Starboy

I couldn't really tell you. I'm not sure that it actually matters. Even if you hold to a strict literal reading of the bible, today it is impossible to make such a reading. To make such a reading would be impossible using a document written in this day and age since you would have to be able to crawl into the mind of the author, but to do it to a document written two millennia ago by people who understood and lived in the world in fundamentally different ways than we do today well that is just ludicrous. So unless you are the author, all readings of holy writings will be interpretations and since there is no objective mechanism for preferring one person's interpretation over another's, picking those that strike your fancy is as good a method as any other. This same mechanism could be applied to any and all holy writings since there is no reason why you couldn't adopt an interpretation that allowed you to combine all of them.

I guess it all boils down to why such holy writings are important to you. If you think they reveal some kind of hidden reality, then why would you think there is only one hidden reality? If you think they are a recipe to survive death then why think there is only one recipe, and if you think they hold the secret to living in harmony then why should there be only one secret?

Starboy

Goliath

Tercel,

Yes. I have yet to meet any member of Wicca (for example) who hates me and constantly warns me that I'll be burning in hell for the Wiccan's enjoyment and pleasure.

Now, xians, on the other hand......

Sincerely,

Goliath

BioBeing

In the first place, it seems that Christianity may have, errr... borrowed, some of its central themes from other religions anyway. Hmmm- they didn't get reincarnation though. Thats always sounded pretty neat to me. Plus that way, you'd have a few chances to get it right before settling down for eternity!

Secondly: many modern Christians seem to do this - mixing for example New Age mysticism with the Bible. (Thinking about it, I'd be very surprised if there weren't some self professed Christians who did believe in reincarnation too...)

Now, some fundies here and elsewhere would claim that these have cherry picked a bit too much and are not true Christians. However, both the fundie and the New Ager probably check "Christian" on their census form. And then we are told (by the fundies especially) that "America is a Christian nation". I think there should be a test.

mike_decock

Many Christians believe in reincarnation, it's called being "Born Again". They're just too impatient to wait until they die to go through the process, they believe they can be reincarnated during their lifetime.

-Mike...

BioBeing

True mike, but I was alluding more to Buddist type of reincarnation. "Previous lives" and all that...

fishbulb

Christianity is the commonest religion in the world because cherry-pickers are all counted as Christians even when they come out with completely different baskets of fruit. Taken as a group, these Christians do not agree on anything of substance that most every other faith doesn't also hold to be true.

To call Christians the moral majority is disingenuous; there is no moral position that Christians overwhelmingly support that is not also supported by most everyone else. Some people claim to oppose the death penalty because they are Christian, but others cite their Christian faith as the reason they support it! The same thing goes for freedom of expression and conscience, democracy, sexual equality, corporal punishment, wars of all descriptions, capitalism, and socialism, to name but a few.

mike_decock

The similarities are greater than the differences, IMO. A born again Christian views life before being born again as a previous life. They are a "new creation". The "karma" of their Christian life will determine the status of their next life.

-Mike...

Peter Kirby

I do not find in the Bible such a clear statement of the appropriate attitude to knowing:

Analects, II, XVII
The Master said, "Yû, shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it;-- this is knowledge."

Of course, most of the good stuff in both Christianity and Confucianism can be figured out without reference to hoary authority.

best,
Peter Kirby

Yellum Notnef

If there was such a thing as "Religious Olympics" Terecl would win the gold medal for gymnastics.

Tercel

Yah!

Now where's the medal-wearing emoticon when you need it...