[AGL] frustration

[Wayne Johnson]

Many historians believe that the reason Christianity succeeded where it's 
main rival at the time, Mythra, did not is because Christianity allowed 
women to worship whereas Mythra was primarily a man's religion.

I rather suspect the "success" had a lot more to do with the power vacuum 
left by the collapse of the Roman Empire which provided an opportunity for 
entrepreneurial religous believers/zealots/organizers/prosylitizers/et al to 
coalesce into a semi-centralized, semi-authoritarian sect 
which....especially in the case of the Irish monks, happened to "own" most 
of the "literacy" available.....West of the Bosporus...at that time. 
Happily, they had all those really good Roman roads to travel up and down 
collecting acolytes, potential martyrs and wealthy patrons (wanting to cover 
all their post-Life bets.)   Monasteries had certain advantages over living 
amidst pig swill and rats.  For one thing, they ate better.  A LOT better.

The statement....The Irish saved Civilization...is demonstrably true.

Any doubters of the veracity of this proposition should try some day old 
haggis!

Rev. B MacGowen
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Eisenstadt" <michaele at hotpop.com>
To: "survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s" 
<austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2005 11:06 AM
Subject: Re: [AGL] frustration


> Additional explanations of why Christianity is the most advanced
> religion:
>
> salvation open to all men instead of being limited to a tribe or people
> (this is also true of Buddhism so far as I know)
>
> first religion grounded in historical time (He came in a certain year
> in the past in a certain place and will come again at a certain time in 
> the
> future). This is radically different from religions based purely on a
> timeless cyclical sequence of the seasons (sowing, growing, harvest,
> quiescence, rebirth, sowing, etc). For this reason, Christianity is the
> source of historical consciousness which is itself essentially secular
> and non-religious. Thus Christianity by grounding itself in history
> creates its own negation, in spite of the troglodytes who continue to
> "believe" in it.
>
> When He comes again, the godly will be raptured up to heaven
> NAKED leaving behind, in piles, the clothes they were wearing.
> Whereas, according to R.Crumb, when his wife Aline Kominsky
> gets raptured she will fly up there wearing her dress and boots.
> See the his drawing of this in the Nov. 28, 2005 issue.
>
>