Jive Turkey
ONE love, blood, life
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2005
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- 13,645
Sean, what would you say to this (And I mean this in a completely respectable tone because you seem to me to be absolutely respectable).
I've always thought about religion as being on a sliding scale. There are the fundamentalists who take the word of the bible (or whatever their book may be) at face value; The word of god is the word of god and there is no way around it. But there are also those who follow religion on more of a spiritual or karmic basis; Do unto others, be a good person, etc. My thought has always been that, on the sliding scale, the people in the latter category are actually less religious (or rather, closer to the agnostics), than the fundamentalists. You're both following the same 'word' so to speak, yet the latter group skews much further toward an agnostic view of the world; That much of the hateful speak (being gay is wrong, for example) is actually closer to the real message and if you sway from that, you're actually swaying from the word of the bible. I'm not sure where I'm going with this (and it's 5:30 on a Saturday morning, if you get my meaning), but I guess my point is, many Christian or Muslim or whatever would like to distance themselves from the fundamentalists. I believe that the fundamentalists are actually the most religious and those that are less fanatical have actually let agnostic principals into their beliefs (again, it's 5:30 and I'm rambling and havent actually asked you anything, but maybe you can elaborate on this.... and I can read it when I wake up)
I've always thought about religion as being on a sliding scale. There are the fundamentalists who take the word of the bible (or whatever their book may be) at face value; The word of god is the word of god and there is no way around it. But there are also those who follow religion on more of a spiritual or karmic basis; Do unto others, be a good person, etc. My thought has always been that, on the sliding scale, the people in the latter category are actually less religious (or rather, closer to the agnostics), than the fundamentalists. You're both following the same 'word' so to speak, yet the latter group skews much further toward an agnostic view of the world; That much of the hateful speak (being gay is wrong, for example) is actually closer to the real message and if you sway from that, you're actually swaying from the word of the bible. I'm not sure where I'm going with this (and it's 5:30 on a Saturday morning, if you get my meaning), but I guess my point is, many Christian or Muslim or whatever would like to distance themselves from the fundamentalists. I believe that the fundamentalists are actually the most religious and those that are less fanatical have actually let agnostic principals into their beliefs (again, it's 5:30 and I'm rambling and havent actually asked you anything, but maybe you can elaborate on this.... and I can read it when I wake up)