Tag: Faith

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Hero Worship

Hero worship is historical and present in most faith traditions. For instance, one can find it in Christianity with Jesus being the hero of humanity through his ‘sacrificial death’ and ‘resurrection’ thereby providing ‘salvation’ for humanity.

Heroes are also linked to the concept of ‘sonship’. So we have people that were referred to as ‘sons of God/a god’ as they were said to accomplish great exploits through ‘divine’ intervention. Even great rulers were known as ‘sons of God’.

Therefore the debate between faith traditions has mostly revolved around the concept of ‘unique Sonship’. Hence the efforts of writers of the letters we refer today as the ‘the New Testament’ in establishing Jesus as ‘God’s only son’.

However, there are other wider questions against this position. Some scholars even argue that we are all in fact — sons and daughters of God, and no one is unique in any sense.

By and large, one could argue that religion provides simple answers to complex questions about life and meaning. Whether or not those answers are necessary and sufficient is really down to individuals — and rightly so in my humble opinion!

#hero #ideas #beliefs

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The Task Upon Us

Thought Leaders Series: 2018

The writers of the religious texts which form the basis of most known faith traditions were trying to make sense of their world, challenging social norms, and offering a moral vision of how communities, kingdoms and states can function effectively.

Some of their ideas are enduring, while others are shortsighted. Therefore, instead of treating these texts as absolutes, the task upon us is to challenge those that are shortsighted and the people and institutions peddling them, and present better alternatives of how our world should function in age of globalisation, democracy and technological advancement.

Reachout | Revive | Recover

http://www.healingsprings.org.uk

Healingsprings fellowship: Human Capital Development

#education #democracy #humancapital #religion

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Christian doctrine and Anthromorphism

Thought Leaders Series:2018

By way of context, anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. A behaviour which psychologists describe as innate to humans.

For example, in religion and mythology, anthropomorphism is the perception of a divine being or beings in human form, or the recognition of human qualities in these beings.

In Christianity, we are told that we are replicas of God (Gen. 1:27). Thus we find descriptive use of human features for God in Judaism and Christianity. These include references like: “The finger of the lord’ (Gen. 8:19), ‘The eyes of the lord, (2 Chronicles 16:19), ‘The hand of the lord’ (1 Peter 5:6-7) etc.

Jewish scholars tried to do away with this idea once they realised its shortcoming and implications. So they wrote commentaries to shift this perspective, but once the oral tradition had been translated to written text, it was near impossible to convince followers otherwise.

The idea was already branded into their psyche and no amount of enlightened thought could change it. Even today, scholarship is often dismissed as secondary information, as audiences fail to not understand that Bible is not a primary source either. But rather, a collection of commentaries by enlightened thinkers in their era. In fact there is no primary source.

That aside, thinking of the Divine in anthropomorphic terms also means the attribution of human emotions and actions. This is common in most cultures, perhaps more apparent in Greek mythology.

In Christianity for instance: love, anger, vengeance, hatred, justice, jealousy etc., are often used to describe God’s emotion. In Exodus 15:3, Isaiah 42:13, we see examples of human actions. In these two examples, God’s involvement in the killing and destruction of non-compliant nations or people through active warfare.

Thus in Christianity we have an angry God, who holds grudges. One who requires human sacrifice as Atonement for the sin of Adam and Eve – humanity.

But even if we agree that this was Truth, there are plethora of positions with this doctrine. Theologians like Julian of Norwich (1342-1430) believes that Jesus’ sacrifice was once, and for all of humanity (regardless of belief or unbelief). In other circles, in-spite of Jesus’ sacrifice, there are other complicated doctrinal subsets, like the Rapture and Judgement Day, which some believers are likely to fall short of, leading to everlasting condemnation in hell fire🔥with non-believers.

In fact, there is a whole industry built on this premise, with some Christians even having a preview of who might, or has ended up in hell already.

At any rate, except the definition of love as we know and understand it is wrong. Because If it is right, then the Christian God could not be described as loving.

Human Capital Development: Healingsprings fellowship

http://www.healingsprings.org.uk

Reachout | Revive | Recover