Why does text make something more valid?

[Syd the Human]

I don't know if this is true for most, but I get the feeling that people of faith that rely on an ancient text saying that since it's such an old text it must be true (that statement has its own issues but that is for a different thread) but what about religions that did not have an official text? Why does a religion that is written down suddenly become more valid to believe in? If Christianity, Judaism, or Islam had not been written down, would those who practice it follow it? I don't know if any other religion has an official text since the majority of my religious knowledge lies with the Abrahamic religions.

It's just a question that just came up.

 

[Deidre32]

One can be spiritual and believe in a god's existence without religion, per se. When I was a believer, while I read the Bible, it was my personal prayer life that made God "real" to me, not a book. Interesting thread!

 

[variant]

I don't know if this is true for most, but I get the feeling that people of faith that rely on an ancient text saying that since it's such an old text it must be true (that statement has its own issues but that is for a different thread) but what about religions that did not have an official text? Why does a religion that is written down suddenly become more valid to believe in? If Christianity, Judaism, or Islam had not been written down, would those who practice it follow it? I don't know if any other religion has an official text since the majority of my religious knowledge lies with the Abrahamic religions.

It's just a question that just came up.

Paradoxically the oldness seems to help because it removes the texts from the obvious motivations of it's authors you would have with a modern text.

If someone told believers that thirty years ago someone raised someone from the dead and claimed to be the messiah but I had no other way of accessing the story but through unattributed source material written and preserved by believers in the tail I'm pretty sure it would go over like a lead balloon.

 

[Ken-1122]

I don't know if this is true for most, but I get the feeling that people of faith that rely on an ancient text saying that since it's such an old text it must be true (that statement has its own issues but that is for a different thread) but what about religions that did not have an official text? Why does a religion that is written down suddenly become more valid to believe in? If Christianity, Judaism, or Islam had not been written down, would those who practice it follow it? I don't know if any other religion has an official text since the majority of my religious knowledge lies with the Abrahamic religions.

It's just a question that just came up.

It is my understanding that all the current religions have texts associated with them.

Ken

 

[prov1810]

We don't have personal experiences apart from our collaborative attempts to make sense of them. So it's natural that religious people would write things down. And the nation of Israel had collective experiences: the Exodus and so on. So their written history had religious themes.