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Re: paleonet Re: persistant hate E- mail (which is OFF TOPIC)



>  No buddhist will ever try to convince anybody, he just practices and if you
>  like it you have to ask him to tell you. Jesus in this sense was much more a
>  buddhist himself with the crucial difference that he sent out his followers.
>  But at least the early ones were peaceful. The more powerful christianism
>  became the more corrupt became the representatives.

Actually, there are Buddhists in southeast Asia that try to impose their views on the religious minorities there (e.g., attacks on churches in Sri Lanka, efforts at imposing pro-Buddist laws in Cambodia).  I don't know of any philosophical/religious position (including atheism) whose followers have never tried to impose on others.  Likewise, left-wing and right-wing regimes are both brutal.  More directly relevant to Paleonet, much of the strength of feeling among U.S. conservatives reflects their perception that the political left has been imposing its views via the courts and the educational system.  Regardless of the accuracy of that perception, "stop imposing your views on me and instead conform to my views" is never going to be a persuasive argument.  

The reason why antievolutionism is wrong is that it is false, no matter what political or relgious view one takes.  Linking the promotion of evolution to a particular religous or political view alienates those of other political/religious views while tending to distort evolution into a teleological force.  Although it may be true that many antievolutionists hold political and/or religious views contrary to my own, my scientific objection is that they are promoting bad science.

Power does not actually corrupt; it merely allows the corruption present in all human systems greater opportunity to express itself.  

    Dr. David Campbell 
    Old Seashells 
    University of Alabama 
    Biodiversity & Systematics 
    Dept. Biological Sciences 
    Box 870345 
    Tuscaloosa, AL  35487-0345 USA
    bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com

That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa