Comparing religions

[skiguy]

Sarajevo, thanks. Although not exactly the same as the sermon on the mount, their are many similarities.

[goesh]

It's in the eye of the beholder, comparisons and analogies, with any of the major religious texts. The real bright spot in Islamic thinking are the Sufis, many of whom will accomodate broad interpretation and application but we are ignoring some basics in this discussion. Assuming monotheistic orientation and with no taint of agnosticism/healthy skepticism, it is the ritual and manner said texts are approached, handled and read that imparts the real message. Lustration is the key, the ritual most ignore, part our missing 'juju'. Pecking the keyboard to read Al Qu'ran or the Upanishads or the Bible in no way compares to ritual application of the real thing. We in the West have blended the spiritual and the intellectual for some time now but at what cost is better addressed in other threads.

[marct]

Hi Goesh,

Assuming monotheistic orientation and with no taint of agnosticism/healthy skepticism, it is the ritual and manner said texts are approached, handled and read that imparts the real message. Lustration is the key, the ritual most ignore, part our missing 'juju'. Pecking the keyboard to read Al Qu'ran or the Upanishads or the Bible in no way compares to ritual application of the real thing. We in the West have blended the spiritual and the intellectual for some time now but at what cost is better addressed in other threads.

Hmm, I'm not sure about another thread being the best place for it since it is a key in the comparison and understanding between religions. You have certainly raised a key point, though - the intellectual examination of a symbol system is a pale shadow of the practice of that symbol system, and there are significant differences between the academic ritual of examining a text and that of a believer examining the same text.