(January 5, 2019 at 6:48 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote:(January 5, 2019 at 6:32 am)T0 Th3 M4X Wrote: If you take Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the proponents all generally believe in a Creator/God. A lot of the variations in belief surround Jesus. The Hebrew people believed that a glorious king would come, so many don't accept that Jesus is the Son of God, because he was humble in origin. Obviously Christians do believe he is the Son of God. Islamic Muslims believe he was merely a prophet. Understanding can also be tricky because God is believe to exist as three persons, but they are also unified. One of the struggles too, if you're using and English translation of the Bible, is that instead of translating to the specific names, which are descriptive, we usually just see "God."
Sure, the Abrahamic faiths all purport to worship the same god. But the question I was trying to formulate was: Assuming that the one Abrahamic god exists (as you believe) how can you assume that the Jews and Apostles are the only ones who have related to him and properly described him? When a Hindu saint describes Brahman in the Vedas, how can you be sure that he isn't describing the entity you call Yahweh?
The criticism that I am thrusting at the Judeo-Christian doctrine is that it not only posits that the authors of the Bible accurately describe God (which entails faith in people, not just God) but it also monopolizes God. To believe that the Bible accurately describes God is one thing. To assume that the Christians and Jews are the only ones who have had contact with God is quite another.
Some time ago, I posted a more exhaustive version of the argument here. If you're in the mood to look it over, I'd at least like to hear your opinion on it. It's a real sticking point with me, and one of the reasons I find religion so nonsensical. It just doesn't add up. Long story short, I find it incomprehensible that the God who created the great wide cosmos would be so petty as to not communicate with mystics who fail to call him by his proper Jewish name.
Hence (to me) it seems more rational to conclude that "religion" is merely a petty device that the ancients adopted to distinguish insiders from outsiders. And it serves much the same purpose today. (Not that I think religion is entirely reducible to that or anything. But that explains a lot, doesn't it?)
I don't assume that they are the only ones. It's also not about getting everything right. In a lot of ways it's quite the opposite. We get things wrong, and make various other mistakes, but all-in-all, it's okay. You probably here the word "relationship" a lot from people who believe in God. That's what it's about. Relationship with God and relationship with each other. If you call God a different name, then I can't imagine that it matters, as long as you know and God knows who you are talking about. Sure there are laws, guidelines, etc, but that's just part of the whole picture. If I read "Do not murder", I just nod my head and go about life. I wasn't going to murder anyone, but it reinforces that I shouldn't. One of the misconceptions I've witnessed a lot is that a lot of people put it all in a box filled with do's and don'ts, but that's not it. We live, help each other out, love God, love one another. How that takes place varies depending on the person.
Please allow me to share one excerpt in the Bible where Paul is sharing with the people at the Areopagus at Mars' Hill. The people don't know who God is, so they ascribe to him with an "unknown name." Paul sees it superstitious, but he attempts to make it relational without going out of his way to insult them.
Acts 17:22-29 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
He's telling him that he can share what they don't understand, but want to know and till then had to attribute to an "unknown." Now they are not only being given the opportunity to know, but to become part of that relationship.
I want to read what you shared in your other post, but I gotta give my eyeballs a break. Will try to check it out later today. If I don't get to it, feel free to remind me, so I don't miss it.
