Quote:
Originally posted by Maritime Q-Scout@Jan 4 2005, 09:30 AM
I like how you put on TRUTH, what I was getting at with Religion (capitalized, singular) as opposed to religions (lowercase plural)
actually by the sounds of it we believe the same thing, but are articulating in different fashions, using different rhetoric to express ourselves
... sound framiliar?
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When I took philosophy, I was told that 'philosophy is the search for truth'. The prof asked if everyone was a philosopher, (and I had enough guts to answer) 'yes, I think that everyone, if they have good arguments, is a philosopher, because everyone has their own philosophies.'
Well the reason I remember that to this day is because the prof them proceed to to me and the class why I was wrong. Really drug me through the mud. Basically what it came down to (in his mind maybe, but he knew more than philosophy than me, so I know whem I'm beat) is that very few people are philosophers and that philosophy is the search for truth.
I believe the same with religion. Just because a religion believes something, teaches it or preaches it doesn't make it right, no matter how appealing, nice, loving etc. Religion, like philosophy, is the search for answers.
Religion seeks to answer the fundamental human questions. 'Who am I? How did I get here? Why am I here?' But just because it attempts to answer these questions doesn't give it validity per se.
To put it a better way is, Religion can be the search for truth, but there doesn't necessarily have to be any truth in religion.
To confuse the meanings of these words, is to simplify things I think. And worse, it gives credit to some whacked out, even evil ideas. I totally know what you are saying. Religion is the closeness to the answers, the the ultimate truth. But it doesn't mean that religion and truth are interchangeable as words. They both have their purposes.
The problem with religion is some people TAKE it as truth. And that's were we, or churches, or communities, or nations, get into p*ssing matches. My god is bigger than your god. We are right. We are going to heaven, even as we kill our people, we'll be martyred. (And this isn't a dig against Islam, Christianity has probably done it more over the ages anyway).
In that example you can see how putting truth and religion in the same sentance would not only be wrong and illogical, but hurtful and dangerous.
And I know what you mean about 'humans screwing it up' or 'screwing up the message' but that's all we have. And in truth, religion is
how we interact with god and our world. WE. How WE interact. You can never take humanity out of the equation. So to say we screw it up is a bit of a non issue, because without people, there is no religion.