Ritu said: > That's not necessarily true. Belief is not a prerequisite for > understanding words on a paper. While the scriptures cannot be accepted > without belief, understanding them is a simpler task. And all the latter > requires are tools of basic comprehension, further study, and reasearch. > This drive for understanding might be fuelled by belief, but it might as > easily be fuelled by doubt. Or simple curiousity. Belief doesn't have > much of a role in understanding scriptures, but if we had enough > information, I would not be surprised to find that belief might have > actually hindered such understanding over the centuries rather than > helped it along.
I think JohnR's argument is that belief breathes the "fire" into the words and unless you believe you don't experience that fire and so don't truly understand. But I think there is no fire, just the power of wishful thinking to make people feel intense things. Rich _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
