Re: .com/religion

Quoting J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...>:

> In a message dated 19.09.2001 02:23:30 PM, trwier@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU
> writes:
>
> ><SNiPSNiP> the test takes an arbitrarily chosen set of criteria
> >that differentiate some religions, and then uses that set to
> >force all people into a handful of possible categorizations.
> >It's little more than a game.
>
>     Agreed. But if it was more developed, it might be more
> accurate (more questions, for instance, - even highly pointed
> questions, i.e.:
See, I don't quite agree with this, either.  To my way of
thinking, religious experiences are, almost by definition,
personal experiences. Even if there broad similarities
between any two individual's faiths, the labels that are
subsequently applied to those people really glosses over
the underlying differences, inasmuch as no two people have
the same relationship (or lack thereof) with the Divine
because people view and react to the world from *their*
point of view, just as people view and react to other
individuals and events from their points of view.

In this sense, the religious test would have to account
for the quite literally uncountable ways in which the
6 billion or so humans live their daily spiritual lives.
While it might be a legitimate way to brainstorm ideas about
concultures, I think a much better way to figure out, even
if imperfectly, what any one person's faith is like is to
have them tell you themselves how they view the world.

==============================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...>
Alternative: <artabanos@...>

"Aspidi men Saiôn tis agalletai, hên para thamnôi
  entos amômêton kallipon ouk ethelôn;
autos d' exephugon thanatou telos: aspis ekeinê
  erretô; exautês ktêsomai ou kakiô" - Arkhilokhos