thread: 2007-01-04 : Self-identification vs. Membership
On 2007-01-07, Sydney Freedberg wrote:
Christian:
My problem with "looking at religion with fresh eyes" is this: which one should I look at? Do I go shopping around? Do I give higher credence to the one I already know?
Yes, you should, frankly.
Remember the quote I trotted out was "I should conduct myself toward the tradition to which I have fallen heir like an actor who has played a scene poorly: I should go out and come in again."
You cannot be born into any tradition than the one you were born into; you cannot choose different parents, a different skin color, a different native language. If there are any religious ideas in your tradition—and every culture has some, even if only "whoever has the most expensive car is the best human being" or "sacrificing virgins is fun"—you should give them an honest chance, not because they're the final truth but because they're the only fragment of the truth you will ever have the chance to know fully, to be steeped in as a child and to grow up in.
Now, if you give the faith(or the family, or the country, or whatever) you were born into an honest chance, and it is just plain abusive and wrong, or it simply doesn't work for you personally, thenyou have to go find another. But don't think of it as "shopping" or something easy like that. Think of it as a long journey through a dry land, looking for the one oasis with room for you to settle.
Cutting ties with the religion of your birth is a tragedy, like cutting ties with your mother and father, or emigrating from your homeland: sometimes necessary, sometimes the only thing you can do to survive, sometimes the gateway to great happiness, but always in and of itself a loss to mourn.
And Christian again:
If there is one particular God who is only properly worshiped by one particular denomination of a particular religion, how do I figure out which one it is?
No idea. I don't think it works that way, though. I think some religions are substantially more right about God than others, but in the same way that "2 + 2 = 22" is more right than, say, "2 + 2 = fish!" If you decide to say "2 + 2 = 50," I suspect God will give you the points for effort (aka "grace"). We're all in trouble if He grades us on results.
And why did God leave all those others floating around to confuse me? That's really not very nice or fair.
I would say it's a bit cheeky of you to blame God for human stupidity, divisiveness, and cliquishness, but then God created humans in all their stupidity, divisiveness, and cliquishness, so you can blame Him for the confusing array of religions if you like, as well as for childhood cancer, genocide, and bad traffic. Go for it if it makes you feel better; He's used to it by now (viz. the Book of Job). But I've never seen a satisfactory solution to the Problem of Evil, and I don't advise wasting much energy fighting with God about it. My personal approach is to try to be thankful for what's good and right and beautiful in the world, and then chip away at the evil in front of me as best I can.
