Devils' Advocate
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You know we are agreeing on this, right?
Why Do We Trust Ancient Texts as Accurate?
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Pooja Pandey
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shunyadragon
everything is in pencil
The artistic value, and deep philosophical meaning found in literature including sacred texts, philosophy, fiction and others is a given as attributes of being human.
The justification that sacred texts 'give people strength and a divine power to trust on,' is a weak codependent attempt to validate the questionable nature of these ancient texts. No, they cannot be trusted as reliable and accurate. They, of course, may be a source of inspiration and deep philosophical and theological meaning, but this thread is to tenuous to cling to one particular scripture over the diversity others in history.
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Francis Earl
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We should not accept them at all...
The only way to confirm them is to doubt until they are proven.
I think they are accepted blindly because doubt is considered irreligious.
The problem is that believing causes lack of inquiry.
Nothing can happen, we cannot even fathom our ignorance.
This is a huge problem in spiritual circles.
The only way to confirm them is to doubt until they are proven.
I think they are accepted blindly because doubt is considered irreligious.
The problem is that believing causes lack of inquiry.
Nothing can happen, we cannot even fathom our ignorance.
This is a huge problem in spiritual circles.
powessy
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In the beginning of my search for answers, I decided to only look for information on the things I am being shown. Over the many thousands of years there has been thousands and thousands of pages of text that have been brought forward from past times giving rise to many religions. I think of religion like politics we accept the one closest to our own beliefs and lifestyles, this is also the answer to your question for the most part.
I have been shown many things over the last couple years making me dive deeper and deeper into the obis of religion. In the one hand we accept something for it's views based on our beliefs and then in the other there are those that have religious experiences that bring them to a way of thinking they and others accept. I decided to go another way and that is to take all religions and to try to dissect them to find similarities in the things I am being shown and taking only these things for truths. I find it very hard for me to just accept one truth without looking at all of them but perhaps this is just the kind of person I am. My search has produced a kaleidoscope of information and is most likely the way most other religions or beliefs have come into existence.
On the deeper level of thought regarding your questions, Man is the only one writing these texts so I would take all of it with a grain of sand and find your own truth to believe in whether it is all in one or is parts of the many.
Powessy
Don't you think it might be possible that the ancient texts are based on information the authors were being shown and not merely their own words?
I tend to think of ancient religious texts as cultural interpretations of the same thing, while overlapping in some areas being a separate piece of a greater puzzle. I base belief in them not on age, but rather content and how well that resonates with beliefs I already hold. The Holy Bible and the Bhagavad Gita for instance just strike an unexplainable chord with me.
powessy
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Yes, It is the things they were being shown that I have found certain truths in from my own experiences and the things that resonate with me. For example I can feel treemends on my head. A treemend is a single soul or it is many souls together to form a longer treemend. I also know that before the treemends are here they are also referred to as knots or they are knotted together. I can also see the treemends on my head so they are more then tactile for me they are also visual. I have spent the last couple years on many sites trying to find answers to them, or to find others with similar experiences only to find a few but nothing concrete. I started to work with a few other people and through their suggestions I found some references to treemends in older texts. Here is one story for example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nāga " For example, the story of how the naga prince Shesha came to hold the world on his head begins with a scene in which he appears as a dedicated human ascetic, "with knotted hair, clad in rags, and his flesh, skin, and sinews dried up owing to the hard penances he was practising." Brahma is pleased with Shesha, and entrusts him with the duty of carrying the world. At that point in the story, Shesha begins to exhibit the attributes of a serpent. He enters into a hole in the Earth and slithers all the way to bottom, where he then loads the Earth onto his head. (Book I: Adi Parva, Section 36.) "
He is carrying the world on his head and they are knotted together, Shesha taking on the form of a serpent is his true form and the form we all take in death, it is only one aspect or part of us. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Anantavishnu.jpg This is just one example and there are many other pieces to this then just this but I just wanted to share my process and to show how many of these things have come to be for me.
I had no religion prior to this time, I had no thoughts of religion either so the search is harder for me but unbiased.
Powessy
I am familiar with those stories. Let me ask you though. What do you hope to accomplish with your search? What are your goals and expectations? A better existence now... in the hereafter... something else?
powessy
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I know what I am here to do, I just need to understand everything else they are showing me. I listen to a language that would drive a person crazy and in their words I find truths to how things have been done here for thousands of years. I know why you are here asking questions, I now you have doubts but something keeps you coming back, this same thing keeps me asking questions also. My goals are to clear the pools of the afterlife, my expectations are that in the process of clearing the pools I find the truth to my own being no matter what it takes or how badly done I must become.
We do not only exist on this plain or in this dimension. If we do not become ourselves in these other dimensions we can not ascend to move forward. By clearing the pools of those I refer to as shadows we can then become ourselves or to become our higher selves. Our higher selves can become us to remember themselves so in death we can understand ourselves and to transfer our knowledge into our souls or treemends as I call them. Our treemends carry a simple understanding inside of them and that is to become itself, if our higher self does not become itself we will just be reincarnated and will be a blank slate again and again. If your higher self becomes itself inside of your treemend then it can understand you by becoming you and it will store your memories inside of it so in the next life time you can find yourself and times after that.
Powessy
That would make it none... or all... as they are all "proven" to their adherents/believers, and none have been proven to disbelievers...
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Francis Earl
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I think it is absolutely erroneous to suppose belief constitutes proof.
Indeed, the very fact you believe shows it isn't actually fact for you at all...
I can tell you, personally, that I was a disbeliever until mystical experiences began happening to me.
I actually began looking at religious texts to try to explain what had happened.
I think this is the only way that true interfaith dialog can happen, we have to understand what is actually being said.
For the believer, everything is still mental, and thus they cannot see how things interrelate.
For those who have experienced the Truth, even seemingly contradictory statements can be understood as stemming from the same experience.
I think this is the future of religion, if it will have any at all.
Devils' Advocate
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Quite. Unfortunately, for the majority of believers, belief does constitute proof. I'm not sure the average person has the skill set to go much beyond that level. Whether they are incapable of learning more, or simply are not being shown how to, the result is the same.
From earliest recollection I've always been aware of a higher power. Sort of the feeling you get when someone is looking over your shoulder. Except for me that feeling is constant. I've also always been keenly aware of my own spirit and the fact that our existence goes well beyond the flesh. Right now I can see my hands and the computer screen as I type, but in my mind I see myself in full view front, back and sides.
When I was 8 or 9 I began reading the Bible. I didn't understand much at first, but little by little my comprehension improved and most of my feelings were confirmed and explained. Later in life, when I married into a Hindu family, I started participating in various ceremonies, talking with Pandits and reading the Bhagavad Gita. That's when things really started coming together. So I guess for me the things you seek I've already found through faith. Not that I have all the answers. Far from it, but I put trust in God to reveal what needs to be known when the time arises. I have no doubts though. I ask questions merely out of curiosity and the possibility of helping others.
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You only ask questions of others that you already know the answer?
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Wibble
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It certainly looks that way, a strong need to believe, a clutching at metaphysical straws.