Thank God we are all cafeteria customers when it comes to our respective religions. Society progresses because human beings are able to discern that two differing positions cannot concurrently be tenable. For instance at some point it becomes untenable to believe that the world was created in seven days while simultaneously believing in the gradual evolution of mankind.
Each person chooses their own untenable positions, for me it was the rather benign parable of the Prodigal Son. The reason this parable has such resonance is because every human being imagines themselves to the Prodigal Son. Unfortunately even as a very young child, I identified with the other son; the good, dutiful son who did all the right things. My own elder brother was very errant, and my mother went out of her way to accommodate his many failings and lack of academic interest. Ofcourse, being ten I knew all about Law and Justice and little about motherly love. However, the crux of the matter was that Jesus Christ had deeply misrepresented the feelings of the dutiful son and completely misunderstood his angst. If Christ could show such deficiency in his understanding of human nature, than his being Divine was an untenable position for me. The reason I write this is because of late, some rather strong posts have been made about eternal salvation and this being achieved primarily through Jesus Christ. This position as the truth is untenable when juxtaposed against every human beings unalienable right to embrace whatever belief system he finds comfort in, and lead a moral live within that system. If one does believe in salvation resting in just one religion, this is a rather shameful precept and should be worn not on your sleeve but rather like a tattoo, hidden from sight, seeing that it is an affront to every civilised notion of humanity. selma ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ