Dear david f,

Inhibited or not, your posts are always stimulating.

>>I think it better to confront reality than either hope or despair.<<

I think hope and confronting reality are not mutually exclusive. You can confront reality and still hope for (or believe in, warm spit or not) a better future (even if you do not believe in reality beyond what science can see).

>>Note the above connection of crime with hunger. Some reactionary politicians apparently think that crime is a product of immorality and lack of religion<<

Again, I think these are not mutually exclusive. One may commit a crime, e.g. rob a bank, (eventually kill somebody), either as a desperate act because one is hungry (no immoral motivation) or just being greedy (or other immoral motivation). And wars between nations have been conducted also for other than scarcity (hunger) reasons.

“Lack of religion” is something only decades or centuries will show, whether it is more beneficial to humanity in the long run than the long periods of religious social and individual awareness that our society went through, which some want to improve, modernize, and others dispense with completely.

Dear Banjo,

Speaking of need for interpretation, this, I was told, happened to a Russian mathematician attending a Conference in Germany (in Russian you cannot distinguish between “the” and “a” articles):

On arrival at the hotel, he was met by a German colleague, a lady, waiting to discuss some mathematics with him. The Russian asked her to wait until he settles in his room, and instructed the portier to let her know when he calls from his room. However, when he was ready, instead of asking the portier to send up THE lady, he asked for (the German equivalent of) A lady. Since the portiers changed in between, the new portier obliged by sending him “A lady”. (Had he asked for THE lady, the portier would have apparently asked which one).

.

To whom it may concern

.

"A religion, that is, a true religion, must consist of ideas and facts both; not of ideas alone without facts, for then it would be mere Philosophy; Nor of facts alone without ideas, of which those facts are symbols, or out of which they arise, or upon which they are grounded: for then it would be mere History."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
'Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!

All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

My lips were wet, my throat was cold,
My garments all were dank;
Sure I had drunken in my dreams,
And still my body drank.

I moved, and could not feel my limbs:
I was so light -almost
I thought that I had died in sleep,
And was a blessed ghost.

And soon I heard a roaring wind:
It did not come anear;
But with its sound it shook the sails,
That were so thin and sere.

The upper air burst into life!
And a hundred fire-flags sheen,
To and fro they were hurried about!
And to and fro, and in and out,
The wan stars danced between.

And the coming wind did roar more loud,
And the sails did sigh like sedge;
And the rain poured down from one black cloud;
The moon was at its edge.

The loud wind never reached the ship,
Yet now the ship moved on!
Beneath the lightning and the moon
The dead men gave a groan.

.

(Continued) …

.

.

(Continued) …

.

They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;
It had been strange, even in a dream,
To have seen those dead men rise.

The helmsman steered, the ship moved on;
Yet never a breeze up blew;
The mariners all 'gan work the ropes,
Where they were wont to do;
They raised their limbs like lifeless tools -
We were a ghastly crew.

The body of my brother's son
Stood by me, knee to knee:
The body and I pulled at one rope,
But he said nought to me."

`I fear thee, ancient Mariner!'
"Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest!
'Twas not those souls that fled in pain,
Which to their corses came again,
But a troop of spirits blest:

For when it dawned -they dropped their arms,
And clustered round the mast;
Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,
And from their bodies passed.

Around, around, flew each sweet sound,
Then darted to the sun;
Slowly the sounds came back again,
Now mixed, now one by one.

Till noon we quietly sailed on,
Yet never a breeze did breathe;
Slowly and smoothly went the ship,
Moved onward from beneath.

Under the keel nine fathom deep,
From the land of mist and snow,
The spirit slid: and it was he
That made the ship to go.
The sails at noon left off their tune,
And the ship stood still also.

Then like a pawing horse let go,
She made a sudden bound:
It flung the blood into my head,
And I fell down in a swound.

How long in that same fit I lay,
I have not to declare;
But ere my living life returned,
I heard and in my soul discerned
Two voices in the air.

`Is it he?' quoth one, `Is this the man?
By him who died on cross,
With his cruel bow he laid full low
The harmless Albatross.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1834)
by S.T.Coleridge

.

.

Dear George,

.

" … In Latin they have fides for faith (that apparently gave rise to faith and foi, as you point out) and credere for the verb believe, but I don’t know (my Latin is non-existent) whether they have a separate word for the noun (religious) belief."

.

Sorry, I overlooked this question.

“Religious belief” in Latin is “religio”.

.

Dear Banjo,
>>“Religious belief” in Latin is “religio”<<

Thanks, but online dictionaries give some other meanings to “religio”, not the noun corresponding to believe=credere:

obligation, rite, sanction, sanctity, supernatural constraint/taboo, worship (http://www.latin-dictionary.net/search/latin/religio)
or
conscientiousness, sense of right, moral obligation, duty (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/resolveform?type=begin&lookup=religio&lang=la)
or
scrupulousness, conscientious exactness (http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/lookup.pl?)

i can..only..be me
and..the we..in me..wants to help other..
to see..beyond that we may..allow johan to see

that is..the message for today

geoge wrote..<<..thanks..&*but
online dictionaries..give..some other meanings to “religio”,..

not the/noun*..corresponding to believe=credere:>>..

thoughts
re credere

credit..
give credence to..
given..in advance..creditable

forgiven

fore-give..my illiterate..alliterations
but my mind says..there is quality..that become apparent[apparently]
by using it in a sentence..not sentience

this..i will try
to write..using the words..as given..

[let the first..be last]

the recording..of the cred..behind the creed
needed to be exactly..the exactness..that it now is..

it was done..most conscientiously..
[even the contentious bits..and revision..was observed most scrupulously]..were david..still our revered peer..still here [hear]....he could affirm..that one letter wrong..the text was [respectfully destroyed]

but to..continue

the test was..to see if the dead/text
would become..more holy than thou..the living..who would whore-ship...[pNOTt]..

the implied..[imps..;lie]..taboos
[boo]..obey the constraint..of your in-herant freedoms..with-in the natural*..elevated unto the super..[of the supreme sanctity]

see that sanction..is a rite..not an obligation..[obligato]
its..the religio..of contentiousness..that sense*..of right
that imposes..the moral..into duty..*full obligato

or some such thing
but..we will never know..definitively

obligation,..within rite,..trite sanction,
imposed sanctity, seeking supernatural constraint/taboo, worse shipt

deleted..lookup
for true scrupulousness,..true conscientious exactness

ENDE"

post/scripto/facto
as written..before editing

icanonlybeme
and the me inme wants tonhelpother..to see vbeyondthat we sdee

that isthje message for today

geroge wrote..<<..&*but online dictionaries..give some other meanings to “religio”,..not the noun*..corresponding to believe=credere:>>..

foegive myilliteratealiterations
but mymind says..there is quality..rthatbecome apparent[apparently]
byusing it in a sentance

this i will tryt
to write..if only i could tell..the effort/the thought i put into everything i do..but the difficulty..was done by the rest of you at school..[it all,,just seems so..effortless for you],..but simple reading alone..is beyond me[thus mypreferance toedoit..others woords

iknow its cheating..but i can..only reply
that my minds requires reply..even..if only an implied question
from one who's feet sit under