Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Must Learn to Zip my Howling Screamer

There's a reason why I don't talk religion with my father. He has this tendency to be zealously one sided when it comes to his religion, again owing to his upbringing from days of old. It was way back when the Oracion, the 6 o'clock prayer was practiced religiously - which basically means that should any of them missed it by one fraction of a second, they are given a slight flogging, or something to that effect. This may very well account for my father's conservative and rather rigid religious views.

I, on the other hand have something of a liberal take on religion. I like to think of it as being "Spiritually Promiscuous." My idea of it is incorporating other ideas of religion and taking them to supplement my own religous world views. Owing to Roman Catholicism being egregiously flawed, it's the most sensible recourse I should say.

One of my philosophies (possibly blasphemous) is that all (or most) religions utlitmately worship the same God, even some polytheistic ones. Because the world is spread out and divided by geography, race, culture, etc., it is simply impossible to have one religion. Therefore people came to create religions for themselves, most of which are supported by manifestations of their god or gods. Considering the infintely different world views, it is understandable that their set of beliefs are projected in equally diverse ways, thus the emergence of different religions. While the a good deal of the belief systems vary radically (while some are even contrasting), we cannot deny that some religous principles are inherently universal.
It then becomes a matter of perception.

Yeah yeah, ranty rant. Anyway, that was my condensed version of it - I shan't delve into it too deeply now for I'm in danger of sending my brain into overdrive (Calculus is next, you see?)

In short, me having this inclusivist/pluralist/syncretist mindset generates a considerable amount of friction between me and my father every time we happen to touch that subject. I should know better by now that to debate with him about it is just about as wonderful and productive as shooting my toes off(wtf?). The next time he starts with the familiar 'I pray for your brother to return to God...' bull, I should stuff my fist in my mouth. It's hard to resist though, when I know that my Kuya Russ is perfectly content with being Hindu.
And since when has tolerating other religions been tantamount to turning on your own? Blar.
Thus spake Irish || 9:21 AM || 1 comments