Actually I think animism is inferior to Stoicism and even Epicureanism, not to mention a well-informed theism. I think Hinduism as practiced by the masses of superstitious Indians is inferior to that informed by the great Hindu sages, and for that matter it is inferior to Hinayana Buddhism which is derived from those very sages teachings. I think ghost veneration/supplication a la voodoo and Santaria inferior to deism or theism or Stoicism; I think Shiite Islam on many levels is a historically inaccurate revision of Islam, and rather too tied to one family and a kind of “gens/purity” proto-fascism. Whereas the Sunni caliphate had a clear separation of civil (Vizier) and religious authority, prefiguring church/state separation (cf. also Dante and Spinoza). And I think the Saduccees were wrong and the Pharisees were right.
Oh yeah, and Joseph Smith’s narrative about his uncertainty about religion and the appearance of Moroni are CLEARLY derived from the exactly similar narrative, probably learned by SMITH in elementary-school geography classes in New York State of the early 19th century, of Mohammed and his calling some 1200 years earlier. So no, I don’t think Mormonism, or Christian Scientists, or SDA’s or Branch Davidians, or L Ron Hubbardoids are legitimate or legitimable religions. Nor are those who practice female genital mutilation, which even the imams say is unQuranic, but dates from the depths of animistic and superstitious cult practices of a savage past.
Actually I think animism is inferior to Stoicism and even Epicureanism, not to mention a well-informed theism. I think Hinduism as practiced by the masses of superstitious Indians is inferior to that informed by the great Hindu sages, and for that matter it is inferior to Hinayana Buddhism which is derived from those very sages teachings. I think ghost veneration/supplication a la voodoo and Santaria inferior to deism or theism or Stoicism; I think Shiite Islam on many levels is a historically inaccurate revision of Islam, and rather too tied to one family and a kind of “gens/purity” proto-fascism. Whereas the Sunni caliphate had a clear separation of civil (Vizier) and religious authority, prefiguring church/state separation (cf. also Dante and Spinoza). And I think the Saduccees were wrong and the Pharisees were right.
Oh yeah, and Joseph Smith’s narrative about his uncertainty about religion and the appearance of Moroni are CLEARLY derived from the exactly similar narrative, probably learned by SMITH in elementary-school geography classes in New York State of the early 19th century, of Mohammed and his calling some 1200 years earlier. So no, I don’t think Mormonism, or Christian Scientists, or SDA’s or Branch Davidians, or L Ron Hubbardoids are legitimate or legitimable religions. Nor are those who practice female genital mutilation, which even the imams say is unQuranic, but dates from the depths of animistic and superstitious cult practices of a savage past.