Reply #31: Hi, supernova.

[saltpoint]

Few Creators in relgious constructs come free of theological authoritarianism.

In other words, it's their universe and they'll run it as they please.

In most of these traditions, books appear, often attributed to the voice of that same Creator, and become the 'holy texts' of that tradition, and their implementation is one of naked control. Some read The Bible, for example, as history, some as poetry. Others read it as the authoritarian Word, the Rule from on-high.

By definition, the authority of that Creator as "revealed" in those texts is used to control, to bully, to supplant, to pressure, and to strip indigenous peoples for example of their dignity and natural resources. It was used to affirm slavery. It is used to slander lesbians and gays. It is authoritarian.

That's the authoritarianism I'm talking about and it is legion among many religious traditions. Not all, but many.