Why is it that some find the nectar or beauty in scripture and some use it to sting or preach hate?

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InterfaithForums.com-Where your ideas and beliefs count.

Because, like the scorpion in the Aesop fable, that is their nature.

One notes, however, that the honey that bees make is quite different, depending on the flower. Clover honey is not nearly the same thing as buckwheat honey.

And that is why religions and religious ideas proliferate so wildly. Scriptures are not the same, nor are the exegetes who read them.

And that brings me to an issue that I've thought about for a long time. The difference between "scripture" and other -- probably equally wise -- writing is the cache that it is given. Scripture is accepted by believers to be somehow qualitatively different from other writings, and therefore what one gleans from scripture is seen to be qualitatively different from what one gleans from, for example, Shakespeare. And yet, I daresay that value of equal worth is available from both (and as much harm may be drawn from both, too).

That is one of the reasons that I personally look at scripture with a very skeptical eye.

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

What you seek you will find. If you seek the beauty in things, you will see the beauty in things. Why some seek something different then beauty, is probably because they don't know there is something else they could seek and find : )

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May your awareness be perfection

I think this may be from a matter of perception. One person sees life as something precious to be encouraged, no matter if the person they are encouraging thinks like them or not; and another person will seak to contol and will use whatever they can to get that control. Unfortunately, religion is commonly used to control.

Viv


I don't fight for recognition of the Armenian genocide to reveal the beauty of it. Hard as I try, I don't see the beauty in it and for some reason continue seeing something else. Perhaps you can help me find the beauty I am missing.

http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.ph...enocide_Photos

Nick,
Even if I could show you what I see, you would not see it. You are looking through your eyes and not mine.

In order to see what I see, you would have to be who I AM.

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May your awareness be perfection

I think that - as evangelicalhumanist points out - it is in their nature.
I much prefer to refer to all religious or spiritual texts as just that - religious or spiritual texts. It avoids the the implication that the text is somehow holy, to be respected.

According to Wiktionary:
Scripture:
1. A sacred writing or book.
2. (by extension) An authoritative statement.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scripture


It should be borne in mind that bees too, sting when they're grumpy.


Abuse of power aside - i think that much like life, we get out of religious or spiritual texts that which best reflects our psyche.


Peace, Love, & Light

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"An object is perceived, or not perceived, according as the mind is, or is not, tinged with the colour of the object. "
Patanjali - Sutra 4:17

I agree Viv. Many refuse to see what I see and prefer to see what they see. This assures its recurrence. Is it really such a wonderful and blessed event? I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Nick, suffering is never good nor a blessing. But "God" did not create suffering...we (as humans) did.

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May your awareness be perfection

Viv


Unconscious beings do not create suffering. It is a natural attribute of organic life on earth. It is the result of the mechanical interactions of universal laws.

Anyone can see how animal life suffers in the jungle in the process of eating and being eaten. We are not creating it. Suffering is a natural result for the cycles of life on earth. No rose colored glasses can change this.