Lam : Very thoughtful question. It is something I have been asking myself for almost 50 years now. Many attempts that eventually had too many problems to live with. But finally I reached a solution that at least satisfies myself. Do any of us have a real choice except to decide things for yourself ? In other words, I know for a fact that sometimes I may be wrong in what I decide for myself. Still, most of the time decisions work out quite well when I give myself permission to take responsibility for my own life. So, I accept a certain amount of mistakes as part of the process -always with the understanding that as soon as a mistake is recognized it becomes necessary, right away, to correct the mistake. You are quite correct, there are contradictions between the sacred texts of different religions.But there are also contradictions within the scriptures of all religions. So, how can anyone make good sense of religion given this fact ? I know that true believers of any faith say that THEIR sacred texts have no errors or contradictions, but I don't accept that premise. Maybe think of the problem as if we were discussing a family. Everyone in the family has their own needs and wishes. They don't all see the world the same way. But unless someone goes off the deep end and is a criminal, everyone tries to accommodate the others as much as possible. Do I agree with everything my brother or sister believes or says ? No. But I can get along very well by emphasizing the other things where we do agree. This is one place to start, to try and answer your question. The Mormons believe that everyone is his own prophet. Many Christians, at least Protestants, say that everyone is his own priest. I take this seriously. If I am priest or prophet for myself, what are the best ways to resolve difficulties ? There have to be core values from somewhere but once you have those, values that help you get along with others successfully, that help you in your life, that teach you good lessons as you go along, then you know what the gold standard is for making good decisions. Your life tests values for you and tells you what works and is helpful. Knowing this, you can judge things for yourself when religious texts make claims or promote ideas. So, a big part of the answer is that if a belief helps you in life, and you will know, soon enough, then it is true. Or at least true to the extent that a belief contains truth in some form. For most people this is all they could ask for. Personally I also regard this as a quest, a grand puzzle to try and solve, as an opportunity to learn really worthwhile things that maybe I can pass along to others as others have passed along their wisdom to me. As a practical matter this means much study , much comparing, much looking at historical evidence and the evidence of science and social science. But maybe this is more than you wanted to know, or maybe not enough. Or maybe too long. But I don't have the time to distill everything into one illuminating Zen koan. Billy In a message dated 12/11/2009 9:50:55 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
So, being a Christian who is also partly Buddhist and a Goddess devotee, simultaneously, isn't all that unusual any more. Mr Billy, I always wonder, and therefore I ask now, how do you think one should deal with the contradicting beliefs in various religious scriptures without rejecting entire scriptures as false altogether? I know of an example, where new age believers attempt to link the common areas of many religions together. Lam YongXian FSF Member #5279 _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
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