I do see what you are going on about Pat. I don't think it is as easy to sort as that though. Primarily what I'm talking about is the effect that culture has on all of us. Easpecily in those cultrual practices that have to do with insult. Over here in the west we largly ignore it if we are in a room and somebodies bear feet are pointing towards us. In the middle east this is a big no no and apt to get you into all sorts of problems.
It occours then that any sciptural dogma that makes claim to being a way for the world, not the local tribe, must transcende such law giving. Why perhaps not take on those aspect of faith that may seem to go against your own culture then? Because it is virtualy impossible to do so. Try teaching any Punjabi that bare feet pointing is not rude, they just won't have it. Or The Easten attitude vs The Western when it comes to matters of a sexual nature. Marriage, dating, etc.. We humans cannot easily transceden our cultural bounds, God must know this and so I would expect the truely global religion to make no mention of such culturaly biased practices, at the very least. On 1 Mar, 12:52, Pat <[email protected]> wrote: > 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. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en.
