In case you couldn't tell from the blog title, I'm going to be talking about religion. That being said, time for a Tritico type disclaimer. I respect all of you and your beliefs, so if I in any way offend anyone with anything I write in this post or ever, please tell me.
Mrs. Q's discussion about Frazer's inclusion of Christianity in his assessment of religions got me thinking about the importance of questioning in Christianity. I am an Episcopalian, and, thus, a Christian. It is my personal belief that it is not blasphemous or a sign of weak faith to ask questions about Christianity. I do question the legitimacy of certain parts of the Bible. I don't take a lot of it literally. I believe that discussion and questions are not offensive but are actually means of strengthening one's faith and easing doubts.
In my experience, many of the people I know who refuse to question Church doctrine or biblical teachings are also those who either aren't well educated or who are very insecure in their own faith. I'm not criticizing those people or saying that everyone is like that, but I would really like to hear y'alls thoughts on the subject. Do you think questioning is a necessary part of strong faith or a detractor?
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I once had a priest tell me that questioning your faith is not just beneficial to your development of a strong religious identity, it's essential. Now, the Catholic Church has never been known for it's leniency (alright, please disregard Mr. Tetzel and Leo X for a moment). As a person who has a passion for science, I make no attempt at rejecting a scientific discovery on religious grounds, however contradictory that discovery may be to my religion. This kind of thinking retards legitimate progress: there's no way to reject something that scientists today have proven with valid techniques. So, I usually try and reconcile any discovery/law of this nature with my religious beliefs.
Though probably moderately blasphemous, I go through thought processes like: "Okay, God created the Earth and man in seven days. Yet we have a very accurate notion of how long the universe has existed for 13.7billion years, 4.55 billion of which the Earth has existed, and about 6 million of which humans have walked upright on Earth. So, I take the Bang-Crunch theory and assert via faith that God created the mass of the universe in a very intricate way, so that man would develop eventually. If the universe always cycles through Bangs and Crunches, then there had to be an initial Big Bang, which I can claim all I want (as there really is no way to do it scientifically) that God initiated."
Unlike Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, who believe that their religion is the only correct way, Hinduism is very open to religious diversity. That is why we are called Hindus, not a subdivision like Protestant or Roman-Catholic. Hinduism meets agnosticism to a point. One basic Hindu principle is that every religion is correct, because as long as you're praying to a God you're praying to Brahman. It is our belief that how you pray doesn't matter, as long as you do so. It's interesting for me to see such a strict religion as Christianity and for everyone to question it, especially for others to get mad that people question it. One huge thing about Christianity, from what I understand, is that if you are not praying the right way then you go to hell. That's just bizarre to me. Historically Christians have just been trying to convert everyone and reign the dominant religion over the other sects, and I just don't get it. Why couldn't let people pray how they wanted to?
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