How many people actually read about the Council of Nicene? Know who Xenu is? Know what Kolab is? Know what the 12 Desires are? Know who the 4 Prophets are? Know what the Watchtower is? Know what Kami are? Know why Quakers quake? Know why the Vatican is its own state?
I was sitting around with some very educated people the other night, and was surprised about how little they knew about their own religions. Not one of them knew about the Council of Nicene, Emperor Constantine, or why Easter is not the same date every year.
Why is this? Some claimed to be very religious. How can you claim to be religious if you don't know what your religion is? How do you know that what you are doing is correct if you have not studied other religions to confirm your way is the best way? I don't get it. It doesn't take much time, you don't need to study much to find out the essence of a religion, or if it is right for you. Basic beliefs and practices are easily found. Getting in to the deeper theology takes the most time, and why would you do that unless you are sure you have the right path? All there chose their religious path because it was what their parents showed them.
It opens the most puzzling question about people and their religion... Normally rational questioning individuals become unthinking members of a mob when it comes to religion. Their brains just switch off. Why? Somebody tells you what to think and you think that way. If this was a political discussion they would immediately be questioning and rational. Call it religion, and "click" the robots are here.
Read. Think. KNOW why, and what you getting on bended knee before.
1 comment:
Good points. I am a religious person and I know the answers to most everything you posted. I have been frustrated by the same things.
Your critiques are not limited to the religious--but to nearly everyone. Even the non-religious who pray at the altar of logic every day.
I've engaged several people in e-debate on Slashdot, godgab.org and elsewhere on epistemology. These atheists and agnostics have trouble noticing the glaring flaws in their own presuppositions. The internal inconsistency within their own belief system.
It's as if their brains "shut off" when critiquing their own axioms.
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