Over at the Abercrombie View, the host wrote, "Belief in God is not religion, but a fact of life. It is in fact a principle of the universe, like gravity and the laws of physics. God is not religion. He is fact." I agree with this assessment, but not for the reasons of this particular author.
I think the vast majority of people in the world will agree there is some sort of universal entity, energy or force that pervades the universe. This entity goes by many names: Mother Earth, Jehovah, Allah, God, Tao and many more. Religion and philosophy are not this entity or force, rather they are different societal mechanisms which attempt to discuss, express and categorize this phenomena that none of us can truly comprehend.
If all the religions and philosophies that we know of were to vanish from the recesses of everyone's minds, this universal entity would still exist. The human ability and need to give it a name does not affect it one iota. It exists independent of how we describe it.
The problem we always have seemed to have in human society is that one group tries to impose its way of thinking about the phenomena on others and to present this conceptualization as the entity itself.
We see this activity in America today as Christians try to impose their particular view on everyone else. We see it in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine as Muslims try to impose their belief system on others. In Israel, it's the same thing. And you can find other similar examples almost everywhere in the world.
I'm sure there are even a few Taoists that try to impose their philosophy on others. However, since Taoism stresses that each person must climb the mountain themselves, I believe most Taoists aren't into imposing any sort of belief system on any other person.
I realize a few you might suggest that The Rambling Taoist is a vehicle to impose my beliefs on other people. Well, no one has to visit this blog; none of you are compelled to do so. And you certainly don't have to agree with what I write -- many of you don't.
I think the vast majority of people in the world will agree there is some sort of universal entity, energy or force that pervades the universe. This entity goes by many names: Mother Earth, Jehovah, Allah, God, Tao and many more. Religion and philosophy are not this entity or force, rather they are different societal mechanisms which attempt to discuss, express and categorize this phenomena that none of us can truly comprehend.
If all the religions and philosophies that we know of were to vanish from the recesses of everyone's minds, this universal entity would still exist. The human ability and need to give it a name does not affect it one iota. It exists independent of how we describe it.
The problem we always have seemed to have in human society is that one group tries to impose its way of thinking about the phenomena on others and to present this conceptualization as the entity itself.
We see this activity in America today as Christians try to impose their particular view on everyone else. We see it in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine as Muslims try to impose their belief system on others. In Israel, it's the same thing. And you can find other similar examples almost everywhere in the world.
I'm sure there are even a few Taoists that try to impose their philosophy on others. However, since Taoism stresses that each person must climb the mountain themselves, I believe most Taoists aren't into imposing any sort of belief system on any other person.
I realize a few you might suggest that The Rambling Taoist is a vehicle to impose my beliefs on other people. Well, no one has to visit this blog; none of you are compelled to do so. And you certainly don't have to agree with what I write -- many of you don't.
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