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Jan. 20th, 2002 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
botias
This talk of faith has got me wondering why people react with such strong negativity toward non-mainstream faiths. Even sects of highly established religious traditions are not immune. Many folks look askance at Mormans and Jehovah's Witness.
Some ideas I've come up with, not real profound or anything:
1: We're raised with the basic tenets and symbolism of the 2 of the big 5 that we are most exposed to in this country. For example, when I see a statue of Jesus on the cross, I don't think: 'These people are sick, they have a bloody corpse on their wall'. I've been raised with their symbolism and understand it. If the group down the street think Bob was drawn and quartered for their sins, I might be less blase about a representation of Bob's sacrifice. When Christians talk about winged humanoids and talking snakes, this is familiar weird, normal weird. New faiths don't have that advantage.
2: For many people, their faith would no longer be meaningful to them if they didn't believe in its mythology in a fairly literal, physical way. It's not enough that there is wisdom in the teachings of Jesus, if he's not the son of God then it's a serious problem. Someone with a different faith seems to be saying, well, I think he was just a really nice guy. In some cases, that's exactly what they're saying and we've seen how these have proven to be killin' words.
3: New faiths be may be inferior in some arguable ways. It's hard to put an up-start faith on equal footing with one that's been around for thousands of years and feel as though anything has been served but spiritual correctness.
Some ideas I've come up with, not real profound or anything:
1: We're raised with the basic tenets and symbolism of the 2 of the big 5 that we are most exposed to in this country. For example, when I see a statue of Jesus on the cross, I don't think: 'These people are sick, they have a bloody corpse on their wall'. I've been raised with their symbolism and understand it. If the group down the street think Bob was drawn and quartered for their sins, I might be less blase about a representation of Bob's sacrifice. When Christians talk about winged humanoids and talking snakes, this is familiar weird, normal weird. New faiths don't have that advantage.
2: For many people, their faith would no longer be meaningful to them if they didn't believe in its mythology in a fairly literal, physical way. It's not enough that there is wisdom in the teachings of Jesus, if he's not the son of God then it's a serious problem. Someone with a different faith seems to be saying, well, I think he was just a really nice guy. In some cases, that's exactly what they're saying and we've seen how these have proven to be killin' words.
3: New faiths be may be inferior in some arguable ways. It's hard to put an up-start faith on equal footing with one that's been around for thousands of years and feel as though anything has been served but spiritual correctness.
