> At 10:45 AM 9/19/96 -0500, Patricia & John Crooks wrote:
[CLIP]
> Does religion answer why some rocks float? Can it find the grand
> scheme and tell us something about it in a non-trivial way? If
> it is not objective in its attempt, how do i know whether to
> accept the answer or not? (I presume some religions disagree about
> the answers, frequently in a mutually exclusive fashion? When this
> happens, how do we arbitrate between the two?)
Only the Western religions [of the wide-spread ones] [extant ones are
various forms of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam] even admit the
possibility of disagreeing about the answers in a mutually exclusive
fashion.
> >I would say the same thing is true about religion. I am not saying that
> >there have not been religions and religious personages that have claimed to
> >have all the answers, but any religion that is able to survive more than few
> >generations posits itself as a collection of seekers of truth not as a
> >collection of purveyors of truth.
>
> I guess this clashes with my understanding of Christianity. From what
> i can tell, Christianity hinges on the divinity of Jesus and to a
> lesser extent, the infallibility of the bible. But maybe i am just
> biased by life in the south.
It clashes with my understanding of various forms of CONSERVATIVE
Christianity. It's consistent with most liberal forms. And Buddhism and
Taoism. [I won't comment on Hinduism--it's even less intelligible than
the ones I've mentioned.]
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/ Kenneth Boyd
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