[Foundation-l] [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2008 will happen in Alexandria, Egypt

[Thomas Dalton]

> "Conclude" makes the process sound awfully intellectual.  Beliefs are
> not the only part of religion.  Some religions do very well without
> God.  Religion is after all about binding people together.  In
> mainstream fundamentalist communities the church picnic can be just as
> important as the preaching.  Cults can use what are effectively torture
> techniques to bring the group into compliance, notably isolation.

Ah, now we're into a slightly semantic point. Is a Christian a person
that is part of Christian culture, or is a Christian a person that
believes Jesus Christ was the son of God? If the former, then yes,
it's a choice, if the latter, then it isn't. Either you believe it, or
you don't, it's not a choice, it's a conclusion. I don't choose that
2+2=4, I conclude it from my understanding of arithmetic. Someone
could come along and explain arithmetic in a different way to me, or I
could sit down and think about it for a while, and come to the
conclusion that 2+2 actually equals 5, but that isn't a choice.

Claudio said he "came to accept" that he was homosexual. I think
religion is much the same - either you accept a certain belief system,
or you don't, it's not a choice. Homosexuality could be considered a
belief - the belief that members of your sex are more sexually
attractive than members of the opposite sex (NB: I'm not saying
homosexuality is a religion - not all beliefs are part of a religion).
That belief could change (by meeting an individual of the opposite sex
that you find particularly attractive, perhaps), but you can't change
it by concious choice.