Myth and metaphor versus believing in miracles

[Montblanc]

I thought I would try out by creating a thread on whether people should believe what is written in religious texts.

Obviously if you are a member of a faith, or a group of people that believe in the same thing, then you gain an affinity with this group by saying you believe in the thing that the group believes in.

Now apparently, according to Karen Armstrong: in order to be a religious belief, there has to be an element of supernatural.

Somehow, we started believing in supernatural phenomena when we started believing that people have a spirit that lives even after the person dies; and so on. So basically, if stories are told of these spiriitual forces, then a religion is engaging in myth. And if stories are told implying certain relationships between named objects, such as God the Holy Father, we have metaphor: for example, the relationship of father to child.

So the issue is: why bother believing in anything? Can't we just accept the fact that people die, that fathers and mothers have babies, a cycle of life and death carries on.

 

[Jersay]

You are not going to change me from believing in my religion. Now I don't take the text of my religion seriously, however, with regards to spirits and other phenomenon which is a factor is a part of my religion. My religious gods can also be a standard to hold myself and other followers from my religion up to.

Odin - strive for all knowledge

Freda- creates bountiful crops, so if you believe in him you will work hard for a good crop. And say Freda did it.

And Valhalla.

 

[Montblanc]

RE: Myth and metaphor ver

I can see the appeal of the original Viking religion; I think it's wrong when some people speak in condescending terms about paganism. When you consider that chalk drawing, in the field, of the giant man in England, the original religions had many positive features.

To keep up with the times it's good that they've lost the human sacrifice habit. I don't know if you need to bury a man and all his possessions...but this makes for good museum displays.

 

[Jersay]

Well, I don't really believed the religion, Asatru or heathenism really died, since it has laid low for certain time periods and since 1960 or so it has really shot up and has been recognized in at least three countries.

 

[Finder]

The tests were written by people, all be it at times prophets they were still people. People make mistakes and live in their time and space and do not see the future as it will be.

The Koran, the Bible and the Tora are nice little story, proverbs, fairy tales and moral stories, nothing more, and nothing worth killing. These three books have killed countless millions have, in the most part, done more evil then good. Though the message can be used for good, bad people use them to subvert and kill for their own personal gains. If it were up to me these books would not recieve the reverance as they do today and ones relationship with god would mean more then writings, stories, Popes, Saints, Prophets, and so on.

I'm sorry each one of these books have so much blood on their pages, so much hate and anger which has been used for over a thousand years, I think these books are dangerous in the wrong hands, of those who can not understand their meaning, and to those who may subvert their meaning and those who may end a life to fullfill their meaning. To me these books of great peace and joy, the Bible, the Communist menifesto, Koran and the Tora are also proponents of the greatest evils we have ever seen.

In a sence you can not completely blame the books but the ones who misread them.

 

[Jersay]

Agreed.

 

[jimmoyer]

It's too bad we blame these religious books
for all the blood shed.

Like blaming a gun.

Like blaming a book.

Like blaming a box cutter.


Can we have nothing in our hands ?