Re: Voting, moderation and the charter

On 2007-06-13, Quasin <quasin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Pretty much, if you understand "worship" as how you live, what values
you seek to embrace in your attitudes towards others, what traits you
think worthy of honoring and imitating and seeking to incorporate into
your own personality.

I'd agree with that, though not used the word "worship" there. I'd
initially tend to connect that word with the building used for incense
burning and nature of pictures on the walls which you mention below.

Some Christians pick up the positive attitudes and ideals they see in
Christ's life. Some Hindus look to Krishna or Rama or Radha or Lakshmi or
others as examples to follow, maybe even Hanuman who represents such an
extreme idea of devotion he goes beyond human practicality. The stories
are full of examples showing a moral system - examples as opposed to
direct description, so different ways of teaching and coming to the
conclusions.

I think even considering that following a religion, "Worship" as you
mention above, is about embracing values and traits as opposed to just
obedience to a given set of ritual and words, is an understanding that
it is more what's inside that counts.

(To some, "worship" merely means which building you burn incense in,
which images are in the walls - a "cross" is an image, too - or what
formula or rituals you go through to please or connect with God.)

The awareness that some "Christians" worship a god who is foreign to me
convinces me that in temples of foreign-to-me gods, probably some
worship the God I know.

I think that's very likely. Each temple/church will contain people
with various understandings. Each religion will have places or sections
attracting people of various understandings or traits. There are some
sects in Hinduism that go way too far in certain directions for my
comfort, and some that to me seem likely wrong emphasising the follower's
ego and personal material attainment.

I wonder if a measurement of how 'good' a religion is can be based on
how much it encourages its followers to be 'good' people, for whatever
measurement of 'good' we choose to use. To help others, function well in
society, Do Good?

It's not about the external name applied, but the characteristics of the
god/God that one honors, declares good, and seeks to imitate.

But although the ethics are often similar, various religions do seem to
have significant disagreement with the Christian God as to God's
personality, such as if they teach that one must earn God's love.

I've not encountered that belief anywhere. Those that believe in a God
capable of love that know about teach that love is unconditional, apart
from examples of people in each religion who also go for the type of God
that likes to eternally roast people. In the translation of the Bhagavad
Gita that I have it is due to Krishna's love that he brings you what
your heart desires in your next life. That's an interesting feedback
loop when you think about it. Desiring the life of the rich and famous
is not as good as it may at first seem (or is that the view of the
religious mind?)

And some have significant disagreement with the Christian understanding
of God's ultimate intentions, such as if they think the goal is to
either "outgrow" any relationship with God (e.g. Mormons who supposedly
become gods of their own separate universes) or cease personal existence
(which is how some have explained nirvana to me).

That's where I'm agnostic. I am aware that some religions teach
heaven/hell, some various themes on the lines of reincarnation, some
seem to combine the two in interesting ways, and atheists of course go
for compost or ashes as the case may be. I cannot know the answer at
this time, so I do not worry which is which. I note that each can be
interpreted metaphorically which is intellectually interesting.

- Richard

--
_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ Richard Corfield <Richard.Corfield@xxxxxxxxx>
_/ _/ _/ _/
_/_/ _/ _/ Time is a one way street,
_/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/ except in the Twilight Zone
.

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