religion is as individual as each of us, and in fact neither group you
mention here, the catholics, Martin luther or my babtist upbringing are
wrong for those who feel closer to g-d for practicing it, in the end noone
can say what is right for another in religion, Lee
"Orlando Enrique Fiol" > wrote in message
. ..
> Julie Bove > wrote:
>>By the same token, nowhere is it demonstrated that the quality of life in
>>this world is diminished if you don't take communion. Or eat fish on
>>Fridays. Or on Christmas Eve. Or don't eat beef. Or... Or... See what
>>I
>>mean?
>
> Most religions intentionally blur the lines between God's laws and Man's
> laws,
> to the point where the hapless practitioner can't tell the difference.
> Some guy
> figures out that if he wants to stay king and ensure that right for his
> successive generations, the best way to do it is to say that God gave him
> the
> right to rule. Some rabbi comes up with the idea that the more minutia he
> and
> his fellow clergy prescribe to orthodox Jews, the more future generations
> will
> depend on rabbinical wisdom for everything. Some priest comes up with a
> link
> between Jesus' crucifixion and fish on Fridays, proclaims it as God's law
> and
> ensures that ignorant Catholics will respect that Man-made tradition for
> centuries. I hope you see a pattern here. Religious clergy don't want
> people
> thinking for themselves; that's why the Bible and Mass were kept in
> incomprehensible Latin until Vatican II, and orthodox Jews rarely read the
> Torah outside of schul or in translation. The idea is for worshipers not
> to
> think for themselves via direct access to God's word. Access is mediated
> by
> language, special scrolls, special churches or synagogue settings. Then,
> the
> Word is mediated by exegetical or hermeneutic interpretation, which means
> worshipers aren't supposed to make whatever they will from direct access
> to
> God's word; they're supposed to depend on rabbis, theologians, priests,
> bishops, popes and even saints to interpret scripture. All this is of
> course
> nonsense. God has always made His word directly accessible. When the
> Jewish
> people spoke and wrote Hebrew, He gave them Torah in their own language.
> But
> when Hebrew ceased being the lingua franca for Jews, they needed rabbis
> specially trained in Hebrew to read scripture. The same held true for
> Catholics
> and Latin scripture until Martin Luther translated the Bible into German.
> The
> clergy have purposely withheld scriptures from the masses for centuries
> because
> direct access to scriptures would diminish their choke hold over
> worshipers. If
> people could read the word autonomously, they might just get the notion
> that
> all these laws are ridiculous, which we can't have. That's why we have a
> situation today where people like Ellen are worried about not being able
> to say
> meaningful sabbath prayers without first consuming bread. She's only
> worried
> about this because her rabbis have told her what they take to be God's
> final
> pronouncement on this matter. Of course, there are plenty of Jews who find
> themselves miraculously able to worship meaningfully without eating bread
> before sabbath prayers. Either those conservative and reform Jews have got
> it
> all wrong or just maybe, it is in fact the orthodox Jews whose endless
> tomes of
> laws keep them imprisoned in anachronistic bubbles and ultimately separate
> from
> God.
>
> Orlando