will let my car start in the morning, not turn 
me into a grapefruit." Sorry to be picky here, but since we are, 
supposedly trying to make "clear" distinctions about things talked 
about, and people, it might be useful what "faith" you seem to think an 
atheist has that makes it the "same" as a religion...

That said, your comment does re-bring up a point that Saul danced around 
a bit. Since he won't read the blog of an atheist, I will post a 
paraphrase of his statement on "compassion", as it was applied to a case 
of a family that had a child diagnosed with hydrocephalus. The doctors 
stated that she would either be still born, or only live a short time. 
The chaplain's statements about the matter:

1. Thumbs up to the christians that chose to follow their own creed of 
loving others.

2. The two who they helped might not have made it without such help and 
compassionate people with them.

3. Not impressed with the god in the story, who seemed to be unable to 
do anything at all that the doctors didn't already predict.

4. "Four, I wish that the friendships that abound in this story would 
have been accomplished without the framework of religion to constrain 
them. This story speaks poignantly of both the power and the depth of 
human empathy and compassion. Danny, Danielle and Bobbi didn’t need a 
deity; they needed other people. The Christians didn’t need a deity; 
they had tremendous strength and love within themselves. Danny, 
Danielle, the pastor and all of the church people have sold themselves 
short. Instead of recognizing their own virtue, they believe that the 
source of all their goodness is a small god who performs pitifully small 
miracles. That’s almost as tragic as the death of baby Bobbi."

Mind, the first poster on the reply thread suggested that #1 may have 
been a bit "artificial", in that many such people are far more 
interested in getting people "into" the club, and saving souls, than 
truly showing compassion, without strings attached. And, he is right. 
Its very hard to tell the difference some times.

-- 
void main () {
   If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

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