From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Thu Oct 14 2004 - 23:37:54 BST
Hi Horse,
> Sent this yesterday but it didn't come through for some reason.
This happens from time to time. I (and I assume others) received your
message the first time you posted it, but you didn't get it. I've
experienced the same when I send a post but don't get it myself although
others have. I know because they replied to it. Weird. But computer gurus
never promised us rose gardens. :-)
> I'm not sure I follow the reasoning here as I can't see why either Science
> or Humanism should be included with Communism.
Well, I've read the Humanist Manifesto several times and can find little
that disagrees with the Communist Manifesto. Both reject religious faith
and mysticism of any kind. Humanism goes even further than Communism
redistributing income. It wants to reduce income disparities worldwide.
The only way any redistribution can happen, of course, is involuntarily,
which means, at the point of a government gun. Perhaps you can enlighten
me on the difference in economic philosophy of these two ideologies of
nonbelievers.
>And as with Science, I don't
> know of any attrocities committed in the name of Humanism. Have there been
> any? Both Communism and Fascism have been associated with attrocities as
> has Religion. Wouldn't it be better, using your own reasoning, to lump
> Communism, Fascism and Religion together as belief systems which have been,
> and still are, responsible for the deaths of millions and thus of very low
> Quality. At the same time, Science and Humanism (which to the best of my
> knowledge has not had attrocities associated with it) should be considered
> as very high Quality and praised accordingly, given their high degree of
> intellectual content and DQ nature. This would make more sense to me.
If, as I suggest, there's little difference between Communism and
Humanism, your point about atrocities becomes mute.
> A couple of minor points. As far as I know Dawkins is a Humanist (or
> atleast supports it) and not a pagan - many aspects of Paganism (those
> lumped under the term) are strongly associated with Religion (think Wicca).
> Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge organisation were trained and supplied by both the UK
> and the US (SAS on the part of the UK and the US Special Forces). Both the
> US and the UK supported Pol Pot during the years of the 'Killing Fields'.
> This is a matter of record and not just some crazy conspiracy theory -
> Thatcher admitted using the SAS to supply and train the Khmer Rouge to the
> UK parliament in 1989.
If UK and US supported Pol Pot during the years of the 'Killing Fields'
I'll bet it wasn't to the extent of our friend Noam Chomsky who waxed
ecstatic about Pol Pot and his partner in atrocities, Ho Chi Min. :-)
Best,
Platt
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