I don't know of any religion where the group that makes church law is dramatically smaller, relative to the membership, than the Congress is to the population of the nation.
Catholicism leaps to mind, for starters. There's one Pope and well over 260M claimed adherents... treble that number?
Oh, sorry, the Vatican takes advice from the council of cardinals... *appointed* by the Pope. JPII has appointed around 2/3 of the current cardinals, who get to, er, 'elect' the next Pope. Much scope for question there. Just ask any US RC who wants to divorce. Meanwhile, Papal Infallibility continues.
Think about it... the Catholic Church has just decided that maybe the Earth does revolve around the Sun, after all, so Galileo wasn't a blasphemous heretic. Hmmm.
Hasidic Jews show few signs of change, either.
How many Moonies can change the decisions of 'Rev' Sun Yung Moon?
Religious law is created by a few individuals that claim to be inspired by God.
Religious law DOES change.
And, once again, you wilfully misinterpret. The faith of the Christian church was not changed by the Council of Nicaea (for example), only the interpretation... the Bible stayed as law, as Holy Writ. Those who disagreed with the interpretation were excommunicated as heretics - a sin punishable by rather unpleasant death.
And again, the same bizarre relativism...
All of us ultimately goes back to some basic principles we accept on faith, or belief, or whatever you call it, but cannot prove, cannot justify logically, that we just accept as the axioms of our belief.
OK, let's take a generic religious 'you'.
I 'believe' that stars are accumulations of gaseous hydrogen, with various other fusion by-products, within which the strong nuclear force counteracts gravitational collapse.
You 'believe' that stars are little lights on the sphere of heaven representing God's love for us all. Or maybe undescended angels.
I 'believe' that pregnancy comes about after sex, where a sperm penetrates the membrane of an unfertilised ovum and mitochondrial DNA is exchanged. (with occasional mutations, and if there's no impregnation it's an XX chromosome).
You 'believe' that God's holy will makes a virgin give birth.
I 'believe' that death occurs when the heart stops beating, circulation stops and neural activity ceases.
You 'believe' that, er, something else still keeps on living afterwards... whatever you mean by a 'soul', anyhow... and that this has an 'afterlife' in 'heaven'. Whatever that is. But no one alive can tell.
I 'believe' that the fossil record we can dig up from the rocks around us shows different species from different pre-historical epochs.
You 'believe' that... well, I don't even try and guess what in this case.
Faith vs. Science? Can you see a difference yet? |
