Yuyutsu

Ancient scripture is quite remarkable and very unique. These are the stories passed down by the processes of the memory code of song and dance, pre-literature.

Remarkable stories full of inconsistencies; abject failures in the light of modern knowledge. But as a guide to the correct path of life, are irrefutably valuable to our understanding of why we exist, and how civilisation survived through the long years of human history, and as a guide to goodness, and to lighten the path to human betterment.

The plague to modern man is narcissism. The scriptures abound with stories of the importance of civilisation over the individual. Selflessness.

'Religion has killed Faith !'

try telling the gw alarmist that. Even straight facts doesn't hinder their blinbd faith.

Dear Dan,

Correct overall, but just a few fine tunings:

«abject failures in the light of modern knowledge.»

Modern knowledge is limited to the objective world.
A failure can only be claimed when someone attempts to provide objective knowledge, but did the ancients attempt to provide such knowledge? I don't think that they even had a notion of "objective" or interest therein, which is a pretty modern term.

«are irrefutably valuable to our understanding of why we exist»

... why we seem to exist.

«and to lighten the path to human betterment.»

Any human betterment is incidental and temporary - Ancient scripture lightens the path to God, rather than to human betterment.
Had the objective been human betterment, then the enlightened wise should have remained in the world to help lifting it, but by and large, once they found God, they all left the world, allowing humanity to fall again (analogously, think of boiling water molecules at 100°C, evaporating and leaving the rest of the water at 100°C exactly, rather than staying and heating the water further).

«The scriptures abound with stories of the importance of civilisation over the individual. Selflessness.»

Scriptures teach selflessness as a means to be freed from one's false sense of "self", not because civilisation is more important than individuals.

To Individual.

I'd also like to know what you mean by correcting the misinterpretations of scriptures. Not that I disagree that there are misinterpretations, it's just what those are usually seem to change based on the person assessing the interpretations. In my opinion, several misinterpretations start with a modern theory of the bible, that is either to correct it and interject what it would mean to the original audience (a loose concept that needs interpretation itself), or misinterpretations start by largely ignoring the bible and adopting other perspectives, then looking at the bible to find a means to justify our already held philosophies. The unfortunate part about the second kind of misinterpretations is that it's hard to step away from. We all have ideas of the world and how it works or should work. Over time these are learned with or without being taught them by parents or schools. And they become (for everyone) our own foundation to understand anything else by.

Either way, if you could go into what you mean by correcting the misinterpretations of the scripture it would be appreciated.

To Yuyutsu. You and I have vast differences in our picture of heaven. You indicate it to be a place of only distracting pleasure, whereas I see heaven as a place of finding God. The pleasantness of being near God in heaven is a byproduct of being near Him. It wouldn't be a distraction away from Him. As for suffering, it isn't necessary for spiritual growth. It can and does correct us and shape us, but God isn't keeping the world in a state of suffering as a means for us to all grow. He promised to eventually have a world that doesn't have the death, and sorrow that is part of the world as we know it now. It's also part of that promise to be an eternal change.

As of now there is no growth from generation to generation. The same lessons are learned every 2 to 4 generations that their parents and grandparents learned. If there was a kind of spiritual growth and reincarnation element then there would be growth and advancement in the generations of mankind. Evolution in human behavior kind of thing. Currently, there are no signs that we are different in behavior then the cultures of our ancestors. There isn't any way to validate your views of the world. But there are ways to validate God by the testimony of people who've found Him while still alive in this world. As well as by those who've followed God through the teachings of the bible and seeing how that fairs.

Sorry if that is a harsh tone, but there's nothing wrong with trying to validate a person's opinions to see if they are true or not. Expecially since the world is full of philosophies and explainations that are often just not true.

//Currently, there are no signs that we are different in behavior then the cultures of our ancestors.//

Yes, there are. Read 'The Better Angels of Our Nature' by Steven Pinker, then tell me that there are no signs the world has improved over time.