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Originally Posted by
flying fish
Hi josephdc,
On the contrary all good religions are similar in its core teachings.
All good religions teaches the following universal values- Justice, fairness, compassion, sincerity,
the golden rule, honesty etc.
Yeah, I do agree sir that those are values shared by all good religions. But I think that those values are really not the core of each of the major religions. For instance, the core of Christianity is Jesus Christ. If you take away Jesus, Christianity falls apart. What remains, I think, is a shell. Yes, those values would still be there, but they wouldn't have any source or foundation. They would be empty.
The difference actually is in the rituals, dogmas & interpretations of its own doctrines.
Concept about god as to whether it is anthropomorphic, pantheistic, naturalistic, scientific etc
are part of of the peripheral teachings. What really matters most is- the message & its integration to ones life. Thus any religionist might ask oneself-
Do i really practice the inner or core teachings of my religion?
The teaching is more important than the teacher, when we focus on the teachings we can never fail to be united, but if we focus on the teacher rest assured our sentimental human nature will always get the better of our judgement, that instead of seeing the similarities we look for the differences.
The word is never the thing.
Yes, I do agree that those things (doctrines, etc.) are secondary and in them we also differ.