Clariff
To be succinct & precise & honest:
All three of the Abrahamic Religions proclaim that murdering those who don't follow the "Revealed Word Of God" as they understand it IS Holy and Encouraged.
As has been made abundantly clear, the VAST majority of Jews, Christians and Muslims don't personally subscribe to Murder as a Moral Solution to their problems.
But they accept their religions as "The Revealed Word of God."
How can one do both?
I know that many people don't believe everything in their particular religious texts is True and Accurate. I know that many people so and yet claim these proscriptions to murder for obvious culturally motivated reasons of morality are valid.
Why believe any of it then?
Religion is Allegory. Religion is Metaphor. Religion is only as Efficacious and Moral as the Science & Reason behind it.
Love yourself. Love your neighbor(s All of Them.)
Use you Reason, Intelligence, Compassion, Honesty and oh yah, Love & Reason!
All three of the Abrahamic Religions proclaim that murdering those who don't follow the "Revealed Word Of God" as they understand it IS Holy and Encouraged.
As has been made abundantly clear, the VAST majority of Jews, Christians and Muslims don't personally subscribe to Murder as a Moral Solution to their problems.
But they accept their religions as "The Revealed Word of God."
How can one do both?
I know that many people don't believe everything in their particular religious texts is True and Accurate. I know that many people so and yet claim these proscriptions to murder for obvious culturally motivated reasons of morality are valid.
Why believe any of it then?
Religion is Allegory. Religion is Metaphor. Religion is only as Efficacious and Moral as the Science & Reason behind it.
Love yourself. Love your neighbor(s All of Them.)
Use you Reason, Intelligence, Compassion, Honesty and oh yah, Love & Reason!
Yea, that's another thing about religious arrogance I dislike. Practicers (that's a word, right?) of each Abrahamic faith are arrogant enough to not only think they are the recipients of god's true message, but also that they can pick and choose what part of the message to follow.
ReplyDeleteMost that I've met would not say they pick and choose, but it's all in the "interpretation".
ReplyDeleteA good way to point out the fact that they DO in fact pick and choose what to believe:
Ask Christians if they believe in all the silly laws in Leviticus. If they say "no", ask if they are, what, 75% Xian? 80% Xian?
It is a fine line between pointing out that you view things differently and complete intolerance. You do a good job with it, much better than me.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tonya. I work hard at it cuz I've often pissed off and offended people for whom I have a lot of respect outside of their willingness to accept the most insanely harmful of concepts just because they're part of a religious system.
ReplyDeleteReligion and superstitions in general are ancient and dying abstactions that have helped homo learn how to live in a complex and terrifying world for tens of thousands of years. There are necessarily some awesome & efficacious sociological concepts involved in most of them. Unlike Believers (and apologists) I simply can't accept the whole of these abstractions unconditionally when so many of their components are faulty, duplicitous or outright genocidal.
"An eye for an eye" makes sense on a Physical plane. But it sure does prevent compromise and greater understanding and equanimity.