Hillary ---
That is not to say that God does not exist, or that some universal plan is not a-foot, it does seem to indicate though, that God did not want us to find this out in a hurry...lol
Here you touch on a factor that I feel that nearly all of us have left out.
I read an article written by (as I recollect) an Egyptian moslem that argued very persuasively that the real problem with the faith was the stranglehold the religious leaders had on it, so much so that new research, etc., had no chance to be assimilated. They had convinced themselves that they already knew all that was necessary to know and that the ancient traditions were sufficient.
The end result is, of course, that the people that follow it live in conditions that are the same as hundreds or even thousands of years ago and those nations in its grasp stagnate. The very societies in which the religion exists become intellectual backwaters.
I suspect this is one of the reasons that Jesus opposed the traditions of his day. He realized that they were set in concrete and were unchangeable, thereby being the very first obstacle we would have to overcome in order to learn whatever things Jehovah does want us to know.
Closely related to this, I feel that the religious leaders take the wrong meaning out of such scriptures as Isa. 55:8, 9, and assume that it is either impossible or forbidden for mankind to think God's thoughts and for anyone to try would be presumptuous.
However, I don't think so. Rather, Jehovah is stressing to us that we need to elevate our level of thinking. He apparently wants us to know these things even while making allowance for our lack of perceptive abilities. One might compare the situation to one of us, as parents, desiring to teach our children the realities of life. Some things can be assimilated at a young age. Others cannot until later in life. At the same time, neither He, nor we, wish to talk down to the ones in our charge.
It's rather hard to elevate our thoughts when our religious leaders refuse to feed us anything but pap and teach us that all "independent thought" is a sin and punish us accordingly.
Remember Matthew 23:13? "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,hypocrites! because you shut up the kingdom of the heavens before men; for you yourselves do not go in, neither do you permit those on their way in to go in." Perhaps the above is the mechanism by which they became guilty of his charges.
You add:
. . it is actually our greatest spiritual strength in that impels us to reach for the skies, and pushes forward the boundaries of our reason.
This attitude has been almost nonexistant is religion, thanks to tradition. Perhaps it is time for it to be utilized. I see no reason, scriptural or otherwise, that science alone should have a lock on such thinking.
LoneWolf
Edited by - LoneWolf on 6 July 2002 7:53:36
Edited by - LoneWolf on 6 July 2002 7:59:7
