Karl Rahner, the catholic theologian behind Vatican II, said "the real argument against Christianity is the experience of life, this experience of darkness.
if you teach that the world is one of darkness to begin with , then coupled with the catastrophes , nightmares and troubles it already seemingly contains ...it would tend to seem even more overwhelming than it should be . Then the problem of of having hope becomes the sole reliance on hope itself...which has been used more often as a vehicle only to keep the faithful, faithful .
There are religions that do not teach this view of the world as one full of sin and darkness , but do teach the opposite. And Christianity never came close to supplanting them on their own ground.
There are much older religions that do teach , that Life is a Great Experience, and the soul/self like everything else , is evolving and unfolding. If you start from the knowledge that "Thou Art God " ...then everything else becomes clearer.
But to the religions of Abraham ,which teach the separation from this experience , and relagated only to the after life , it has been considered a blaspheme , though it is exactly what Jesus taught and experienced himself..out alone in the deserts , just as Mohammed did, by themselves , within themselves.
"I and the Father are One...thy will be done in heaven
as it is on earth ....drink from my lips and you shall be as me "
etc "
What is taught as Blaspheme is not blaspheme at all...but it rendered some sufis to get tortured and crucified in Islam to believe in their own experience of God. The idea that you and God can be One , is considered blasphemous and a cardinal sin. |
