>>19083241i mean, all religions seek to convey this type of universal truth of love, that we are ultimately all the same inside. the bible, to the western world, provides a vocabulary to express spiritual concepts, such as the word god, known in the east as dao or om (might be wrong, or indirect translation, i'm not too familiar with these other religions myself). they not only do this, but give you a moral foundation, from which you can base your life on, some powerful life lessons which you don't have to experience the hardship to know how to overcome yourself. you can just follow the advice in this book, it's all laid out for you.
ultimately, i think it's that humans have a tendency to misappropriate religion and turn it into something that it isn't, because when you take everything for face value, yeah, it sounds bat shit insane. i think here is where we need to make the distinction between truth and conviction, where anyone can read the truth and distort it, but if you have conviction, it's a personal truth you know feels right and just inside, and it leaves it up to you, not anyone else, to discern. just look at "le holy lands" in israel and how their religious devotion led them to the slaughter of innocents, or the conquistadors, or the jihad, and the list goes on. you're free to argue semantics with me here, but i'm trying to convey this point that religion is a means to an end, that end being the discovery and understanding of that universally penetrating truth which all faiths profess. anything else is because humans falsely used it to justify their selfish and wicked behaviours.
