Why do you accept ancient religions?

by free2beme 25 Replies latest jw friends

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  free2beme

  Back hundreds of years ago, people actually blamed illness on bad spirits and even believed in bleeding people to cure illnesses. People would also use leaches on people to get the blood out. Doctors on the battlefield did not do something as common as washing their hands between patients, to avoid spreading infection and disease. Would you want the knowledge these medical professionals of the past, to be what your doctored followed today when treating you or do you appreciate the fact that they have increased their knowledge and thus their skill with time?

  Isn't it odd though, that we place that understanding on medicine and yet turn a blind eye to religion. We look at the people who practiced our religion in the past, as smarter then us or maybe even closer to god. We take the information they wrote down and see it as inspired or the complete law of god. We don't even question the doctrines and often defend them with references from other doctrines of the time, with a unbreakable faith. Why?

  These men who wrote these pages, were less educated then modern man, and know very little about the world of science and nature. Even the belief in bleeding people who were sick to get the evil spirits out, was connected to ancient religious teachings. We have come a long way as a society in the world of science, education and our understanding of this world. Yet in religion, we are willing to accept the new science and yet defend all things religious that we laid down centuries ago. Is that just faith, and if so, what if that same faith had remained in all parts of life? Would you be bleed today to cure your flu?

  Society and knowledge grow and accept that in the past we knew less, and grew beyond that to advance as a culture. Sometimes we learn that things done only months ago, are not correct or effective. Yet we are more willing then not to continue learning and ever expanding our knowledge. Unless of course it is with religion, with that we remain firming planted in beliefs from 2000 years ago, and for some reason .... we find that acceptable. Why?
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  garybuss
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  free2beme

  What is amazing to me, is that looks like something from an old movie called Logan's run. In which people were in dooms and accepted that as their universe, because that was just the way it was passed down to them from one generation to the next. Which is how religion works too. We are not Christian because it was just invented last week and some great light told us to accept it. Christianity is around because one generation accepted it and passed that acceptance on to the next and then the next and so on. Honestly, even the scriptures I used from the Bible that were suppose to show some advance knowledge of science in the past, would be considered "reaching a bit" by standards applied to all other forms of culture, except religion. In the case of religion, what builds faith is acceptable. What destroys faith, is ignored.
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  JamesThomas

  It is truly amazing, here it is 2006, and billions continue to unquestionably worship archaic tribal deities.

  When our universe consisted of a small flat chunk it might of made some sense to worship little gods; but now that we have some inkling as to the infinite expanse of things, from the quantum level to countless galaxies and the likelihood of many more dimensions, it truly seems insane to give so much significance and credit to tiny anthropomorphic deities and gods.

  Innately it seems there is a desire to know our Source, and one way the mind feebly attempts to do this is via religion and circumscribed ideas of God. Once we come to cherish and heavily identify with our chosen god, it's often too much to bear to let go. To abandon our god is to die, unless we are given something to replace it. Atheists have little to offer. Reality within the present moment has infinity to offer, but we are too busy believing in thoughts and the minds dramatic presentation of a tragic life-story to behold what is actual and real.

  j
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  atypical

  Religion seems to be the one area where it is okay to do something or believe something for no good reason. Not only that, but it considered a good thing. We call it faith. It really is crazy. Science, laws, and reality are somehow discarded if they don't fit in with a religious person's beliefs. I have heard great arguments that say religion should be tested against science and logic just like everything else in our life is.
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  greendawn

  Religion is concerned with inner truths psychological truths and there is no reason why some intelligent ancient persons would not be capable of perceiving them and analysing them correctly. Not just the Jews but many ancient Greek philosophers dealt with these issue and reached similar conclusions.
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  free2beme

  I think that as a culture we could learn more about what is "higher power" or life energy, if we actually took away their prejudice and beliefs of the past and looked into things with a modern and more educated eye. We just refuse to do this, as we seemed to feel that religious education ended at Revelations.
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  startingover

  Free2beme,

  Great thread!

  I think most people do because their parents did. They never stop and really think about it. When I finally did I had to discard it.
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  somebodylovesme

  Garybuss -- Can you tell us where that picture/copy came from? It's fascinating and I'd like to share it with some "faithful" friends ...

  SLM
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  Amazing1914

  Freetobeme:

  Your basic premise is flawed. People of all backgrounds can be, and are often, ignorant of certain scientific truths and technological advancements. To equate the Christian or Ancient faiths to scientific ignorance is no different than saying that if an atheist is ignorant of some medical advancement, then atheism cannot be trusted. This shows yet again that often, ex-JWs, in an attempt to make sense of the confusing world they discover, use the same flawed logic that they learned while in the Watchtower organization. Basic first-year college courses help one to learn critical thinking skills so that one can make more objective assessments.

  Secondly, please don't take my assessment personally. One of the reasons that many ex-JWs have left these discussion boards is that some ex-JWs never seem to be able to handle objective criticism, and end up in stupid flame wars.

  The Cristians Faith, in principle and in practice can be, and often is very useful and good, and devoid of the pitfalls so oftens seen in groups like Jehovah's Witnesses. For example, Roman Catholics can accept evolution as a matter of science, without infringing on their faith in Christ. Some Catholics do accept evolution, and some do not. This is a religion that has at least learned from its stupiud mistakes, unlike the infnatile Watchtower religion which has yet to hatch from its iron egg-shell.

  Jim W.