In our modern technology-driven world, marketing generally is employed to convince people (i.e., consumers) to crave and covet things they don't really need. Drive our car and you'll project sex appeal and power! Use our credit card and people will know you mean business!! Use our thingamajigs and you will be the envy of your neighbors!!!
To be sure, there is nothing wrong with promoting or advertising your product or service. With so many choices to choose from, it's natural that people want you to know what their product or service has to offer. But letting folks know you're out there is altogether different than attaching emotive valuations that play to many people's selfish and prideful sense of self. It becomes a game to see how many people you can ensnare in your carefully deployed traps.
If your product or service exhibits high quality and craftsmanship, it should sell itself! There should be no need to try to trick or connive people into buying or using it.
This is one of my biggest complaints regarding Christian apologetics. Apologists meet and work together to devise marketing strategies to "sell" their belief system. They offer advice on how to win a theological debate. They create stratagems to turn religious discussions in their favor and/or to confuse others to the point that they throw up their hands.
If their belief system represents the ultimate truth, then why the need for all this high-powered marketing? Why not let it stand on its own as its own testament?
In my 51+ years, I have never had someone knock on my door and say, "Hi, I'm your local Taoist. Let me tell you how you should live your life." But Christians of all stripes have knocked on my door to tell me just that. Such folks come from a variety of Christian brands, but they are each determined to sell their version of God.
It's the same sort of thing on blogs. When I leave a comment, I don't write, "I've uncovered the ultimate truth and, if you don't believe as I do, you're going to hell in a hand basket." Instead, I share elements of the path I'm on in the hope that it will spur others to discover their own path.
Far too many comments from Christian apologists go in the opposite direction. They tell you what the truth is and browbeat you with their point of view. If you resist, you're the told that YOU are denying God and YOU will suffer a severe punishment. Even if this turns out to be true, don't you think God can handle this angle himself?
In the end, I'm much more open to those individuals who will state their case simply and then leave it at that. If it resonates with me, we can discuss the topic together at greater length. If it doesn't resonate with me, all browbeating does is irritate me (which, by the way, means I'll have less patience for similar points of view in the future).
I feel no need to sell Tao to anyone. This blog exists to discuss my and other people's perceptions of it. If you don't wish to embrace it like I have, then don't. If you don't wish to walk on your own path, then skip along on somebody else's. It's your life, not mine.
To be sure, there is nothing wrong with promoting or advertising your product or service. With so many choices to choose from, it's natural that people want you to know what their product or service has to offer. But letting folks know you're out there is altogether different than attaching emotive valuations that play to many people's selfish and prideful sense of self. It becomes a game to see how many people you can ensnare in your carefully deployed traps.
If your product or service exhibits high quality and craftsmanship, it should sell itself! There should be no need to try to trick or connive people into buying or using it.
This is one of my biggest complaints regarding Christian apologetics. Apologists meet and work together to devise marketing strategies to "sell" their belief system. They offer advice on how to win a theological debate. They create stratagems to turn religious discussions in their favor and/or to confuse others to the point that they throw up their hands.
If their belief system represents the ultimate truth, then why the need for all this high-powered marketing? Why not let it stand on its own as its own testament?
In my 51+ years, I have never had someone knock on my door and say, "Hi, I'm your local Taoist. Let me tell you how you should live your life." But Christians of all stripes have knocked on my door to tell me just that. Such folks come from a variety of Christian brands, but they are each determined to sell their version of God.
It's the same sort of thing on blogs. When I leave a comment, I don't write, "I've uncovered the ultimate truth and, if you don't believe as I do, you're going to hell in a hand basket." Instead, I share elements of the path I'm on in the hope that it will spur others to discover their own path.
Far too many comments from Christian apologists go in the opposite direction. They tell you what the truth is and browbeat you with their point of view. If you resist, you're the told that YOU are denying God and YOU will suffer a severe punishment. Even if this turns out to be true, don't you think God can handle this angle himself?
In the end, I'm much more open to those individuals who will state their case simply and then leave it at that. If it resonates with me, we can discuss the topic together at greater length. If it doesn't resonate with me, all browbeating does is irritate me (which, by the way, means I'll have less patience for similar points of view in the future).
I feel no need to sell Tao to anyone. This blog exists to discuss my and other people's perceptions of it. If you don't wish to embrace it like I have, then don't. If you don't wish to walk on your own path, then skip along on somebody else's. It's your life, not mine.
Funny, I just a wrote a post about Christian apologists and their insistence that everyone accept THEIR authority, the Bible as the rule.
ReplyDeleteIn our area there are no Taoists that I know of. There probably are a few but Christianity so rules the roost in this area, any other belief is considered taboo. Typical for rural, Midwest America. Jews, Muslims, Hindu, and Buddhists must all drive 40-60 miles to the closet place of worship.
Bruce
'Tis not funny at all! Your piece served as the impetus for what I fell asleep thinking about last night. It resonated with me because I've been encountering quite a number of Christian apologetics lately. I ran into one again this morning and that made me decide to write this post.
ReplyDeleteThe philosophical Taoist can be at home anywhere. There is no need to drive 40-60 miles. Our "sanctuary", so to speak, is wherever we are.
indeed. i've often told people that... "i've read the bible. if god himself can't convince me that the bible is the one true path, what gives you the idea that you can do better?"
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good line! I'll have to remember that one. :)
ReplyDelete