All those of a religious mind put your religious belief in a little box and step into a world without a god, any god or anything divine. Not for ever but just for a moment. just long enough to look at religion from the outside. Turn round in this new world and watch the religions bounce off one another each 100% sure they have the single irrefutable TRUTH.
As you circle round this seething bubbling mass of dogmatic idealisms peppered with the red hot anger and fear of fundamentalism you notice something else. It seems that while there are many distinct groups with many sub groups within them, each and every tiny group is denying the validity and fundamental truth of all the others. Even the ones closest to them in the theological huddle.
It’s as if cereal manufacturers started claiming their product is the only ‘real’ cereal and that all the other manufacturers are lying to you because what they offer isn’t really cereal. Anyone, with even a half once of sense will laugh and then dismiss the claims as absurd. Cereal is cereal it doesn’t matter what claims you make for one box it won’t stop the other boxes also being valid as cereal will it? It’s the same for religions. From outside of religion it’s plain to see that religions tend to put their beliefs in to little boxes and market them as ‘The One True Religion’ denying the validity and truth of all the others. As with the cereal analogy, just because a religion claims the others to be false and flat out wrong, this doesn’t actually mean they are. It doesn’t invalidate them as religions or their claim on ‘the truth’.
So if simply claiming you have the one un changing fundamental truth,
simply because your doctrine says you do, doesn’t in any real sense invalidate another religion’s claim to the same,(no matter how much one claims the other to be false) then all religions have to bee seen as equally valid or equally false. In the end which one you take off the shelf has more to do with how it suits your tastes rather than an accurate claim to be the one true religion.
--Edit-- edited in responce to Admin Moderation --
This message has been edited by ohnhai, 01-13-2005 08:35 AM
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