Recent content by ari

I think the social dynamic determines the religious not influences it. You yourself said it; religion fulfills some basic need in people but it’s the environmental and social dynamics that create the need to begin with. Hence my view that religion is a by-product rather than a driving force.

Economic concepts may not have always played a role but social dynamics have always been a factor in one form or another.

Well picked up, I accidentally put it backwards. I’m not entirely sure I agree with this though: I think the broad range of sociological factors, that impact on society, manifest them selves through religion. So it’s really the sociological factors rather than religion that shape society.

Let me be clear about this, what I’m saying to you is that religion is a by-product of social and economic factors driven by an evolutionary process. So it is these factors that shape our society.

I think you’re over stating the impact of religion. Social and economic factors are the things that drive progress. The agency for change is an evolutionary impulse not a religious one. The foundations to human rights, to freedoms, and the adoption of proper ethical attitudes were a result of...

I think its role has been superficial. It’s too simplistic to say that religion has played any sort of role in shaping society. To do so is to ignore the social and economic factors that impact on our everyday lives. Ultimately it’s these things that shape our attitudes and even our religious...

Many self-serving religious types like to remind us that their religion is the foundation of our law our society and our ‘civilisation’ and that ‘decent’ moral standards are grounded in religion. But is this so? How much of a role has religion played in shaping our society? And are religious...

This kind of fly’s in the face of your assertions, hundredmillionlifetimes. To me this implies that the films withdrawal was a direct consequence of the harassment he was receiving at the time.

I’ve already answered this. I thought he withdrew the film because of the harassment he was receiving at the time. The basis for this comment was a handful of articles I’ve read over the years. I had know reason to question them at the time but I’m happy to accept that they where not accurate...

The political correctness phenomenon is little more than a reflection of changing social values. The backlash against it is largely a reflection from those who still adhere to the dominant values of the past and resent the untimely intrusion of new modes of thought and language. Political...

Not at all, I was merely implying that the controversy was generated by tabloid media and Britain’s moral guardians. My impression was that Kubrick had the film withdrawn because he got fed up with the constant harassment he was receiving at the time. That does not mean he had he had a problem...

How do you know this, hundredmillionlifetimes? I thought Kubrick banned the film because he got fed up with the controversy that surrounded it. I didn’t think it had anything to do with the films actual content. What concerns did he have about the films first 20 minutes?