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Thoughts on Religious Laws
Aug. 25th, 2009 10:54 amSo I had a long talk about religion last night, and I came to some interesting insights. In government, our laws start out simple and move towards increasingly complex systems. I believe that religion starts out complex and moves towards increasingly simple systems.
In government you start with anarchy or no laws. Then you get a few laws with simple ways of dealing with them. For a long time there were only 4 felonies (Murder, Rape, Arson, Theft) and the only punishment was Death. Eventually more and more crimes were added on, and different punishments for different crimes (Stocks, Prison, Branding, etc).
After society gets suitably complex, you start adding civil laws. Tax Codes, Contracts, Intellectual Property. Towards the end you get literally hundreds of books proscribing behavior where originally there were 4 felonies with 1 punishment.
Religion seems to work the other way, at least in the West. We start out with Leviticus which goes on and on about often the most simple behavior. I believe that Talmudic codes actually go into even greater detail that the Christian Bible, particularly about what is clean and unclean. Then Jesus comes along and actually SIMPLIFIES the law. He says: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
Now presumably one can argue that all of Leviticus is contained within these two edicts. But I am not sure how shellfish or polyblends work into these two.
Just because its more simple doesn't mean that it is EASIER. In fact, I think its harder to love your enemies than it is to not steal. Yet Jesus wants us to do just that.
The impression I get, particularly as I have kids of my own, is that in order to develop as a moral person, you NEED to start with a bunch of rules. It starts as 'because Daddy says so.' As the child gets older you explain to them why the rules are there and what they mean. As the child gets older, a good parent gives more and more latitude for the child to make their own decisions and interpret the rules as they see fit.
So I guess I see fundamentalist Christians as very young children who really only understand the rules because 'daddy says so.' I often fear these type of people, without fear of hell, would wantonly commit crimes or sins. You often hear that sort of reasoning when they talk about athiests. They literally don't understand why an Atheist would be moral or good.
After a while, a Christian matures into their faith. They understand and love God and try to love their neighbor without the need for spouting bible verses. They understand that God has written the word in their heart and they try to act upon what they learn as an adult.
Ultimately, I think we don't NEED religion in order to maintain our relationship with God. All the tools are there to teach us, but we can grow beyond them. Just like i don't need to remember all the parts of speech in order to talk, I don't need to memorize the bible in order to live a life pleasing to God.
And I think if you look at a lot of other religions, they teach the same lessons. The same tools are used whether you are Buddhist Wiccan or Christian. Many roads to the same destination My Fathers House has many rooms. All that good stuff.
In government you start with anarchy or no laws. Then you get a few laws with simple ways of dealing with them. For a long time there were only 4 felonies (Murder, Rape, Arson, Theft) and the only punishment was Death. Eventually more and more crimes were added on, and different punishments for different crimes (Stocks, Prison, Branding, etc).
After society gets suitably complex, you start adding civil laws. Tax Codes, Contracts, Intellectual Property. Towards the end you get literally hundreds of books proscribing behavior where originally there were 4 felonies with 1 punishment.
Religion seems to work the other way, at least in the West. We start out with Leviticus which goes on and on about often the most simple behavior. I believe that Talmudic codes actually go into even greater detail that the Christian Bible, particularly about what is clean and unclean. Then Jesus comes along and actually SIMPLIFIES the law. He says: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
Now presumably one can argue that all of Leviticus is contained within these two edicts. But I am not sure how shellfish or polyblends work into these two.
Just because its more simple doesn't mean that it is EASIER. In fact, I think its harder to love your enemies than it is to not steal. Yet Jesus wants us to do just that.
The impression I get, particularly as I have kids of my own, is that in order to develop as a moral person, you NEED to start with a bunch of rules. It starts as 'because Daddy says so.' As the child gets older you explain to them why the rules are there and what they mean. As the child gets older, a good parent gives more and more latitude for the child to make their own decisions and interpret the rules as they see fit.
So I guess I see fundamentalist Christians as very young children who really only understand the rules because 'daddy says so.' I often fear these type of people, without fear of hell, would wantonly commit crimes or sins. You often hear that sort of reasoning when they talk about athiests. They literally don't understand why an Atheist would be moral or good.
After a while, a Christian matures into their faith. They understand and love God and try to love their neighbor without the need for spouting bible verses. They understand that God has written the word in their heart and they try to act upon what they learn as an adult.
Ultimately, I think we don't NEED religion in order to maintain our relationship with God. All the tools are there to teach us, but we can grow beyond them. Just like i don't need to remember all the parts of speech in order to talk, I don't need to memorize the bible in order to live a life pleasing to God.
And I think if you look at a lot of other religions, they teach the same lessons. The same tools are used whether you are Buddhist Wiccan or Christian. Many roads to the same destination My Fathers House has many rooms. All that good stuff.
