Many of you have heard this story. I think it is worth repeating.
A man was stranded on a rooftop in a huge flood. And what a flood it was. With such strong currents, anyone would have been swept away should he try swimming. The man, however, was a pious believer of the Catholic faith, and was not shaken by the circumstance.
A rescue boat came, shouting for him to climb on board. He refused, saying 'God will save me'. Hindered by the strong currents, the rescue boat had no choice but to leave him be.
A rescue helicopter came. 'Quickly, grab the rope!' the rescue team shouted. The man shouted back, 'Don't worry about me! God will save me!' Due to the strong winds, the helicopter had no option but to leave him there.
The man, predictably, died in the flood. When he died, He asked God, 'God, why didn't you help me?' God replied,'My friend, I sent you a rescue boat and a rescue helicopter to save you, but you refused. What was I to do?'
From my previous post, I probably led you to believe that I do not believe in God or in a religion. Honestly, that cannot be further from the truth. But more about me later.
When the Da Vinci Code was published, it created an uproar from pissed off Catholics. For myself, I found it an entertaining, if fictional, writing. Yes, I know that stating that the facts are true when it is not is unethical. But, if anything, it revealed to me more about each individual's view on religion, particularly their own.
I understand why the catholics were angry about the book(although Dan Brown published another book putting catholicism in a better light in Angels and Demons). Dan Brown underlined Catholicism's ugly past, like dragging skeletons out of the closet for the world to see, using falsities, half-truths and whole truths to entice the expose even more.
However, the basic underlying points in Dan brown's book is relatively true. Religion indeed does have a beginning, normally as an occult with esoteric interests. A religion's rise to power is normally met with large resistance against the mainstream beliefs, typically leading to bloodshed.
A good example will be the religion of Islam. It is a relatively new religion, in being for a mere 2000 years, a considerably short time for a mainstream religion. Yet, presently, it is the second largest religion in the world, constituting about 1.8 billion muslims.
So if you should follow Islam's rapid rise to power in 2000 years, you would read about a huge amount of bloodshed, from assassinations to the fight for Jerusalem. The same can also be said for Christianity.
So the thing i wanted to highlight to you is the two different sides in the nature of religion in general. So what separates the 2 sides? To put it simply- man and God.
Let me try to explain. Religion is really made up those 2 components. Yet, many inside the religion, or out of it, cannot differentiate the 2. Unable to distinguish one from the other will only lead to a flawed perception in their religion which in turn leads to the rose-tinted glasses.
So, how to distinguish the 2? It is rather simple, actually. For the man portion, it involves the rules, rituals, the traditions and the places of worship. Up to this point, many of you are probably thinking: Isn't that the whole part of religion already?
If you are thinking like that, your perception is already flawed. Lets take a common man-made item that is normally confused with the 'God' portion: the Bible.
The Bible is Men's oldest publication, translated the largest number of times in a variety of languages, read all over the world and quoted countless number of times that it will make Shakespeare grow green in envy. However, the Bible did not drop from the sky. It was not written by god's own hands. It is actually a collection of stories, collected from various wise men, or prophets, and compiled, edited and subsequently published. it was written in a multitude of languages, mainly Hebrew, Aramaic and even Greek, thus requiring translation into a common language.
Therefore, the Bible is a man-made product. And men are liable to make mistakes as I have mentioned in Socratic Irony. So forgive my skepticism when I do not believe that a man built an ark with help from God, to rescue God's Creation from a huge torrential flood. To me, the Bible is merely an inspiring guide, available to anyone, regardless of religion. Should anyone take what the Bible says as pure fact, is a faithful fool.
Okay, so the question comes again: What is the point of making repeated blasphemous remarks? Let me ask you this: If your priest told you to sacrifice your life in the name of God to bomb a mosque in Sudan, will you do it?
If yes, pls stay away from me. If no, like many rational christians, then you are listening to the 'God' side of religion, not the 'man' side. To follow the other path would put yourself to work for power-hungry men, not the all-powerful being.
This point is normally followed by: Then what is the point of having churches then? We my and as well pray at the sanctuary and convenience of our home, since the church is a 'man's' side of the equation.
To answer this question, I will tell you what my aunt told me before. The church as a place of worship is not the primary purpose, since true prayer can be done any place, any time. The church is a place where a community can gather to celebrate God together. Thus, by interacting with 'Men' around you, will you truly know god, which brings me back to the above story.
I believe the 'man' portion of religion is just as important as the 'god' portion. The problem is distinguishing the two, and make your own ethical judgments based on that, instead of blind faith.
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