Site last updated on December 18th, 2024.
Site last updated on December 18th, 2024.
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Baby Book Four
From the time a child is born, its parents have only a short period of exclusive control over what it experiences. Before long, the child is interacting with other children: relatives, neighbours, and school mates. And each of these other children has an influence on the child.
If the devil himself says something that is true, it is our obligation to accept it. But we don't have to accept all that goes with the message. The most difficult task in arriving at truth is in how we relate one fact (or truth) to another. Error occurs when we make invalid assumptions based on the valid evidence that we have.
The problem in so many relationships between groups (and even between individuals) is that we have this myth of a perfectly balanced relationship where each side gives exactly the same 50%. In reality, we are each prisoners of our own bodies and our own experiences. We cannot see things as others see them.
A fundamental pillar of the Christian "gospel" is the "good news" that God no longer looks at a person's religion to determine whether or not they will be saved. Instead, he looks at their faith. We will say more about this word "faith" later, but for now, it is enough to say that God is not interested in our actions (works) so much as he is interested in the underlying motivation for the actions.
So far it may sound like we are saying that just about anybody and everybody is right in their own way. But that is far from true. Just about anybody could (conceivably) be right (and just because their religion is different from ours doesn't make them wrong); but the chances that a person really is right with God are incredibly slim.
There is a saying that ignorance is no excuse under the law. The main reason for this is that it is virtually impossible to prove whether or not a person knew the rules before breaking them.
People use words like superstition and magic when referring to non-Christian religions, and terms like faith and miracles when referring to Christian beliefs. Is there a difference? Or are these just catchwords to make out-group vices sound like in-group virtues? The answer is a bit of both.
In every religion there are people who draw very clear lines between the good guys and the bad guys on the basis of whether or not people believe certain "fundamentals". These fundamentals cannot be questioned without these people insisting that God himself has been questioned.
Such people are called fundamentalists.
Such people are called fundamentalists.