[Rodney Marsh]

I understand Don what you mean by ‘a negative meaning – a kind of religious catechism’ since often, in Christianity at least, the ‘physical’ (bad) is opposed to the ‘spiritual’ (good). However, in the New Testamant this opposition between the material and the spiritual does not hold up. A better interpretation is that the material creation is spiritual hence the Jewish Christian belief in the resurrection of the body and the early condemnation of gnosticism which affirmed an evil/corrupted creation from which true believers could be spiritually rescued from the material. It is the case that ‘believe in Jesus and you’ll be rescued from Earth’s suffering and go to a blissful heaven’ (the slave religion of the US) is a modern version of this gnostic heresy. The Bible reather teaches a reconciliation between God & humankind, the physical and spiritual and a restoration of heaven on earth. This tendency for a LH escapist approach to religion/science/politics anything is not restricted to Christianity but seems to be a human phenomena to live in ‘unreality’ rather than find meaning in experience.