(no subject)
Mar. 5th, 2001 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonwiseBored, bored, bored and feeling stupid. The forecasters were swearing up and down that we'd have a foot of snow on the ground by now, so I stayed home from work so I wouldn't have to drive in it again, and so far there is nothing happening outside. Argh.
There's been a lot of unrest at the MB under my guidance (oh hell, all my friends know this is NR...) and I don't know how I feel about it. The mods are concerned about flames and controversial topics. The most recent unhappy topic concerned religion, which is unsurprising. It seems to be the one thing that just can't be discussed.
I read a quote in a Star Trek novel (of all places!) that says about religion (to paraphrase): "That which is supposed to be the balm of life ends up being the ultimate factor that divides us." How true this is. I'll be frank - I'm not a religious person in the sense that I don't like to go to church and I don't like being told that I'm going to hell if I screw up. I believe that the Bible may indeed contain the Word of God, but that Word of God was filtered through Man, and Man with an agenda at that. Only seven of the Letters of Paul were actually written by Paul; the rest were forged by others who wanted to use his name and his influence to advance their own vision for the Church. In this way, certain early Christians were disenfranchised, especially women (yes, women used to be priests; there is evidence for it!) And I'm supposed to take this propaganda as canon?
Of all the Gospels, John is the oldest and probably the most accurate. It was estimated to have been written 60 years after the death of Christ. The other Gospels -Mark, Matthew, Luke, Thomas, Marian - were written 100-200 years later. There is also clear evidence that one Gospel borrowed from another (unsurprising; they were all oral tradition for a long time.) The early fathers of the Church rather arbitrarily picked four Gospels to be the cornerstones of what would become the Catholic Church - four winds, four elements, four directions, four Gospels. The Gospels they chose were no more or no less the Word of God than the others, yet the Gospel of Thomas lies forgotten by all by Biblical scholars while we read Luke at Christmas. In the Infancy Gospels of Jesus, there are wonderful stories about him performing miracles as a child (there are also darker stoties, but I won't relate them.) Why do they lie forgotten?
The Book of Revelation, loved by evangelists and loonies alike, is really a diatribe against the Roman emperor Nero. It amazes me that it has survived so long.
I guess what bothers me about organized religion sometimes is that a certain people will claim that they have been "chosen" and that all others are wrong in their beliefs. I imagine that all religions have this element, yet it is so limiting! Who knows the nature of God? Is He (and She!) so small that S/He has to be fit into a box and presented in a way that people can understand? I see the Creative Power of the Universe in the incredible way that the planets dance to a set equation, in the way that matter can organize against all the odds.
Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm a slam-bang believer in evolution. Literal creationism claims that the Earth and the rest of the universe is only about 10,000 years old, not a few billion years old as some scientists are beginning to discover. I'm a scientist, and I believe facts and figures.... but this doesn't mean that there wasn't some Higher Power involved! I don't think that a deity snapped his/her fingers and there was the universe, but I do think that perhaps, just maybe, the Higher Power helped to create life by giving the proper evolutionary pathway a nudge in the right direction. How does a protein know how to fold? How did the elaborate process of DNA replication come to be? This is where God is for me - not in the metaphorical Garden of Eden.
It's arrogant to believe that we could ever understand God in our current forms. It's arrogant to believe that one religion is right and the other wrong, though I think that any religion that encourages violence in the name of God is severely misguided. No one people is chosen over another people; no one is better or more righteous than another. This is one of the reasons why I find the fighting in the Middle East to be so sad and so hopeless.
Guess I just had to get that out of my system. The whole NR fracas did stir up some emotion, though as a mod, I can't express it. Hope I didn't offend anyone...
There's been a lot of unrest at the MB under my guidance (oh hell, all my friends know this is NR...) and I don't know how I feel about it. The mods are concerned about flames and controversial topics. The most recent unhappy topic concerned religion, which is unsurprising. It seems to be the one thing that just can't be discussed.
I read a quote in a Star Trek novel (of all places!) that says about religion (to paraphrase): "That which is supposed to be the balm of life ends up being the ultimate factor that divides us." How true this is. I'll be frank - I'm not a religious person in the sense that I don't like to go to church and I don't like being told that I'm going to hell if I screw up. I believe that the Bible may indeed contain the Word of God, but that Word of God was filtered through Man, and Man with an agenda at that. Only seven of the Letters of Paul were actually written by Paul; the rest were forged by others who wanted to use his name and his influence to advance their own vision for the Church. In this way, certain early Christians were disenfranchised, especially women (yes, women used to be priests; there is evidence for it!) And I'm supposed to take this propaganda as canon?
Of all the Gospels, John is the oldest and probably the most accurate. It was estimated to have been written 60 years after the death of Christ. The other Gospels -Mark, Matthew, Luke, Thomas, Marian - were written 100-200 years later. There is also clear evidence that one Gospel borrowed from another (unsurprising; they were all oral tradition for a long time.) The early fathers of the Church rather arbitrarily picked four Gospels to be the cornerstones of what would become the Catholic Church - four winds, four elements, four directions, four Gospels. The Gospels they chose were no more or no less the Word of God than the others, yet the Gospel of Thomas lies forgotten by all by Biblical scholars while we read Luke at Christmas. In the Infancy Gospels of Jesus, there are wonderful stories about him performing miracles as a child (there are also darker stoties, but I won't relate them.) Why do they lie forgotten?
The Book of Revelation, loved by evangelists and loonies alike, is really a diatribe against the Roman emperor Nero. It amazes me that it has survived so long.
I guess what bothers me about organized religion sometimes is that a certain people will claim that they have been "chosen" and that all others are wrong in their beliefs. I imagine that all religions have this element, yet it is so limiting! Who knows the nature of God? Is He (and She!) so small that S/He has to be fit into a box and presented in a way that people can understand? I see the Creative Power of the Universe in the incredible way that the planets dance to a set equation, in the way that matter can organize against all the odds.
Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm a slam-bang believer in evolution. Literal creationism claims that the Earth and the rest of the universe is only about 10,000 years old, not a few billion years old as some scientists are beginning to discover. I'm a scientist, and I believe facts and figures.... but this doesn't mean that there wasn't some Higher Power involved! I don't think that a deity snapped his/her fingers and there was the universe, but I do think that perhaps, just maybe, the Higher Power helped to create life by giving the proper evolutionary pathway a nudge in the right direction. How does a protein know how to fold? How did the elaborate process of DNA replication come to be? This is where God is for me - not in the metaphorical Garden of Eden.
It's arrogant to believe that we could ever understand God in our current forms. It's arrogant to believe that one religion is right and the other wrong, though I think that any religion that encourages violence in the name of God is severely misguided. No one people is chosen over another people; no one is better or more righteous than another. This is one of the reasons why I find the fighting in the Middle East to be so sad and so hopeless.
Guess I just had to get that out of my system. The whole NR fracas did stir up some emotion, though as a mod, I can't express it. Hope I didn't offend anyone...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2001-03-20 12:57 pm (UTC)One reason is because I can't be sure if my religion is even right. Religion is mostly faith-based afterall, I can't dispute that, my own religion does not refute the importance of faith.
The second deals with my religion --it states that being peaceful is a virtue. It says to live by the laws of the land and keep your prayers to yourself. It was the lifestyle the earliest members of my religion practiced faithfully.
So, although I sometimes mention my beliefs to a friend, it is only in the hopes they might share happiness in my religion. And when they decline I have never forced them on the issue. Hence I have several Buddhist, Agnostic, and Atheist friends despite my own religion being different.
I have more reason but I'll not go into them at the moment.
There are many problems with relgious folk I'll not deny. One its their own lack of knowledge about the texts and history of their own religion. People have a tendency to pick one aspect of their religion and magnify its importance a hundred fold. Worse still they misread or ignore what their own religion says and invent their own crazy ideas which they cling to zealously --like the Prohibitoinists and the Heaven's Gate Cult.
I try to read and make sure I am atleast somewhat knowledgable in many aspects of my religion, but there is always room for improvement.
The only thing I get touchy on are subjects that I believe have been proven true. For instance, if some one walked up to me and said the American Civil War and China were Urban Myths I would be tempted to kill that person.
And according to my religion I would have to grit my teeth and ignore that urge. Especially since I have been misinformed before.
Au Revoir
PS --I believe in evolution...but only to a point.
PS --Do I write alot? Sure looks that way...*smashed her fingers with a heavy book* ARGHHHH!!! There, that should slow me down....