Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Why are the Quran, Bible, Talmud, Vedas and other spiritual tomes filtered through a imam, preacher, priest, rabbi, lama, brahman?
Its passed through another vessel/sieve. Why write a book and not allow everyone to ready it for themselves? or why have a book and expect someone to experience it from a third person vs first person? can biases be transferred? projected?"Filtered through?"
What makes you think there is a "filter?"
the mind of another's experiences in space/time. Shouldn't the message be universal and timeless; if it has relevance then vs now? or now vs 5000 yrs from now? how does the follower/student grasp; what is possible within self?What is being "filtered through?"
it can be divested of data/information, or polluted with bias. Everyone doesn't process external information in the same way.What happens when something is "filtered?"
Because we need to hear it in human language. And if it comes mystically, people will call it imagination.Why are the Quran, Bible, Talmud, Vedas and other spiritual tomes filtered through a imam, preacher, priest, rabbi, lama, brahman?
Its passed through another vessel/sieve. Why write a book and not allow everyone to ready it for themselves?
the mind of another's experiences in space/time. Shouldn't the message be universal and timeless; if it has relevance then vs now? or now vs 5000 yrs from now?
it can be divested of data/information, or polluted with bias. Everyone doesn't process external information in the same way.
How else is the information supposed to be communicated? Religious traditions are passed down in basically one of two ways. There are oral traditions, which were more common in historical Paganisms as many were pre-literate cultures. And there are written traditions, which are often a focus of today since we live in a mostly literate culture. Regardless of which you do, there has to be some way of conferring information from person to person. It's going to be mostly talking/speaking or writing. Gestures and body language can be an important aspect too, as can the visual arts or symbols. That's just how we communicate with each other. I'm not seeing what alternatives there are to this.
I don't see how it is at all possible to communicate another person's experiences without something changing in the telling of the story. Besides, part of the art and responsibility of a good storyteller is to tell the story in a way that resonates best with the audience. If you tell the story the same way every time, you won't reach certain people who come from different backgrounds. The meaning won't get through to them if, say, it has cultural references they don't understand or various "inside jokes" so to speak. If you want a message to be somehow universal and timeless (something I rather doubt is even possible, but let's run with it), it is the storyteller's job to make that happen.
Why do you call bias a "pollution?" Near as I can figure, there is no such thing as a lack of bias. Bias emerges from diversity, and were we to remove diversity, you and I would not be having this conversation. Bias happens from me being me and necessarily experiencing something from a different point of view than some other human, or the wind, or the trees. Why would we call that bad? Or maybe you are talking about a different kind of "bias?" As in "this particular teaching I happen to disagree with?"
unfortunately that is true in both directions. people in authority hold a huge sway over the less informed and abdicate the soundness of mind to those despots.Most people are influenced far more by other people than they are by mere words in a book.
Why are the Quran, Bible, Talmud, Vedas and other spiritual tomes filtered through a imam, preacher, priest, rabbi, lama, brahman?
In Judaism, the bible isn't filtered. When the Tanakh is read in synagogue, everyone has a copy of it in their laps and we follow along as it is read by a reader. If a reader makes an error in their reading, everyone is quick to point out the error and make the reader do it right. We ain't got no filters in synagogue!
Because before the arrival of a modern state with its vast resources, most people could not read or write, requiring people who were literate to read the texts to others? That such specializations create the possibility and reality of abuse, but please explain how exactly a pre-modern society is going to do religion, philosophy, medicine or science any other way?Why are the Quran, Bible, Talmud, Vedas and other spiritual tomes filtered through a imam, preacher, priest, rabbi, lama, brahman?
No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
if the teacher is proficient in his subject, she can immediately correct the students error. Without the teacher, then the subject is open to subjective interpretation.@Fool
I can't say I agree that oral traditions are preferable, particularly not for the reasons you gave. Different instructional strategies each have strengths and weaknesses. If anything, it makes the most sense to use multiple instructional methods and explore things from many different angles. This would include studying a subject on one's own, as well as receiving instruction from people who have walked that path before and know more about it than you do. Self-study will only take you so far. Just as going to lectures will only take you so far. A devotee of the Spirit of Learning does both, and then some.
Why are the Quran, Bible, Talmud, Vedas and other spiritual tomes filtered through a imam, preacher, priest, rabbi, lama, brahman?
Why are the Quran, Bible, Talmud, Vedas and other spiritual tomes filtered through a imam, preacher, priest, rabbi, lama, brahman?