Should people explore other religions?

[SonOfTheWest]

Studying other religion gave me a lot of joy as a child. I loved reading about ancient Egyptian and Greek religion. As far as living religions. It gave me a love for Buddhism.

 

[ToHoldNothing]

I didn't say that at all.

You said it was usually because of a spiritual hunger, therefore implying that someone like myself is in a minority. Am I wrong in that?

I strongly disagree. They all point the soul towards Christ. (Maybe I shouldn't comment re: Jainism)

Or Buddhism, technically, since it doesn't really believe in a soul anyway, or the need to be saved

The G-d of the Bible is opposed to them, and it is He who created war.

Your belief as such is colored by what appears to be willful ignorance of the belief systems. That concerns me, considering you advocate such searching in religions and then selectively say certain religions are excluded.

We defined this earlier in the thread. "Knowledge" in the Biblical sense, as in Adam knew his wife, is not merely a philosophical occurrence

You make it sound so mystical and cryptic that it suggests little more than a personal experience made fact, when it is in fact purely existential

 

[razeontherock]

You said it was usually because of a spiritual hunger, therefore implying that someone like myself is in a minority. Am I wrong in that?

I couldn't testify as to your lack of Spiritual hunger, no. And "knowledge" as you use the term may be purely existential, but that is not responsive to what is being said here in the least.

 

[ToHoldNothing]

I couldn't testify as to your lack of Spiritual hunger, no. And "knowledge" as you use the term may be purely existential, but that is not responsive to what is being said here in the least.

So you think I do have spiritual hunger by your terms?

Knowledge in the sense of academic study is not existential, it is categorical and philosophical. Knowledge in the sense of personal experience is existential.

 

[SonOfTheWest]

So you think I do have spiritual hunger by your terms?

I hate when people try to do that. You know who else tries to claim that a person has a hunger that only something they can provide can fulfill? Drug dealers.

 

[rpeg]

I hate when people try to do that. You know who else tries to claim that a person has a hunger that only something they can provide can fulfill? Drug dealers.

That's a great analogy.

On that note, I am surprised that my reference to the issue of knowledge keeps getting confused with "spiritual knowledge". If I were seeking knowledge on any other subject, I'm not sure many people would confuse what that meant.

But it seems like we're on the same page, sort of.

We all agree (at least on this thread) that learning about other religions is useful and important? It's something I think would be wonderful to advocate for. Too often I find those of a particular faith who make ignorant claims about other religions. Additionally, I find people of a particular faith who do not know enough history about their own.

Thoughts on that?

 

[mandyangel]

Sure, I like exploring mormanism. But to me, its just education and really interesting. Lots of my friends are morman and I love a lot of the principles of the faith even though I don't agree with how the whole concept came about.

 

[razeontherock]

So you think I do have spiritual hunger by your terms?

I couldn't possibly speak to that.

Knowledge in the sense of academic study is not existential, it is categorical and philosophical. Knowledge in the sense of personal experience is existential.

Then your last phrase in your previous post makes no sense, to me.

 

[ToHoldNothing]

Raze, you suggested that Biblical knowledge was somehow also philosophical, but you failed to justify that claim, if I understood it correctly. That is where my issue lay. I wasn't being contradictory, because I wasn't claiming that Biblical or spiritual knowledge was both philosophical and existential as you seem to interpret it, but that it was solely existential.

 

[razeontherock]

I wasn't claiming that Biblical or spiritual knowledge was both philosophical and existential as you seem to interpret it, but that it was solely existential.

Hmmm. Do we have everybody confused yet? I find the Bible has multiple layers. Some can be intellectual and may inspire philosophical thought. I think sooner or later, anyone reading it would encounter at least existential claims, if not questions of their own. But to actually experience it's Truth first hand? That's when it goes past just talk and opinion.

 

[ToHoldNothing]

Then we'd have to distinguish between Biblical knowledge in terms of its narrative or teachings and Biblical knowledge in terms of experiencing something in conformity with Biblical standards.

 

[razeontherock]

Biblical knowledge in terms of its narrative or teachings

The Biblical term for this is "wisdom"

and Biblical knowledge in terms of experiencing something in conformity with Biblical standards.

the Biblical term for this "knowledge," although your phraseology is a bit legalistic.

And in between these two we have "understanding," which is making the right choice, based on wisdom already gained

 

[ToHoldNothing]

The Biblical term for this is "wisdom"

Is this in any way related to sophia in the Greek sense where it's general knowledge about the world?

the Biblical term for this "knowledge," although your phraseology is a bit legalistic.

I wonder if this is related in any way to phronesis, which seems a better complement to wisdom than knowledge, though I suppose part of this is the Greek language. Phronesis, from my understanding, is the application of sophia in contexts

And in between these two we have "understanding," which is making the right choice, based on wisdom already gained

Actually this sounds like phronesis and then knowledge might be something related to gnosis, or more likely episteme, knowledge in the general sense in Greek, from what I recall of the vocabular I've gleaned.