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The Forum > Article Comments > Are we safe? > Comments

Are we safe? : Comments

By Peter Sellick, published 29/6/2009

The danger with attempting to over-manage risk is that it becomes the main game and distracts us from the life at hand.

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So are we to smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a day, drink a bottle of whiskey and go out for a drive? Peter, there is no correlation whatsoever between sensible precautions and faith.
You also indulge in the disgusting habit of linking disaster with faith or God, like he posts that linked the Victorian bush fires with God's revenge. Totally disgusting.
So you hide behind your 'faith' and your puny image of God and write silly little articles like this.
Posted by Daviy, Monday, 29 June 2009 10:06:34 AM
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Bertrand Russell had it right about fear:

"Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing -- fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts. Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a better place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the churches in all these centuries have made it".
Posted by principles, Monday, 29 June 2009 11:12:06 AM
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The second part of Bertrand Russell's observations:

"What We Must Do
We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world -- its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it. The whole conception of God is a conception derived from the ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men. When you hear people in church debasing themselves and saying that they are miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptible and not worthy of self-respecting human beings. We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages. A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence. It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time toward a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create".
Posted by principles, Monday, 29 June 2009 11:15:03 AM
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Well Daviy, I think what Peter says makes good sense. Sensible precautions are just that, sensible, and desirable.

"Helicopter parenting" is another thing. Kids can be so cossetted they fail to learn how to manage risk sensibly, because they never get the chance.

The Air France disaster is an example of where sensible precautions fail. That's life; it happens. A month ago, despite two headlights, three tail lights and reflective clothing, I was knocked off my bike by a car... it happens. If we think we can neutralise all risk, then we are simply wrong. What I think Peter is pointing out is that some people are so afraid of risk, and so need to be in control, that they miss many of the joys of life.

You should read him again. He is not linking disaster with God, saying God causes disasters. He said those disasters that happen despite all sensible precautions are "voice of God." If God is the Ultimate Reality, then when we meet our finitude and inability to control and direct reality, we have met the voice of God. As he says, "We are creatures subject to hazard and death." If we try and avoid that we are living in a dream... I think you can come to that conclusion from a religious or secular position. You can also describe the fact that people do try and avoid it from a secular or religious position. You have replied "knee-jerk" because you are opposed to religion, and simply failed to hear the valid point he is making.

Andrew Prior http://churchrewired.org
Posted by Andrew Prior, Monday, 29 June 2009 11:22:03 AM
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Was it Bertrand Russell who said Christianity was 'afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted'? It's all about paradoxes too,
that 'dying He destroyed our death, living, He restored our life'.

And standing with the poor and marginalised, like the prophet Amos, who
certainly didn't play it safe, but then, none of the true prophets ever did, and they all paid the price for their risk-taking.
Posted by SHRODE, Monday, 29 June 2009 1:34:57 PM
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Mat10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Posted by Kenny, Monday, 29 June 2009 2:14:25 PM
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