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Originally Posted by bradleykavin
so, essentially..the bible is a collection of stories from all kinds of people speaking about how god affected their life, and or, how they interpret god/jesus. so essentially, we have the ten commandments, the bible for assistance in interpretation, but most importantly, our own hearts and minds to create/believe what we want? is this true with the torah, or other "bibles" ? and by the way, thank you all so much for helping me out. im actually a part of another forum about dodges, and its funny to see that on that forum guys on their are super competitive about their trucks, and yet here, when we speak of our religion, it seems as though everyone is so respectful of eachother. really cool  |
Some folks don't want to accept the responsibility of dealing with deciding if God exists, or what God is, so they just accept the tenets of whatever religion is available to them as fact and follow these as they are able. But even their having done that little is still their decision, and their responsibility, even though they often imagine that it wasn't. Other people take the issue to heart, and spend years, and even lifetimes trying to decide for themselves if they believe that God exists and what that might mean.
Religions have a tendency to become dictatorial if we're willing to allow them to do so. They will "sell" the idea that their myths and traditions and theological stances are divine and sacrosanct if they think they can get us to "buy" that line of reasoning, because if we buy that line of reasoning they can control us with it. And sadly, there are always plenty of people around who wish and seek to control other people, just as there are always plenty of people who would rather be controlled than have to think and act for themselves. These kinds of people tend to find each other within religious organizations and create little cults of mutual dependancy. I would warn you to watch out for these, unless you have a proclivity to control other people, or to be controlled by them.
Because religions tend to attract this kind of intellectual/emotional dependancy, they also have a tendency to turn their religious theologies into a kind of divine idol, and to especially do so with their "sacred texts". After all, what better way to claim "divine authority" over other people and ideas than to claim that God wrote your holy books, and that every word in them is sacred and unquestionable. I would certainly warn anyone looking into religion for themselves to keep a sharp eye out for this kind of obsession with the idea of divine authority and to avoid anyone who imagines that they can attain it through their religious books, practices, or beliefs.
No one knows any more or any less about "God" than you do right now. They only
think they do. Once you understand that, you can relax, and observe, and contemplate, and accept or reject whatever ideas seem appropriate. There is much that we humans don't know. As long as we remember this, we can keep our eyes and minds open to new information, experiences and ideas. We can continue to adapt and grow. But when we let ourselves start to imagine that we already have all the important answers, we become willfully blind and willfully ignorant. And we become rigid and stagnant. And that's a very unhealthy and unwise way to live one's life, I think.
04-20-2006, 07:09 AM
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