Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism.
My search for some meaning/truth in life has taken me on a journey since I was 16.
In fact, i first went to church (Presbyterian) when I was 14. Because i was talented and i was outspoken and outgoing, I was pretty much part of the core group in the youth ministry. Also, being musically inclined had me serving in the music ministry for 3 years.
I really don't know now. But at that time, perhaps i wasn't serving that much.
Readers can switch off now if they think i am going on a christian slant. In fact, undenialbly, i have always believed in a creator. I just didn't believe in the Christian Gospel.
Who is Christ to claim he is the Son of God? Who is Christ to send people to hell? Who is God to destroy entire cities when there may be innocents living in Sodom and Gonorrhea?
And as i learnt more about other religions, about Buddhism, about Taoism, about Hinduism, about Islam. I think i tended to believe less and less in the Christian message.
Essentially, the Christian message is still the same one, as it has always been: Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes before the Father except through me.
Stinking Christians. Who is He to claim that Judaism is wrong, that Buddhism is wrong, the Islam is wrong.
As i found out more, I realised that most religions teach a "Morality". Catholicism or Christianity does not. They teach that Jesus is the Lord. And to surrender to him is to surrender your will, your everything, to him.
I didn't want to give up myself. Christianity appeals to your very idea of you being an independant soul. Everywhere else, you are the center of your soul. Buddhism teaches that you can achieve Nirvana without God. It is essentially atheistic in it's message.
Islam I must admit I do not know it that well, mainly because I cannot understand arabic. One of the tenets of Islam is that the Koran must be understood in Arabic. Mind you, even your friendly neighbourhood muslim may not understand Arabic to the degree that scholars would. It is a spoken revelation to Muhammed from Allah. And frankly, Muhammed's "miracles" were ascribed to him by others, not by himself.
Unlike Jesus who claimed to bring people back from the dead, to heal disease, to be able to offer life to all people who are "dead" already.
I used to go, who the hell are you to condemn me that i am dead before I am truly dead and buried?
I really don't know. Perhaps I have always held a moralistic view of the world precisely because of my exposure to Christianity at a young age. My most violent objections to accepting Christianity came from my intellect.
Let's explore those objections.
1) Church History is violent. Crusades, politics among popes.
2) The New Testament is a collection of Gospels and the decision to collate these Gospels were made by Constantine the Great. It was a political decision made to unite the Roman empires.
and from extension: The bible is a Human Creation. even the O.T. was written by prophets and Humans.
3) There are immoral Christians in the world today. Cardinals who engage in paedophillia, Christians who kill.
4) I can always believe in Christ after I am 70 years old, and i can lead a life of moral debuchary NOW if i want. After all, God forgives.
Sounds like good objections don't they?
God said "Seek me and ye shall find". Well, most people don't even BOTHER to seek. Perhaps I have always been seeking, but the answers to everything are still shrouded in a veil of mystery.
Perhaps I shall go theological college, just to find out more.
lip
ranting
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i used to dislike the way the church went on against so called "doubting thomases", who always demand "habeas corpus", or show the body.
yes, different religions preach different messages... at times... all we want is that little bit of nirvana, floating around in solitude.
but more and more the church touches me. there are moments, at times, when the church sings "our father" that I am moved by the catholicness of it all, that there are a lot of other christians through the years and around the world who share the same emotional connection to this song. I always thought, it's a bit of a pity for the mass not to be in latin anymore because it would be great if i were in a country and mass reminds me exactly of how it would be at home... and the connection when one sings "sanctus sanctus" or says "kyrie eleison". but of course it's all great that its in the languages that we can understand.
but i feel, somehow, that the truth is not without but rather within. given, the christian message is about love, and love involved people, and if you come to think about it, most of the irrationality of the church comes from its appeal to the emotions... like today when the priest asked the children all to touch the cross... like jesus beckoned the children to himself.
questions about the divinity of jesus aside, is it such a bad idea for the new testament to have happened. people like nietzsche bemoan the fact that a proud, strong tradition of a just and powerful god, definitely omnipotent, has been sacrificed for a wimpy wussy one, someone who seems to be responsible for our neuroses and our "turn the other cheek" pacifism of today. but I guess it was refreshing to have someone speak out for the nice guys at once and I guess the most concise explanation of what he stood for is found in the beatitudes. jesus, to me, was someone who just spoke out for a different group of people, a group which felt alienated from the religion they had.
personally, for myself, the crux of religion is firstly acknowledging the fact that there is an alternative philosophy of life... not even philosophy... but rather feeling... if spirituality exists, and if one can feel it, then, ca y est, you are no longer an animal.
good luck on your journey!
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