Dear Peter,

You wrote: "Thus, they were not included in the canon of the bible because of their historical accuracy or their doctrinal purity but because they had been helpful for bringing the congregation closer to God, the aim of all worship."

The aim of all worship is not to bring the congregation closer to God. My daughter attends a Buddhist Sangha every week. They do not mention God as that is not a concept recognized in their faith. There are religions, and your religion is only one of many. There are theistic religions and non-theistic religions. Buddhism is a non-theistic religion. All theistic religions do not regard Jesus in the same light. The theistic religion called Judaism excludes the New Testament.

Christianity is one of many religions. Not only should we recognise what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God, but we should recognise the forms of human worship which belong to neither.

This article underscores the reason less and less folk attend Church or belong to organized religion.

Esoteric Christians believed and worshipped differently than the Constantinians that followed and claimed that they with their Constantine imposed pagan rituals and beliefs and their Constantine approved bible are remotely Christian.

Or that their bible is mostly fiction with some very important books left out on Constantine's say so! Can read what they like in edifices that early Christians didn't have or need to worship their God!
Alan B.

david f, Thursday, 26 May 2022 11:32:03 AM:
"They do not mention God as that is not a concept recognized in their faith."

If Buddhism is a non-theistic religion (devoid of an uncaused, invisible all-powerful governing agent that is worthy of worship), where might an interested reader find the faith element in your daughter's adherence?

What is faith for both of you in this context?

Ha Ha Mr Sells.

I’ve always considered the teaching of Scripture from the pulpit, as an extension of Freudian dream interpretation; not so much what the story tells, but what it hides..there is the answer.

A huge amount of hiding goes along with Christianity; especially its intrinsic connection to its Jewish origins.

Christ was a devout Jew, so was Paul. Paul was obviously capable of reading and writing; there is no evidence Christ had the same access to education, especially as a carpenter.
Paul was capable of study from text, was Christ? Doubtful!

To conclude as you seem to, self enlightenment is an inferior choice to a sermon from scripture as a higher rank, lacks a bit!
Even at the end of the Middle Ages, most were illiterate, and the preaching was invariably from a Latin text. Sounds more like Roman Catholic indoctrination to me also.

The reformation was actually enlightenment to the uneducated masses, freedom from church indoctrination of the past, and a chance to think for themselves, and ask questions which beforehand were unthinkable. Then came the printing press!

Dan

Dear Pogi,

Every tribal people as far as it is known has a creation story. The Australian Aborigines have the Rainbow Serpent. The idea of one god was probably first posited by the Egyptians. Ra, the sun, was worshiped. God is a human invention.

Buddhism is one of the world's largest religions and originated 2,500 years ago in India. Buddhists believe that the human life is one of suffering, and that meditation, spiritual and physical labor, and good behavior are the ways to achieve enlightenment, or nirvana.

I believe in no religion. I accept the scientific account that the universe came into being some 13.8 billion years ago, and the earth is about 4.5 billions years old. Human beings have existed in something like their present form for about 200,000 years. I feel no need to believe in the existence of any supernatural entities.

Sells, Christianity would be a more credible religion if God was removed from the equation. After all, where was he when Jesus was being crucified. He was conspicuous by his absence.