On the flip side...

Do you believe in magic?

We are all religious.

A religion is simply living according to a set of values. If the source of those values is a revelation on Sinai, I could call my religion Sinai-ism. If my values come from what I decide is right and moral I might call it Jen-ism. I could even get fancy and invite people to join the Grand High Church of Self and come down every 5th Tuesday to see Rev. Jack Self light himself on fire. But I digress. We are all religious in so much as we all have certain ideas, values, and truths by which we live.

Seeing as we all have a religion, something that we should ask ourselves (or a leader of our religion) is: How should I relate to my friends religion? Let's put aside the question of missionizing. I don't want to address whether he/she is right or wrong. I am not thinking about asking other people to convert to my religion. I want to know: For me, what should be my perspective on Neighbor Bob's religion?

Here are 3 possibilities. If you can think of others please share them.

1) All religions but mine are completely false. They are a cobbled together pack of lies and any kernel of truth they might have based themselves on has been twisted beyond recognition and is worthless. I should stay as far away from them as possible.

2) There may be bits and pieces of truth in Bob's religion but those are simply the things it has in common with my religion. Any truth that exists in Bob's religion already exists in mine. There is no need for me to study his religion.

3) Bob's religion may have ideas, values, or truths that my religion doesn't have. I should talk to him about his religion and I might gain new (or at least improved) truth.


*For purposes of our discussion I would like to postulate that the existence of one unified, universal truth precludes the existence of another unified, universal truth. In plain English: We may or may not know what it is, but from a universally objective perspective there is only one set of truth.

posted by YS @ 2:55 PM