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Pastimes : History's effect on Religion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zonder who wrote (96)	5/8/2003 12:04:06 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 520

He lists a whole set of things ranging from virtues of having self control to being reminded we are suppose to be compassionate. You can read all about it in about.com (put his name in or search for kosher there). Needless to say I think this type of talk is more a matter of justification than anything else. Any religion has 3 components: (1) core spiritual beliefs and perspective on the world (2) religious edicts in response to specific issue of the time (3) traditions and cultures of its origin. I have no idea if Jesus was reborn today he would walk into Wall Street and kick some bankers computers and records. Nor am I sure if Moses would not have used an electric shaver. Or would Mohammed have stuck with a lunar calendar. This is the trouble with literal and/or rigid belief religion (which you said is not suppose to change). It is too hard to discern the real issues from the words. Here is an example I sometimes use: Suppose we were to somehow teleport a nomadic aborigine to New York city. We take him to the Grand Central Station at rush hour and tell him it is the central transport hub and is the greatest station in the world. Then we teleport him back to his people and let retell the story. As honest as he may be and as hard as he may try, he won't be able to explain everything correctly to his people. This is not just because he may have no frame of reference to describe a train station or rush hour. But even simple statements like "the greatest station" (or the biggest) cannot be transmitted properly. The future generations may wonder in what way was the station the greatest? Did it cover the most land? Did it have the greatest height? Was it the number people who went through it the greatest? Was it the number of trains passing through the most? Or was it the number of destinations that was most diverse? Perhaps it was greatest because of the number of train departures per hour? Or may be it was its function within the society that made it so great? So this simple statement about the station, even if "greatest" was to be reduced to "largest" would still leave much unanswered. In years to come, the theologians of the sacred text of the trip into sky would debate and draw conclusions from this simple statement according to their understanding of it. But their understanding would be colored by the conditions of their era and the critical needs of their people at the time. A stable society would see little need to change the doctrines. But one that is faced with great distress would look into the book for insight as to what the solution would be. Thus the religion would change from what it was to what will answer the needs of the time in a manner most compatible with the past traditions and cultures (which may or may not be radically different from the original interpretations). ST