Re: [DotGNU]Re: DotGNU Manifesto - first draft

[Barry Fitzgerald]

Norbert Bollow wrote:

> freedom ethics has been laid by god-fearing people of the past,


Heh - I think you mean, God Fairing as opposed to God Fearing.. which
has entirely different implications. :)  Interesting Freudian slip
though considering that God Fearing could also be true in many
circumstances, historically speaking.

Given this, I think that Richard makes a great point in trying to not
get too religious in the text.  But, I'm an agnostic and admittedly
biased.  However, having said that I don't think that the reference to
God is incorrect in this text since it is in the context of a quote from
Curran himself.  

In the end, though, I don't think that the issue is really one of
religion, it's one of being inclusive.  I, personally, believe that
members of this community take their beliefs with them when they join
and that's a very good thing.  And that's fine and it's what I
personally want.  People identify with groups and expect groups to
identify with them.  Therefore we should probably avoid religious
reference in core documents.  However, in the context of a quote I don't
see how it can be invalid, as long as the quote is appropriate to the
text, and I feel that this particular quote is.  Perhaps a good solution
would be to quote both Jefferson and Curran and indicate that the quote
is there for historical clarity?

        -Barry