Scripture

[poliphilo]

Scripture: We'd be better off without scripture. Not the writings themselves, but the category we put them in. It's a mistake to regard any human writing as holy and unassailable.

Language is the product of a particular culture in a particular time. I just picked up my copy of The Gita. It's studded with untranslated Hindu words. I object to that. I shouldn't have to learn a foreign language to get at the truth. I shouldn't have to try and re-enter the mindset of a bronze age culture.

The same thing applies to the Christian scriptures. I shouldn't need to know about the Roman Empire and Greek philosophy and all those ancient, no longer current things in order to access the truth. I shouldn't have to become learned in order to become wise.

When Sri Krishna spoke to Arjuna or Jesus spoke to the crowds they were using the best, most accessible language of their time. They weren't aiming for obscurity, quite the reverse, they were aiming to make obscure things plain. But as soon as the words left their mouths they began to degrade. Jesus hearers didn't have to have it explained to them what a Samaritan was. But within a few years a Greek person listening to Paul preaching in Ephesus would have been asking, "A Samaritan, what's that when it's at home?"

Note that neither Sri Krishna nor Jesus actually wrote anything down. Neither did the Buddha. Wasn't Mohammed illiterate?

I like Zen because it's anti-scripture.

I'm not saying burn the scriptures. I'm saying put them on an honoured shelf- and use them for reference. The Gita, The Bible, the Koran- these are earlier generations' attempts to tell the truth. They partly succeeded and partly failed. We need to open our hearts and have a go ourselves. Only we mustn't call the result scripture, or pretend that it's anything special.

Truth is a wildflower. See it in the fields and hedges. Pick it and press it between the pages of a book and it becomes something rather different.

There's no such thing as ancient wisdom. Wisdom is timeless- which means it's now, now, now.

Comments

[hhunt]

I understand, I agree with you. I hit on something very interesting.
http://www.exmuslim.org/did-muhammad-write-the-quran.html

[poliphilo]

Mohammed was a prophet- and channelling God- which is what prophets do. But he was also human and inevitably his own personality got in the way sometimes.

No scripture should be accepted without question.

[hhunt]

‘ … he was also human and inevitably his own personality got in the way...’Well this is fantastic. You're quoting little-known Z Botros. let's say
https://journeytoorthodoxy.com/2010/06/the-strange-teachings-of-muhammed/

Religion's such a tricky subject these days. However I can see that you are right.

[poliphilo]

Religion has always been a tricky subject. People don't like having their beliefs questioned.

[cmcmck]

This is why some religious groups are so scared of modern translations. Henry VIII was dead set against the translation of the scriptures into English!

[poliphilo]

He was in most things an entirely conventional late medieval catholic ruler.

[oakmouse]

You're dead right. One of the reasons I love druidry is that we have neither scriptures nor a place for scripture; our sacred "text" is the natural world (which is what a Revival druid means by the phrase "the book of nature").