On 23 Feb, 11:19, Lee <[email protected]> wrote:
> So you Atheists can of course get involded in this one, I really don't
> know why you should or what the interest for you would be, but do feel
> free.
>
> I was thinking the other day about religion and culture. I'm somewhat
> worried about how to seperate the message of God from that of man.
>
> So it suddenly struck me that any message that truely comes from God
> must trancend culture.
>
> Thoughts?
Well, some scriptures transcend cultures and others don't. I
think that murder is viewed by most cultures (I don't know of any that
encourage it) as something to avoid, so the instruction/commandment to
avoid it crosses all cultures. Any culture that encouraged murder
would surely fall victim to its own policy and not last very long. As
far as covering one's head, well, that seems to be a cultural thing.
It really comes down to the specific 'message' as to whether or not it
transcends human cultures across space and/or time.
There's no reason, though, to think that God couldn't or wouldn't
reveal something to a particular people that didn't apply to other
cultures as a means of defining a culture BY their religion. Thus the
laws of kashrut for Jews and why Muslims eat food that is halal. This
is how God creates culture THROUGH scripture and through religion.
Simply because a 'prescribed practice' as outlined in a given
scripture isn't performed by all people, is no reason to think that
the practice COULDN'T be performed by all people. When religions grow
in numbers, these cutural practices grow with them. You didn't find
Christmas trees in America before Europeans had come there. But, I
imagine that there are a few Native American homes that erect them
now. Yet, the 'tree' itself is a 'Germanic' practice and has nothing
to do with Christianity itself. So, cultural practices can 'become'
religious as well, and we need to watch out for those and not
erroneously ascribe them to scripture. Santa Claus having a red coat
wa sa concept brought to you via 'Coca Cola', yet it's almost a
universal view. And, of course, Santa Claus has no basis in
scripture. I could go on, but I hope you see what I'm getting at.
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