Dwayne Monroe wrote:
>Each religious tradition, at its core, contains subtle insights into human nature
>-- if only by displaying the tendencies of our minds (tendencies such as
>believing in a god who's concerned, despite the vastness of the cosmic realm,
>with whether or not you got married before engaging in a juicy bit of how's your
>father).
>
Can you conceive of religion apart from tradition, organization, church,
priest, or story? Because that's what I'm talking about. The possibility
of you and I figuring out whether there is anything other than stories
or projections. What would we need to do to do that?
> Once the stories are firmly in place there can still be
>lively debate but it can only happen strictly within the story's rules (for
>example, people who agree on the divinity of Christ story have moved past the
>point of debating this aspect of the epic but might discuss whether Roman
>Catholicism's emphasis on and tweaks to the Mary subplot are Biblically
>justifiable).
>
No. No stories.
>>From time to time people see unexplained objects in the sky. Some of these
>people are highly trained pilots and astronauts who're particularly hard to fool.
> The origin and nature of the objects often remains, despite investigative work,
>mysterious and so, as you know, we call them unidentified flying objects or UFOs.
>
No. No strange objects. I'm talking about seeing a tree or a blade of
grass...I'm talking about very ordinary seeing and the mystery of our
very ordinary world
>This isn't an unreasonable speculation though there's no evidence to support it
>that I'm aware of. But we're (as a species, it seems) never satisfied to leave
>the conversation at the level of investigation; very quickly a narrative fills
>the empty spaces.
>
>And once the narrative is created the rules to live by follow quick on. It's a
>short step from there to disputes over revealed truth, animosity towards
>competing traditions and open warfare.
>
>This pattern pre-dates Christianity and may be a feature of our humanity.
>
This is very true, but it is not the same as saying because this pattern
exists, there is no God/religion/etc. In fact, it is crucial that we
recognize any and all such patterns before we can talk about having a
religious experience.
Joanna
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