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    %CLARITY CLEAR ARTICULATION COSMOLOGY MYTHOLOGY 030224
 %COSMOLOGY STORIES PARABLES POINTERS STATEMENT GOD 030224
   %BELIEF DOCTRINE CONFESSION SONGS BALLADS DANCES 030224
    %DRAMAS PLAYS CARTOON SYMPHONIES ABSOLUTE TRUTH 030224
    %TRUE TRANSCEND HUMANS VALUABLE HELPFUL CONTAIN 030224
    %WITHIN BOX THINKING HOLD CONTROL DOMINATE WAYS 030224

     We  need greater clarity regarding how to  judge  the
values of complementary:  cosmologies, mythologies, myths,
stories,   parables,   pointers,   statements,    beliefs,
doctrines,  confessions,  songs, ballads, dances,  dramas,
plays,  cartoons, symphonies,  etc.    It is misleading to
demand  to  know if they are "true"  or "false"   in  some
absolute sense which transcends human beings in particular
and/or in general.   Complementary kinds of questions need
to be formulated, asked, and responded to:

     1.  How valuable/helpful are they  to  each different
person?    Maybe words other than "valuable" and "helpful"
need to be used here as well.

     2.  Are they valuable/helpful in different "ways"  to
different people; not just to different "degrees"?

     3.  Do they  "contain"  that which is valuable and/or
helpful;   or do they point-to or  call-attention-to  that
which is valuable and/or helpful?

     4.  Can  people  be  "in  control  of"   some  of the
realities  being  considered here;  all of them;  none  of
them?

     5.  Must there be proper "authorities"  in charge  of
the use of the realities being considered here; to be sure
that they are not "improperly used" or "abused"? Who is to
say who such "authorities" should be?

     6.  Given the  records we have about  major religious
teachers  who have founded and guided the  development  of
the  major religious traditions within "Spaceship  Earth";
what   do  those  records  suggest  might  have  been  the
responses  of such persons to the above questions?    What
additional  questions  and suggestions might they have  to
offer?

     7.  Are complementary  people  likely  to  respond in
different ways to the above questions ---  depending  upon
how   preoccupied  they  are  with  issues  of:   control,
domination, authority, exclusivity, dichotomization, etc?

     8.  What kinds  of people do (or will)  want to be in
control of how other people respond to the above kinds  of
questions?   Why?  For any good reasons?   For any reasons
which should NOT be honored,  respected and/or  supported?
Who is qualified to say without serious bias?

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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