Runt
Well-Known Member
Alaric, saying that every religion does not hold some glimmer of Truth (whether scientific or archetypal) is like saying that each person, no matter how bad, does not have something "good" about them. Even a serial killer may have something "good" about them--perhaps the ability to create new life with their body or the ability to love, for example--and to say that they have nothing viable or respectable in their "nature" is bull.
The point? Most religions are probably pretty much blatantly "false" (they can't all be completely true at the same time, so they must all be almost completely false, only touching on universal or scientific Truth here and there) and many have "negative" things associated with them, i.e. cruel gods, cruel treatment of people of other beliefs, times when they promote activities that are ridiculous, downright dangrous, or harmful, moral systems that are harmful to society, etc. Yet, just like people, there is something "good" about each one.
Now imagine some highly unlikely future where humanity has evolved socially and morally (and perhaps physically and mentally as well) and formed a global society. If religion still exists at this time (and I suspect that it would, not as religion but as a recognition of a symbolic, archetypal reality), most of the "bad" things about world religions would probably have already been thrown out the window, leaving only the universal truths (metaphorical scientific truths and symbolic archetypal truths). Such a global society could easily take all this "good stuff" and use it as some "world philosophy"... but by then they probably wouldn't even need to, because by then individual humans would probably be able to recognize valid "Truths" when they saw them. Meaning, religion would be eliminated, but the Truths revealed by religion (or hidden within it, for that matter) would exist and hold validity without it.
The point? Most religions are probably pretty much blatantly "false" (they can't all be completely true at the same time, so they must all be almost completely false, only touching on universal or scientific Truth here and there) and many have "negative" things associated with them, i.e. cruel gods, cruel treatment of people of other beliefs, times when they promote activities that are ridiculous, downright dangrous, or harmful, moral systems that are harmful to society, etc. Yet, just like people, there is something "good" about each one.
Now imagine some highly unlikely future where humanity has evolved socially and morally (and perhaps physically and mentally as well) and formed a global society. If religion still exists at this time (and I suspect that it would, not as religion but as a recognition of a symbolic, archetypal reality), most of the "bad" things about world religions would probably have already been thrown out the window, leaving only the universal truths (metaphorical scientific truths and symbolic archetypal truths). Such a global society could easily take all this "good stuff" and use it as some "world philosophy"... but by then they probably wouldn't even need to, because by then individual humans would probably be able to recognize valid "Truths" when they saw them. Meaning, religion would be eliminated, but the Truths revealed by religion (or hidden within it, for that matter) would exist and hold validity without it.