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From: g-rh@cca.UUCP (Richard Harter)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Alan vs. the One True Way
Message-ID: <167@cca.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 29-Aug-84 03:50:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: cca.167
Posted: Wed Aug 29 03:50:57 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Aug-84 02:12:08 EDT
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	The article by Ken Ewing in reply to Alan Driscoll has, I believe,
some serious errors of concept in its discussions of religions other
than Christianity.  These begin with the definitions of terms, follow
with the characterization of other religions, and make claims for
uniqueness that should be qualified.  Quoted material follows:

> DEFINITIONS OF TERMS (for the following description): 
> 
> Religion -- A system of belief and practice dealing with God (defined below) 
>             and Man (i.e.; all humans) and the relationship between them.  
> 
> God -- Any concept of Deity or Higher Power, seen as existing on some higher 
>             plane and to which Man ascribes some kind of subservient role.  
> 
> Heaven -- Any concept of Eternal Existence, especially in the context of 
>             after death.  

	.......

> -- Man is either a blank sheet or has some intrinsic goodness which, if 
>    properly nurtured, will result in a heavenly reward of some kind.  
> 
> -- By following the tenets of [Hinduinsm, Bhuddism, Islam, Spiritism, et al],
>    one can nurture and develop one's own intrinsic goodness or accumulate 
>    a treasury of good works and eventually receive the heavenly reward.  
> 
> -- The emphasis rests on the action of Man reaching upward toward God.  

	...........

> -- The nature of Man is fallen, making him(them) inherently unable to reach 
>    up to God.  Man is not a blank sheet, nor does he have any intrinsic 
>    goodness that enables him to aspire to a heavenly status by his own 
>    effort. (see NOTE)
> 
> -- The work necessary to bring Man to a heavenly reward has already been 
>    done.  It was accomplished by a substitutionary action, one person 
>    doing the work on behalf of the entire human race.  The work is completed, 
>    requiring no other action on the part of Man to be effective.  
>    Rejection of this completed work maintains a person in a state of 
>    fallenness and enmity toward God.  
> 
> -- The emphasis rests on the action of God reaching downward to Man.  

	The definitions of religion, God, and Heaven simply don't work
if you are going to consider other major religions.  For example, there
is no God in the sense described in Buddhism and taoism; there is no
Heaven in the sense described in Buddhism and Hinduism.  The world view
of Hinduism can be summarized as follows:

	Life is a curse.  We live, die, and reincarnated to repeat the
	cycle.  The reward of "goodness" is to be reborn in a better
	life.  The ultimate object of the religious life is to attain
	sufficient merit so as to die without being reborn.

This is wildly inaccurate and incomplete (I am trying to forestall
outraged complaints from any Hindus on the net.)  However any westerner
brought up in the Christian tradition would do well to consider it as
a starting point in trying to understand Eastern Oriental religions.
The Christian concepts of God and Heaven are irrelevant to Hinduism,
Buddhism, and Taoism.  They are also irrelevant to Confucianism, but
it is not clear whether Confucianism should be considered as a religion
or as a moral philosophy.

	The blank sheet/striving upwards conception is very misleading.
Indeed the object of religious effort in Oriental religions might be
better described as the cessation of striving.  The fundamental problem
of Man is error and illusion rather than sin; the cure is enlightenment
rather goodness or salvation.  

	A note on redemption:  This concept is not part of any eastern
Oriental religion, to my knowledge (I simply don't know very much about
Muslim theology.)  However the concept of a redeemer dying and being
reborn was very common in the Mystery cults of classical times.  In a
sense Christianity is the survivor of a number of similar competing
religions that were current in the Roman Empire in the first century
AD; the fundamental edge that Christianity had was that it was popular
rather than aristocratic.

	Finally, a little example of the difference between East and
West.  In the West the disciple asks the master, "What is the answer?",
and the master replies, "What is the question?".  In the East the
disciple asks the master, "What is the answer?", and the master replies,
"Who is asking?".  

				Richard Harter