Ends, Means, Authority And Experience

"The Snows of Ganymede."

Engineer Yamagata argues:

organizations forget their purposes;

means become ends;

Christianity began with the ideal of "'...a universal brotherhood of love.'" (VI, p. 179);

later, it burned those who disputed its authority.

I agree that organizations forget their purposes and that means become ends but not that Christianity began with an ideal. It began with a belief (about God's love) and therefore divided mankind into believers and unbelievers, then into true believers and heretics. Since the belief was based neither on reason nor on experience, it could only be based on authority which requires force.

There are two qualifications to my statement that Christian belief was not based on experience. First, the Apostles were supposed to have been witnesses to the Resurrection and the bishops are the successors of the Apostles. Thus, someone who knew an Apostle had direct access to an eyewitness. Someone who knew an Apostle's assistant who had been appointed as his successor had direct access to someone who had had direct access to an eyewitness. Not the same as being an eyewitness but as close as anyone could get. However, two thousand years later, a newly consecrated bishop has no access to any evidence. S/he can only read the New Testament like anyone else.

Secondly, a completely different tradition of Christianity claims direct acquaintance with Christ through a conversion experience. I can only say that this is a subjective experience and that mine are different.