It occurs to me that many of the disagreements between religions or denominations/sects within a religion are over things that could be considered as truly insignificant. Some Christian denominations base most of their sermons on the book of John, while others base it on Paul. Muslims fight and kill one another over who should have led the church after the passing of Muhammad. People worry about whether Jesus was married, what he really looked like, if he had long or short hair, if he wore a beard, and on and on.

It seems to me that this is a microcosmic view, concentrating on the details rather than on the message. Using a cliche, it makes it hard to see the forest for the trees. Do you think religious denominations and sects are tending to take to much of a microcosmic view, rather than concentrating on the message of the religion?

Yes I'd agree with that... It seems religions have more differences over ordinances and ritual than spiritual principles and morality.

- Art

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"it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."
- Johannes Kepler

I think that if all religions concentrated on the message, rather than the messenger, we would all discover we are not as unalike as some would want us to see. With all the little arguments going on, we miss what is truly important, getting along with each other.

So, people of various faiths wouldn't have to hate each other over who has the better doctrine anymore.

And it wouldn't really be that much of a loss, because the religious would still always have the non-religious to feel better than.

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evangelicalhumanist: Greek "eu"=good and "angelos"=messenger. Spreading the good news of Humanism.

I agree that they wouldn't have to hate each other, but disagree that they would even need to feel better than anyone else. In fact, if a religious person concentrated on the message, they would be predisposed to NOT feeling superior than someone else based on beliefs (or lack therein).