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Comment I posted on the following thread, which didn't make it past the "moderation"
(Return to removed from Cif index)(Link to thread and article)

Heed the call of compassion

by Desmond Tutu and Karen Armstrong, 25/09/09

 

I'm sure the authors of this article mean well and are quite sincere, but they fail to recognise their own subconscious motivations, which - being "prime apes" like the rest of us - are ultimately Darwinian.

As a human-evolutionary view of established religion reveals, its primary purpose is to facilitate Homo sapiens' (self)-exploitation of human society itself, which, perversely, with the advent of civilisation, has largely come to replace the natural environment we evolved in and are behaviourally adapted to.

What Desmond Tutu and Karen Armstrong are doing is claiming the "moral high ground" for themselves, along with the power and advantages which go with it (a clever strategy for survival and "success" in this new, artificial environment)..

Since they like quoting ancient authorities, I shall quote one back at them, written above the temple at Delphi: "know thy self". Which, with post-Darwinian hindsight, I would alter to,

"Know your Darwinian nature and the socioeconomic power structures (of state, church and economy) it has given rise to . . ."

 

2nd Post

Reflecting on my first post, one might ask if two such intelligent and well-meaning people as Desmond Tutu and Karen Armstrong can really be as self-deluded as I suggest?

As supporting evidence for my assertion I would point to their professed belief (self-delusion) in the blatant nonsense, about Jesus being the "son of God" and a miracle worker, contained in the New Testament.