There are two kinds of people in the world, those who think rules are what should govern everything and who have inordinate respect for them. And those who think rules are negotiable in most circumstances, because circumstances change things. And the thought struck me when I thought about religious rules. All of the monotheistic religions have a bunch of rules. Why is it these religions are the ones freighted down with rules? And is it coincidental that they're the ones who seem to be the most concerned with sin, reward, and punishment? Heaven, hell, eternal reward, eternal punishment, and all the behaviors one must practice and avoid to gain one or the other. These concepts make no sense to Buddhists, Taoists, Hindus.
The baseline question I'm thinking about is what kind of religion would Christianity be if it could be separated from its rules long enough to contemplate exactly what Jesus meant? The more I think about it, the less I think he had to do with rules of any kind. .
2 comments:
Whoa!
Some forms of Buddhism have their own hell. So do the others.
Rules are only legal memories.
What is our immediate present like? Are we oppressed by religions? Or are they merely extra clowns in our parade of merry pranksters?
The aim of the teaching of the religious geniuses is freedom. You follow the rules to freedom; the rules should wither away - like the State in Marx's philosophy.
Our time, our societies cannot take the next step to responsible freedom.
We do very well with licentiousness: freedom without duty and responsibility. Freedom with responsibility is a bit tricky for us.
I wasn't aware of Buddhist hells, much less hells for other Eastern religions. Certainly cannot disagree with your description of American society, which, as we've discussed before, knows nothing of true religion.
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