14-08-2011, 08:59 AM
Magda Hassan Wrote:I think a person can do much social good with out ever reading Marx or the bible or believing in god. And I've met a few like that. The bible, for me, is just a mishmash of allegorical stories and myths, some more inspirational than others, but an understanding of basic marxism is a good way understand the dynamics of a capitalist economic world view and how it can be changed. Which is why it is not taught in school unlike scripture.
I agree. No one has to believe in god, or Christ, or Marx, or have either of them crammed down their throats. A good solid course in comparative politco-economics ought to be somewhere in the curriculum. Unfortunately, financial and economic illiteracy exists in volume here in the USofA. The Bible needs to be treated with the same eye for historical accuracy and examination as anything else but, for me, it's a matter of what resonates within, what has a ring of truth-value, what works in daily life at an inter-personal level. There are a dozen other belief structures as well, from Islam to Taoism to Buddhism and the one that will be invented tomorrow by some thundering glazed-eye Shaker, Quaker, Mormon, Scientologist, or Alpha Centaurian break-away. One can be a disciple, but the most effective belief may be related to self-discipline.
I just bought Sweet Heaven When I Die: Faith, Faithlessness, and the Country In Between, the new book by Jeff Sharlet. (I still haven't read the first two yet.) And Amazon does have a book called "Marx for Beginners".
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"