Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheese
I personally find it a sad thing that religions use lies to control the minds of so many as opposed to the facts that are right in front of their face.
Again...unless religions can provide real facts about things like the Ark, a 6000 year old earth, flying horses, talking snakes, making man from dirt, etc etc etc, when we know for a fact that what they say is impossible and a lie, then quite frankly they choose to foist ridicule on themselves. Science and History are there for us to learn from...fantasy is for story telling alone...like Aesops fables or Dr Seuss.
Pre modern religion was used to try and describe the world and what was happening to uneducated farmers and goat herders. It was and still is used as a control mechanism. Goat herders couldnt debate what they didnt know...they believed what their religious icons told them.
Modern culture is losing its religion because we are more educated...we can see with our own eyes the lies before us.
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But is it a lie? Once again, I can't really answer this question as I'm a political scientist, not a Biblical scholar, but this lack of understanding is the result of the complete rejection of myth in the Western World.
The myths of Genesis, like the Flood and Creation, were meant to give a much deeper meaning about humanity, our nature, and our relationship to the universe. This is evidenced in the vast amount of commentary produced in the Talmud. Is it changing the original intent of the documents? Perhaps. However the ancients viewed this flexibility as evidence of God's presence in the writings, as the lessons learned were flexible enough to adapt to changing environments.
We have forgotten the incredible meaning of myth upon people's lives. A real question here... are we losing our religion? The world seems more religious than ever.