Dually noted. Debatable, but most likely for another thread.
Does it matter? Some people take a metaphorical interpretation of the Bible, saying that acts like circumcision and animal sacrifice actually mean some other spiritual sacrifice in order to get in touch with God. There are so many...
I would say you're not completely exempt from that bias, just because it's positive doesn't make it the reality of the situation. And, knowing Western scholars myself, many are trying to steer away from that kind of thinking... Check out Edward Said's work on "orientalism."
I realize that the blanket term is not truly descriptive. There are so many niche groups within India that it would be impossible to seriously believe that "Hinduism" is an appropriate term - however, for the sake of simplicity, I mentioned that, so you can save your energy in explaining that -...
Well, as a Gnostic, when you kill, you're forcing the light to stay within the cycle of the prison realm... well according to Manicheanism anyway.
What kind of Gnostic are you? PM me? ;)
I figure if you wanna go that badly, I won't stop ya.
However, would a god be judgemental? Well, depending on the book, yeah, that's true in that particular religious context. I don't know why it's that way, but I'm just going off of what is said in the books.
... and so it wouldn't make sense that Biblical orders for slaughter could be metaphorical as well? I see a cherry picker ;)
In any case, it's odd that you're asking, "Why must this be the case for a belief?" when it's not really the case anymore - and many Indian beliefs also have a shared...
Well are we talking tautologies here? I'm not sure if that would be enough to sustain a good reason for universals... but I'll probably come back to this tomorrow.
1) It is a universal truth that man must breathe to sustain life
Question - If there is a man that does not need breath on some distant galaxy, is the "truth" rendered false, or does the definition of "man" need to change in order to make this a universal truth... or do we just want to say...
Is there such a thing? Bringing it back to philosophy a bit here. And yes, "taxes" is a cheeky and clever answer, but maybe something more meaty could get the ball rolling.
I suppose if you say "everything is relative," you're saying something, but are you saying that the aforementioned...