[QUOTE=Nietzsche;58513]I know this. I have said several times that I respect all other cultures equally have consider them to contain all facets of the truth.
I have also said that I make an exception with Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Why? Because these religion’s humanistic values (values that are inherent in all religions) are ALWAYS at a conflict with the organized religion itself. The influence of this dogma is so strong that even those who attempt to mellow it down still end up retaining vestiges of that bias.
The result is a beastly mess. You have Christian running around denouncing “false” religions while saying that they are simply bringing pagans out of the bestial and diabolical life they lead out of “love.” You have Christian “liberals” unconditionally denouncing homosexuality, gay rights, and abortion or asserting, in direct and indirect ways, their religious and cultural supremacy. There are even some Christians of the latter type on this forum, such as Thomas, Pandara, and Pawel (I believe that is his name).
In fact, the more one tries to break out of these Abrahamic dogmas, the more the haunting fears of “What IF there is a Hell?”, “What IF these religions are the correct ones?”, and “What if I have it all wrong?” plague you. Why?
Because Christians, Muslims, and Jews are required by their religion to believe in the infallible word of their scriptures. How many times have we seen Christians or Muslims citing the Bible and Quran respectively as if all the world’s knowledge was contained in their scriptures? “You religions are false because [insert Bible verse].” “Homosexuality is wrong because [insert Bible verse].” “All other religions are false [insert Quran and/or Bible verse].” These people have done a fabulous job of creating a net of logical fallacies and contradictions that even a questioning Christian/Muslim/Jew doubts himself in every step of the way.
Even worse is the supposed basis in history that these religion claim to have, especially with Jesus and Mohammed, resulting in a view that enforces the prejudice of THEIR religions because the correct/rights ones. Even more worse is that these religions are MONOTHEISTIC and, as per their scriptures, are SUPPOSED to be intolerant of other gods/ways. Altogether, these concepts are a HUGE deterrent to the “realization” you speak of Scales.
Even when Christians, Muslims, and Jews will have gained enough brain mass to comprehend the illogic of their self-assured prerogatives of having a monopoly on Truth and do away with these limiting credos, all they will have left are redundant humanistic ideals, nothing that sets them apart from any other religion, nothing that adds to our knowledge of the world.
Is this a bad thing? Not really; if that’s what rocks their boat, then it will be for the best, not only for them but for the rest of the world.
But ultimately, there is nothing special about any of these religions, even when all their illogical and immoral tenets are discarded.[/QUOTE]
Fred - you would put a smile on my face if you refered to me as an object and not a person. I didn’t explain that well. Let me show you using an example.
Like this
“Altogether, these concepts are a HUGE deterrent to the “realization” of which speaks The Scales.”
Ok that was crappy. But you get the point.
Anyway I liked your rant - and that is the truth. Your not wrong but your not all right either.
Honestly. I don’t know what to do other than to undermine thier logic nicely, encourage meditation, discuss the underlying unity of the systems, and wait for Jesus to come back and fix this mess. In the meantime I think we should just love each other. Which is what it says in their silly black book.
