Puddle Jumper said:
Your theory lacks logic. "People refuse to believe any truth but their own." Hello? If we believe something to be truth, we're not going to believe in lies. That goes for what you believe in, what Aruna believes in, and what every person on earth believes in. Brokenfingers, you are trying to say that only those who believe a certain way are like this. No, every human being is like that. If we believe something to be truth, if someone comes along with something contradictory to what we believe to be truth, we are going to refuse it.
.
You can't spek for me, Puddlejumper. I don't see truth the way you do. For me there are truths, and there is Truth. "Truths" (small t) are how you and I see the world, and God. We are all limited in our ability to comprehend, and so interpret according to our mentality, our intellectual ability, our emotiional make up. Your truth may be contradictory to mine, but I know yours is 100% right for you and even if it contradicts my truth, I know it is as right FOR YOU as mine is
for me.
That is the nature of truth with a small t- it adapts, and it is subjective.
However, there is Truth, with a capital T. That which really IS. Or even that which ISN'T, if there is no God. Neither you nor I know this Truth. It is far beyond our comprehension. I happen to believe in a supreme inteligence, call it God for the sake of conversation, and I try to understand, but that understanding can never be Truth, as it is limited by my own limitations, which are manifold.
I am limited and so are you. All we see are shadows, compared with what really IS. All that you can see and I can see are little prisms of that Truth. It's utter megalomania for us with our finite minds to say they have have the whole Truth - which obviously contains infinity, eternity, and all those ungraspable absolutes! That is why I do not, as you claim, refuse your truth. I just believe it is YOUR truth, and exists as reality for you, and I respect your right to have it and will never, have never, tried to talk you out of it or say it is a lie.
All I have ever said, is that you cannot speak for another person. Your truth may be valid for you, but not for another human being living across the world from you, with a totally different everyday reality. If you cannot accept that that person has a different
perspective of Truth, a different prism, if you like, then you are living in a dream world, because he simply does. Deal with it!
Trying to understand that person, seeing things from his vantage point, might actually bring you a teeny bit nearer to the capital T Truth. Surely the more prisms we can see the better.
And yes, even the Bible, even if it is really IS the Word of God (I have never disputed that), is only a part of your prism. It is not the whole Truth, with capital T. It might be a pointer
towards truth with a capital T, but it can never
be it, because
that is simply too vast to be contained within the pages of a single book, or be grasped by words, or by a puny human mind. You speak of the need for humility - I think this is an instance where it is needed.
God is perfectly capable of contradicting himself. It's a fingersnap. He can give
you one Word of God, which is what
you need to follow and obey implicitly, because it is right for
you, and a Muslim a different one, and a Buddhist a different one. That is surely the nature of such an infinite and all-powerful being - he can do what he wants, when he wants. Who are you to tell him he can't? Who are you to say God has to give everyone the same book of rules? Doesn't a parent raise each child differently, according to each one's needs? Doesn't a loud, rambunctious child need a different approach to a shy, withdrawn child?
And yes, my saying this is again only a small-t truth - my truth, as opposed to yours. You will counter it with your small-t truth. But for you to say that you (plural) alone have the whole Truth is in itself an obvious lie.
The attempt by man to comprehend the Mind of God (that again of course is only a metaphor!) is like an ant trying to comprehend a human. No, like a hand-mde doll trying to comprehend its creator. We just cannot do it with our finite minds.
I grew up with both atheism and Christianity, and neither satisfied me. For years I was immersed in Christianity, and it never grabbed me, though I had a great hunger for truth. Now I can respect and understand Christianity. I don't reject Jesus, quite the contrary. I do consider him a Son of God. I even believe he died for the sins
of those who accept him as a personal saviour.
But he is not my personal saviour, and did not die for my sins. It is not for you to say otherwise. Deal with it.