what is more absurd private property ownership or ownership of religious doctrine?

Question

how is it that a person who is born cold own and control a piece of this living earth where our species roams?

And do churches own & control copyrights to bibles and other holy books and artifacts or are they public property?

Answer 1

Ownership of anything is a ticklish issue. But the issue isn't really about the ownership itself... it's about control.

Let's try a thought experiment: what if everyone unilaterally agreed that you owned everything, but controlled nothing. Would the ownership matter? Because you can't control anything, you can't possibly profit from your ownership, nor can you reasonably be punished. Without control, ownership becomes completely irrelevant.

So if we re-phrase your question in terms of control, I think we'll find it's not ridiculous at all. People can and do control patches of earth. Some do it well and others quite irresponsibly, I'm sorry to say. Likewise with ideas, particularly religious ones. People are both inventive and imperfect, so an idea shared is almost undoubtedly an idea warped, changed, and (rarely) bettered.

Obviously, without ridiculous amounts of force you can't stop people from affecting your land in one way or another. The Earth and just about everything on it are deeply interconnected. Poison dumped on one side of the Earth will probably reach the other sooner or later. The same holds for ideas.

So I agree with part of what you seem to be implying - it IS absurd when people think they can keep TOTAL control over anything. The only time this could even vaugely happen is when nobody else cared about your 'property' in the slightest. And I wouldn't bet on it even then!

Answer 2

I think http://www.property-records-online.com/property-ownership-records.php can answer you best. :D

Answer 3

I see nothing absurd about the first and can't understand how you could own the second. You might want to clarify your concept a bit.

Answer 4

consciousness level tends to govern the belief systems of a "culture". in one such as ours, where owning people is felt to be more or less acceptable, why not your examples, as well. in any clueless, hyper materialistic milieu, everything based on greed, psychopathy, and megalomania is allowed, is it not? ;-)