[Dialogue] Seious Objections

[James Wiegel]

hmmm . . . thinking from the perspective of levels of consciousness, i.e., Wilber, et. al., is there a causal or ultimate level of consciousness that is at a "higher" level of consciousness that in essence trumps the meaning and significance which comes from the psychic or mythic levels not, in the sense that they are "wrong" or not significant in themselves, but in the sense that they are penultimate -- I just got through reading "The Spiral Staircase" by Karen Armstrong and I am aswirl with undigested notions in this area . . . 

Karl Hess <khess at apk.net> wrote:Margaret,

My mistake was assuming a Christian context. My apologies.

Here's what I understand. See also 
http://www.serve.com/thibodep/cr/niebuhr.htm 

In Christian theology generally God is understood to take a dim view 
of other gods. Other gods are understood as anything which takes the 
place of god in a person's life - money, power, sex, nation, ideology 
- thus these are forms of idolatry.

Animism is a particular group of religions, most commonly found in 
pre-literate societies.

The Egyptian sociologist was studying female genital mutilation, and 
told me that this practice goes back into pre-history in Egypt and 
that Christians and then Muslims had tried to eliminate it and 
failed. This I take as an example of the veneer of formal religion 
over ancient religions.

A current example is that 70% of Republicans say we should fight for 
our country whether it is right or wrong. I take that to be an 
example of paganism.

Karl
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Ol' Jim Wiegel
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Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities.  Wade Davis
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