Dear Blue Sky,
This series is meant to give English students here who usually have been taught atheism, and almost nothing about the great world Religions, some very basic information. Then, when they meet people from many cultures and religions who use English as a go-between language, they may have some respect for and understanding of them.
Many Chinese professionals now are beginning to interact with people who speak French or Spanish or every other language of the world. English is being used as the common inter-language so they can communicate accurately.
Chinese people will continue to meet more and more of the rest of the world now, and it is a good thing to be able to know and respect others. To think that they are a bunch of misled, exploited and ignorant ones, because they believe in their Religions instead of being atheists will only lead to self pride on the atheists side, and to lack of respect for the other. Such negative thoughts toward them are usually sensed by the disrespected. It isn't conducive to "fraternity."
The information I gave in the series is extremely simplified. Every religion has much more meaning and depth than I could convey here. This is just a toehold to get you started off.
Whenever anyone reads Writings from the originators of a great Religon they must think in terms of the metaphors used. These are intended to allow much depth and breadth to the wisdom given, so that it can release itself over many centuries and still not become exhausted or not fit the occasion. Changes in language don't easily destroy the meanings of metaphors.
Scriptures are meant to be unravelled over thousands and thousands of years and to be able to prove what is and was, true, and what is and was, false.
People who read Revealed religious metaphors literally, are far off the track andwill come to accept very peculiar and unscientific things. Many do this, and it is why Religion has come to be known as unscientific. When you find people like this, you will at least understand why people otherwise intelligent can manage to believe such totally unreasonable and unscientific stuff.
I don't know if it is worthwhile on the forum to share what certain metaphoricalwords often mean. For instance, the word "clouds" has meanings that go far beyond water vapour masses above our heads. If such words used as metaphors would interest some, I can share a few.
My opinion is that atheists should find these topics interesting from an academic point of view, and also, for better understanding and respect for the depths inother peoples' beliefs. Even though such atheists won't share those beliefs.
You all want to learn English. You will be astonished how much Greek myth you will find in all English written material. It is the same with religious thought. It is everywhere, too. Without some understanding you will draw a lot of blanks as you read or listen.
There is a very great deal of literal though affecting things all over the worldtoday. If one understands something about where the controversies come from,then much is understandable. This is a delicate topic which I will only address as I feel I can. For instance, the Mahdi Army in the news right now, and The Black Standard. What is the background to those? They certainly have deep ancient meaning. Many people will read those words as though they said "The ABC Army and their simple flag." That doesn't convey anything at all about the underlying meaning, and you don't even know what it is that you didn't comprehend. Dear Blue Sky, I may write something about the Bab, and then about Baha'u'llah, as you requested. It remains to be seen if I can do so without making my poststoo long. :-)
Thanks for your interest and encouragement with this series. I really appreciate it.
Best wishes, Mary
