Koyaanisqatsi

Meta, how do you then reconcile the admonition that no one can get to the "father" except through Jesus?

Darth Dane

Well Koyaanisqatsi, it is possible to reconcile that.


But we have to make some radical interpretation changes.










DD - Love & Laughter

Metacrock

Meta: I agree with it! Jesus = "The Good." If you are following the Good you are following Jesus.

Peter Kirby

So, is it a contradiction to say "I hate Jesus but love the Good"?

Is it coherent to say, "I do what is good but don't believe in The Good."

Is it rationally equivalent to say the following?

"Those who engage in sacrifice by the cultivation of knowledge, worship the Supreme Lord as the one without a second, as diverse in many, and in the universal form. It is I who am the ritual, I the sacrifice, the offering to the ancestors, the healing herb, the transcendental chant. I am the butter and the fire and the offering. I am the father of this universe, the mother, the support and the grandsire. I am the object of knowledge, the purifier and the syllable om. I am also the Rg, the Sama and the Yajur Vedas. I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge, and the most dear friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place and the eternal seed. I give heat, and I withhold and send forth the rain. I am immortality, and I am also death personified. Both spirit and matter are in Me. Those who study the Vedas and drink the soma juice, seeking the heavenly planets, worship Me indirectly. Purified of sinful reactions, they take birth on the pious, heavenly planet of Indra, where they enjoy godly delights. When they have thus enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasure and the results of their pious activities are exhausted, they return to this mortal planet again. Thus those who seek sense enjoyment by adhering to the principles of the three Vedas achieve only repeated birth and death. But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form -- to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have. Those who are devotees of other gods and who worship them with faith actually worship only Me, but they do so in a wrong way. "

"I do good; therefore, Hare Krishna"? How is that different from "I do Good; therefore, Jesus is risen"? Do you believe that you might be reincarnated better because you unwittingly worship the Lord Vishnu?

best,
Peter Kirby

Koyaanisqatsi

And what is this "Good"? Rejoice in your suffering and love your enemies, because their oppression means you're blessed by the Good? Hate your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters–yes, even your own life–or you cannot be a disciple of the Good? The Good must be sacrificed to the Good in order to appease the wrath of the Good? The Good is the "King of the Jews"? Fear the Good, for it has the power to destroy both body and soul in hell?

Look, I'm all for removing mythology, but shouldn't you take it to its logical extreme and remove mythology completely and simply conclude (at best) "humanist morality tales?"

Why is it that you can easily reduce the mythological character "Jesus" to a metaphor and not do the same thing with the mythological character "God?" Isn't the logical extension of your exegesis that the entirety of the myth is merely a metaphor for humanist ideals?