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The misunderstood and overlooked philosophy of Thoreau, Abbey, and Paine

Posted on: December 25, 2009 - 11:53pm

dingusdangus

Posts: 121

Joined: 2009-12-10

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The misunderstood and overlooked philosophy of Thoreau, Abbey, and Paine

I was just wondering if anyone here has read Walden, Civil Disobedience, The Monkeywrench Gang, Down The River, or Common Sense. And what are your views in relation to them. They were all atheists, and their work had a common theme.

Posted on: December 26, 2009 - 8:25am #1

Ken G.

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Joined: 2008-03-20

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dingusdangus wrote:overlooked philosophy of Thoreau,Abbey,Paine

Well I've read Thoreau"s - "A week on the Concord and Merrimack rivers", and " I'm a fan of Howard Zinn (The People History of the United States) so reading "Civil Disobedience " is a must read book.I haven't ever read a book by Abbey,nor have I ever heard of him/her,but on the other hand Thomas Paine was the MAN,I've read " Common Sense " and "Age of Reason".I once heard a story of Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson was asked " Mr.Jefferson you have the largest library in America,tell me what book influenced you the most,and he replied "well,first off it was a 47 page pamphlet named " Common Sense " and I hope that all Americana's read it .

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Posted on: December 31, 2009 - 3:53am #2

msTake

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I read Walden - years ago.

I read Walden - years ago. I don't remember an atheist theme, but very much a naturalist one. A strong theme of anti-materialism (not sure if that's a word).

Funny thing, Walden's Pond has been the real life subject of a lawsuit over how it should be preserved. Don Henley, of all people, was involved in some plans to improve it's tourist potential, and a number of Thoreau fans were adamant it be left alone.

Posted on: January 1, 2010 - 8:56pm #3

dingusdangus

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Joined: 2009-12-10

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msTake wrote: I read Walden

msTake wrote:

I read Walden - years ago. I don't remember an atheist theme, but very much a naturalist one. A strong theme of anti-materialism (not sure if that's a word).
Funny thing, Walden's Pond has been the real life subject of a lawsuit over how it should be preserved. Don Henley, of all people, was involved in some plans to improve it's tourist potential, and a number of Thoreau fans were adamant it be left alone.

Don Henley has been involved in a lot of nature projects here in TX and also Louisiana. he is almost single handedly responsible for getting a dam project on the red river between TX and LA shelved.

I have been to Walden Pond many times, I used to live in Boston, but this is the first I have heard of Henley's involvement.

Walden was all about conscience, and conscientiousness, and thus raising your level of consciousness. He had to beat around the bushes a lot about atheism. there was good reason for it. but it is definitely there.