What could be more different? What could be more separate? What could be more distinctively UNALIKE than a cricle
....and
a triangle..
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Clearly, one shape has curved sides equal distance from its center point while....
the other has straight lines meeting in angles.
I'd like you to consider these two shapes and their UNalike characteristics as a kind of metaphor for religion. Specifically Christianity.
There is Orthodox Christianity which narrowly defines itself by the standard set at the Council of Nicea in 325 c.e. We'll call this self-identifying section of the Christian religion as the Circle set.
Then, there is sectarian Christianity which diverges from Orthodox Christianity by narrowly selecting other self-identifications. We'll call these groups of self-identifying Christians as the Triangle set.
These oppositional groups both call themselves CHRISTIANS.
Both of these groups (you might even say ALL of these groups) differ with each other because of the way they view the SHAPE of Christianity in the BIBLE which is purported to be the gold standard of identification.
Arguments, divisions, sects, conflicts, heresies, apostacies all stem from narrow self-definitions of the overall TRUE SHAPE of Christianity and the view of the Bible's standard.
The split between the historic traditional Catholic Church and the Protestant version of True Christianity also stems from this narrowly defined view of the overall SHAPE of Christianity vis a vis the Bible.
What if we take this two-dimensional argument and project it outward into a THREE DIMENSIONAL VIEW which eliminates the bifurcated (either/or) view?
Is there a shape which reveals itself to contain the Circle and the Triangle and harmonizes them?
Yes!
It is the cone section:This contains the circle, the triangle and a third dimension harmonizing both
By taking a larger view we see ALL rather than part.
The Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth is the Cone section.
Okay, where does this leave us? Lost in metaphor?
No.
The Bible is the result of differences of opinion put down in words and attributed to ONE source: God.
The history of the development of the Bible reveals this process as one of pressure groups vying for dominance.
A study of the history of the oral traditions, written versions, revised versions and selectively redacted versions is the Cone Section view.
The standard has been manipulated over and over. But, the manipulation has at all times been hidden by the rhetoric claiming ONE view and only ONE view is possible: God's view. The Bible has been purported, presented and peddled as the ONE and ONLY view.
It is not either/or.
Until we step back and view the Bible as a third dimensional shape which must include the meddling hand of biased human beings we cannot ever see the True View.
What is True?
Whoever represents THEIR VIEW as the ONLY view and passes it off as the mind of God has the most narrow vantage point. The narrow definition only works if:
1.You never look at your religion from any OTHER angle.
2.You are not permitted to view Christianity from any other vantage point.
Which version of Christianity is True, then?
Is it the Circle, the Triangle or the Cone?
The Cone view shows men trying to gain power by hiding all other views from sight and labeling the "other" as the enemy.
Until we step back and study the actual history of the Bible can we see ALL SIDES of what is True.