Dear Fanfan,
Thank you for telling me where you are studying in the USA. We are stillmany thousands of miles from each other! I'm glad to know you, too. :-)
It doesn't matter to me whether you are a Christian or not, or whether you believe in One God Almighty, or more than one. You are a thinking person, and that is what is important. I am not interested in convincing you to belong to any religion. That is your own personal business. I think it is important foreach us to decide for ourselves what we believe. We need to search, and then base our lives and behaviour on what we conclude. If we find something better we should feel free to make alterations in our inner structure of wisdom. I offer my opinions as part of our discussion, and I hope you will feel free to agree or disagree. That's how we can have a good discussion, and I might find out something interesting, too.
You raised seven points. Here they are, as I understood them:
1. Is there really only one all mighty God?
2. How can a "God" who controls the world ever let human science understand and explain everything? This would also include understanding His religion and all myths.
3. Wouldn't we then be close to being like God Himself? Would that be safe?
4. Will God stop us when we get too much knowledge, and are too like him, by causing a great tragedy?
5. Our growing understanding should make us purer. But society is only getting worse, instead of better. How can that be?
6. Science doesn't need morality to make progress. In fact it can go faster without it. Morality is related to religion, and not science. Science and religion therefore cannot come close together as they are quite different from each other. We can try to unite them as it would seem to be a good thing to do, but it probably won't work. How can science and religion ever agree?
7. If everyone in the world believed in a true and good religion this world wouldn't be needed any more because everyone would go to heaven anyway. So we might as well just go straight there without this world in between.
Did I understand you right, and are these the points you made?
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I would like to address points 2 and 6 first.
There isn't any contradiction between true religion and science. When religion is opposed to science it becomes low superstition. Whatever is contrary to knowledge is ignorance.
If science proves something to be impossible, how can any person still believe it to be a true fact? If people believe things that are against reason it isn't a sign of faith, it is a sign of ignorant superstition.
The Unity of God is logical, and this idea isn't against conclusions arrived at by scientific study. I'll discuss this in another post. Otherwise this willbecome too long.
All religions teach that we must do good. We must be generous, sincere, truthful, law-abiding, and faithful. All this is reasonable, and is the only logical way that humanity can progress.
All religious laws conform to reason. They were totally suitable for the people who received them, and for the time period in which they were to be obeyed.
Religion has two main parts:
the first is spiritual, the second is practical.
The first or spiritual part never changes. All the great Teachers from God who founded the world's great religions have always taught the same truths, and given the same spiritual law. They all teach only one code of morality. The reason for this is because pure truth can't be divided. It is like light, always the same, even if it comes from different lamps. To say it another way: the Sun has sent many rays to illumine human intelligence, but the light was always the same.
The second, or practical part of religion deals with outer forms and ceremonies, and with methods of punishment for certain offenses. This is the material side of the law, and it guides the customs and manners of the people that it was designed for, according to the needs of their times. Times change. Then old laws look peculiar and don't work any more. Often people still try to enforce them anyway.
For instance, in the time of Moses there were ten crimes that were punished by death. Some of His laws can be put this way: "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." That means if you blinded someone, you would be blinded. If you knocked out someone's tooth, you would lose a tooth. It was practical to train a desert people this way in a situation where jails were impractical.
When Jesus came he changed the law of "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," into "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you." The old, stern law was changed into one of love, mercy and forbearance for that time.
In olden days there was a punishment for theft that was cutting off the right hand. In our time, this law cannot be applied.
In our times, if a man curses his father he is allowed to live. In the past he would have been put to death.
This is all to explain that the spiritual law never changes, but practical rules must change to fit the necessities of the times.
The first part of religion, the spiritual part is more important than the practical part described above. It is the same for all time. It has never changed. It never will change. As is said: it is "the same, yesterday, today, and for ever!" Another way we hear this said is: "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be."
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Part 2 will follow, re science and religion
