[ExI] The Golden Compass

[spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Harvey Newstrom
...
> 
> This was the belief of the early christian gnostics.  They believed that
> creation was evil, god was insane, and that we needed a savior to rescue
> us from god... Harvey Newstrom




Well now let's look at these notions for a minute.  You may recall the Bob
Newhart television shows, but he was a hilarious stand-up comic before that.
His favorite gag was to imagine telephones in various historic settings.  He
would get a call from George Washington or from a seventeenth century
English trader trying to explain tobacco for instance.  The audience would
hear only Bob's side of the conversation.  It worked.

Consider the following, dealing with Harvey's notion, written as a Bob
Newhart script:

[ring]

Hello?...Oh hi Abraham!  How's Sarah? ... Good, and Ishmael, and little
Isaac?  Good, good.  So what's on your mind Abe?
...
A new religion?  You've... You've invented a new religion...  It has only
one...  OK... But... OK...  So what's it called?... Judaism, OK...how
does...  A creed...  A set of rules.  How many rules Abe?...  Ten rules,
only ten rules?...  Six hundred and ninety three rules.  That's a lot of
rules, Abe...  I see...  So, what if someone breaks one of...  You what?
You kill an animal?!...  You mean a rattlesnake or a mosquit...  A SHEEP?!
Abe, I really don't think...You what?  You blame the sheep for your...what's
it called?...Sin.  You blame the sheep for your sin.  Then you kill the
sheep...  I see, well Abe, you know I really don't think that idea...

What's that Abe?  A modification...  What do you call that?...
Christianity...  I see...Like Judaism except... What's that Abe?...  You
kill a PERSON?!  So this must be a really bad pers...  An innocent person.
A savior...  So you get a savior, then you blame him for your sin, then you
kill him?...  Oh, OK, well Abe you know, ah, that idea has some really big
prob...

Oh one more idea?...  What do you call this modification?  Mus...Is...Ok,
Abe, but... You kill HOW many?!  All those who...  Um, look Abe, I really
don't think any of these three ideas have legs, pal...  No... No I really
don't.  You need to rethink some of these ideas, Abe.  That one god notion
you are proposing that people worship, what did you call...  This one god
idea... OK three ideas, Abe you need to think it over a bit more...  He
sounds a little crazy...  Yes I think so, Abe.

OK bye Abe, send my greetings to Sarah...