RM> Many people find it hard to face simple non-existence after death. They
 FM> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 RM> Oh my dear friend, you will have to show me where I stated that
 RM> KNEW what happens after death.  I merely said that religion is
 RM> the result of the fear of nothing after death.  Not that there WAS
 RM> nothing after death.
 FM> O.K., Richard, (grin) look at the careted sentence above.  Are you
 FM> contending that I should not have understood that as a statement of a
 FM> known fact?  If so, then, of course, I misread you.
 RM> You *assumed* that is what I meant, Fank ol' boy.  You simply read more
 RM> into what I wrote.  Should I have to put some kind of disclaimer
 RM> specifically for you benefit?  No where in there did I state "fact" or
 RM> "truth" or any assumption of that kind.
 FM> I believe that if I had stated such and wanted it to be clearer I would
 FM> have inserted "possible" between "face" and "simple."
 RM> It would have been too wordy.  What I stated stands all on it's own and
 RM> retains the same meaning (provided the one reading it is not you, of
 RM> course ;).  You can go right ahead and put "possible" in there, but it
 RM> is a waste of time.
   Well, O.K., Mark, I will not press that particular point any further.  I
must still, however, disagree that even the possibility of non-existence 
FTER
DEATH has been the primary motive for the impulse toward religion.  
   Even forgetting the millenia of man's existence when intracosmic gods
symbolized his relationship to divinity there were a variety of motivating
forces not the least of which was (as belabored endlessly in Frazer's _Golden
Bough_) success with the crops and with other household activities and life
experiences.  Surely some terror must have entered into this as Blumenberg
theorizes with regard to the event of man's emergence on the savannah.  
    There has been passed down to us from a fairly late stage in civilization
the story of Saul in the Hebrew literature used through successive centuries
as a case citation about kings.  One facet of the Saul story has to do with
the curious issuing of a royal ordinance forbidding the calling forth of
witches and wizards and then Saul's proceding to break his own ordinance by
calling the Witch of Endor.  It has been pointed out that the sense of such a
story might well have been the consideration that in the earlier Hebrew world
reflected, say, in the book of Judges, the dead were Elohim (gods) and the
king might have genuine interest in forces being called up to provide
information directly in conflict with his aims and policies, especially
without HIS knowing about them.  Divine force was experienced as much more
fluid in this earlier situation of man prior to its differentiation into 
ater
stages of rationality and the revelation of the God beyond all polytheistic
gods (even beyond the God of the fathers) in the differentiated consciousness
of man.  Even today in our "age of science" there is a thriving business in
the various doctrinal interests pertaining to "previous lives" (Shirley
McLain, et al) and information from the past through various forms of
"contacting the dead" etc.  Not all of this by any means is motivated by fear
or terror.  I would venture the suggestion that it has more to do with that
standing DESIRE TO KNOW which is present and virtually DEFINES humanity in
large part.  
Sincerely, 
                                     Frank
                                                                              
                                                       
--- PPoint 2.05
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