Bloody Shovel 4

I was typing this as an answer to Jim's comment, but I might as well make it a post and be done with it. I don't really have much time to spend hours reading on religion in ancient Japan, interesting as it is. So I'll just start typing and see what comes out of it.

The gist of the issue is that Shinto was usual local animism, and the introduction of Buddhism with their holy ascetic monks and sutras and shit basically killed Shinto and replaced it for all purposes. Shinto animism was just your typ...

Back when Pope John Paul II died, I let myself be bothered by all the media coverage. I heard that the new pope, Joseph Ratzinger, was known as a conservative figure, and went on to read one of his books, written before getting the big job. I don't remember the exact quote, but he said in some place that the modern liberal assault on Christianity will continue, and the Church will continue losing numbers. But a small core of believers will remain, and after liberalism collapses, he foresees that...

I've been watching these days Kenneth Clark's Civilisation series, BBC (1969). Its basically a history of western civilisation taught through the history of art, him being a curator. Although Clark also makes the occasional comment on culture, from his aesthetically traditionalist angle. Its normally just a short remark on how 1960s hippies are tasteless, or how the Reformation was little less than mass peasant histeria. But in the end of the 8th chapter, The Light of Experience,  which is abo...