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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Religion Versus Believers

Ed and I had a nice exchange going on this article yesterday, so I am bumping it up to today -

My thoughts on this topic remains the same as it has been for years and years.

I believe all major religious traditions are just fine. The teachings are deep and filled with purposeful symbolism which points to the ineffable. I also believe that only a few followers of these traditions get to the highest levels of understanding. Problems seem to creep in when neurotic confusions mix with the deep true teachings and produce a monster that knows better, is the one true religion, allows for brutality of non believers, and on and on with all of the endless butcherings that people of "faith" have wielded on the "other" people, or savages, or non believers, throughout humanities brief existence.

CS Monitor: In US, atheists know religion better than believers. Is that bad?
The US Religious Knowledge Survey, released Tuesday from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, found atheists and agnostics know more basic facts about the Bible than either Protestants or Catholics.


...that meaningful dialogue between Christians and Muslims will prove elusive, despite good intentions, unless people come to master the basics of their own faith traditions – and become at least familiar with the other’s.

14 comments:

Ed said...

Got 29 out of 32 correct. And I'm a free and logical thinking non-cult member.

Jim Sande said...

Kudos.

Religions are not cults. Confused people create cults. They cherry pick incomplete parts of religion and then mix it with their own arrogance. Those are the ingredients of cults.

Ed said...

Hi Jim, You caught my irony! A religion is simply a cult that went mainstream.

I'm stretching the usual use of the word, that's ok, seems to me.

Frinstance that cult where the main symbol is a guy nailed to a wooden cross... human sacrifice, ritual cannibalism... never mind :)

Jim Sande said...

Nailed to a cross seems like the perfect metaphor for how we are trapped in what the Buddhists would call samsara, the encompassing suffering of existence - birth, toil, illness, death, irritation, frustration, violence etc etc. Its more meaningful to me now even though I am not a Christian but was raised as one.

Ed said...

Off the subject, but ok.

Jim Sande said...

Not at all, you were the one to link the cross to cannibalism, I'm linking it to a different possibility.

Ed said...

I thought we were talking about the use of the word "cult."

Jim Sande said...

Sure, but your cross comparison was a more compelling idea for me.

Always happy to go off on a tangent.

Ed said...

ok, well, if you want to link stuff up, the ritual cannibalism would go with the taking of communion.

The cross goes more with the human sacrifice.

Not judging! Just curious, interested. I love this stuff.

Jim Sande said...

Yes, but the communion is symbolic. Its not actual flesh and blood. When you have to imagine or visualize that it is "real" it requires faith, varying from no faith to ultimate faith. Plus the communion is not something ordinary. It is supposed to be the body and blood of Jesus, the spiritual goal. So the communion is otherworldly, its supposed to be transcendent.

Ed said...

Agreed.

I'm fascinated when you can lift the veil a bit and see vestiges of human sacrifice and cannibalism in contemporary beliefs.

Glynn Kalara said...

The whole body and blood thing doesn't come directly from Judaism. I believe it entered Christianity from the different Greco-Roman rituals present in the 1st century AD. Christianity as we know is a mix of various Ancient faiths present in that region of the world at that time. Mithra ism, The Greco-Roman religions and Judaism and a few others like Zoroastrianism. Later on the European Pagan faiths also started to impact the faith. Today it's a mish mash of all these faiths, a hybrid as are most faiths if they survive very long. What makes Islam unique is it's all based on ONE man's dreams and the book he compiled "the Koran." Even Islam though wasn't able to retain it's Unitary nature very long and today is split in a dozen various sects and groups. The one giving us such headaches is a particular tribal faith called Wahabism which is a early 19th century formulation by some Yemeni desert tribes. It's extremely austere as was the early Islam of the Prophet, but it's tainted by it's extremely regressive social mores that are NOT part of Islam. The fanatical nature of this sect some believe will eventually lead to some kind of World conflict given the amount of $$ and power they have and the aggressive nature of it's adherents. The same can be said though for the more fanatical fundamentalist sects of Christianity and these sects are armed to the teeth and ready for War as well. The blood and body they believe in is the blood of their enemies on the their dead bodies. They've turned Christian faith on it's head as did the Crusaders.

Ed said...

Thanks for the great post Glenn.

The religions of today (except Islam, as you point out) are amalgams that come from a scramble of diverse sources, but ultimately they come from the mists of prehistory. That's what fascinates me.

Very odd that people today take them so seriously... random tales really. Tall tales.

Glynn Kalara said...

Thanks, Ed, I try. Very interesting conversation. Religion might be part tall tales I agree but it had a very serious purpose back then and even today for many. It allows many people to face the mystery of why they're even alive. I'm a believer myself for many reasons but, I know full well the dark side of religion and how it's effected our society and still is. I prefer the high side of it though and realize all human created ideas are flawed.