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Is religion a fixed set of dogmatic statements from a guru or prophet? Aren’t the rituals and practices of all religions a bit silly? Are some better than others? Or are they all bad? Aren’t all religions totally different and contradicting each other? |
4.1 Conclusions on Religious Methods &
Practices (Statement
21)
For many people, religion is
principally a practical discipline of meditation or prayer:
● sometimes
focused on religious symbols or rituals;
● sometimes
at places of worship or at particular times of the day or week;
● but
also more widely in all aspects of daily life;
● to
increase selflessness, perhaps even to lose any sense of self;
● to
express compassion and mercy;
● and
by these practices to obtain a spiritual experience or just behave better.
For many people, the principle
religious activity is the acceptance of a set of beliefs:
● that
God exists, God created the world, and God cares about us;
● that
we should submit to God’s will, follow God’s commands and praise God;
● that
certain people are prophets or messengers, or even the son, of God; and
● for
many this requires us to follow religious practices like those above.
Within all religions there is a range of people
whose commitment varies:
● Some
participate only for personal status or monetary benefit, who we must be wary
of and criticize their hypocrisy, but otherwise we can ignore them;
● Some
are part of the group for the social or cultural benefits, and do no harm;
● Some
are totally committed, or follow the faith but with sincere doubts, and these
people we must treat with respect and engage with.
In all major religions sincere followers can be
fundamentalists, traditional or liberal:
● Fundamentalists
think their sacred texts (the Bible or the Koran) are totally true, even if
they need to be interpreted, and we cannot stray too far from the literal
meaning. Studying the sacred texts
themselves shows that this cannot be so.
● Traditionals
accept that their sacred texts are sometimes or frequently symbolic or
allegorical, with stories that are not literally true but convey an underlying
truth.
● Liberals
use their sacred texts as guides rather than God’s word, and also accept
inspiration from other religious texts as well as philosophy, science and
history.
All major religions have over time used
different methods to develop and spread:
● Just
as philosophical, scientific and historical methods require us to be open,
transparent and honest with ourselves, so religious discussion should be too.
● All
religions have honesty as a core value, but many of their leaders have
difficulty actually being honest with their followers.
● A
justifiable religious approach must also include openness and transparency, but
many are closed and secretive about significant matters.
● Some
religious leaders, especially Christians (for centuries) and some Muslims (more
recently), have threatened or used force to maintain orthodoxy, to squash any
dissent and to prevent variations in the accepted practices or beliefs.
● All
religions have leaders and adherents who make mistakes and do bad or silly
things. But the overall behaviour of typical adherents and leaders is a significant
indicator of the worth of a religion: generally the stricter religions do more
harm.
● Some
modern ‘religions’ are based on lies or secrets hidden from their followers,
such as Scientologists.
● The
most harmful religious cults will not tolerate dissent, prevent followers from
contact with ‘unbelievers’ or with outside sources of information, expect
strict obedience to the leaders, demand large or ongoing donations, and do not
openly disclose how their money is spent.
History shows such cults generally lead to social, sexual and financial
abuse that is covered up in the name of the religion.
Some religions have many gods (such as some varieties of Hinduism) or one god (such as Christianity) or no god (such as Buddhism or Taoism). All traditional religions involve a belief in god(s) or other supernatural entities, but we can address at the most fundamental level how we are to live without invoking the supernatural.
Many religions, and most religious people, are tolerant of other faiths and believe their own is based on reason and the evidence. The evidence many religious people use comes from personal experience, and sacred texts such as the Bible or the Koran are treated as evidence.
At various times, different religious groups have been dogmatic, rather than open to reason and the evidence, or intolerant and exclusive, and polite debate with them is difficult.
For many, religion is more of a practice than a set of fixed beliefs, the willingness to adopt a humble, reverent openness to follow the practices, to experience the world differently, to reflect and learn, and perhaps see the true reality. We can follow these practices while at the same time sensibly experiencing doubt, reviewing their justifications and their outcomes.
Some religions (such as Hinduism and reformed Judaism) have few core doctrines held by all adherents, and are focussed more on rituals and/or shared narratives rather than a fixed set of beliefs. Other religions (such as Buddhism and Islam) do have a core doctrine, but it may be interpreted in a variety of ways by different adherents.
Most religions have a mystical tradition (such as the Kabbalah in Judaism and Sufism in Islam) based on some esoteric cosmology and practices that lead to mystical experiences.
Religious dialogue must focus on sincere adherents who can entertain doubt, excluding hypocrites and social climbers.
There are many bogus religions, established or maintained to promote their leaders rather than to be open to the truth and seek meaning and purpose.
The Catholic Church has not been open about its
sexual abuse of children, its role in WWII Nazism, or the Dead Sea
Scrolls. A few centuries after Jesus
died the Bible was translated into the current Latin version. Catholic Mass was said in Latin until after
the Vatican II Council in 1965. Catholic priests were required tell the
population what the mass was about, and what the Bible said. Some conservatives still prefer, and say, the
Latin Mass. The Bible was not translated
into the vernacular until the Reformation – the 1500s. A key difference with the Protestants was
that they thought people communicate directly with God (or Jesus) so they must
be able to read the Bible so it must be in the local language and people must
be taught to read. This is one cause of
the technological advance of Protestant (Western)