Drunky, 'The Tao of Pooh' is excellent.
oboe, how can admitting errors and in the same breath be proclaiming absolute certainty about anything not be contradictory? I know what you're saying though, that it's those who proclaim certainty and never admit their errors that is the true frustration. But certainty is a good thing to have up front. Bolstering it are the lessons learned from past mistakes and the ability to admit future ones. Certainty itself, in life, is often required. It's how we handle the results of it that is telling.
Toad, I must admit not knowing the "father's house/mansions" analogy.
"Perhaps there HAS to be different "flavors" of the same essential truth in order for it to reach minds that have been raised in different environments/social systems?" - Toad
Erhm, it's not that I can disagree with your take on it. Because, for sure, there is that angle. Breaking it down into a simple language barrier makes your point correct. It's more like I see it as a defense of every religious excess in the name of necessary marketing. Or something like that.
I'll just tell you straight up that I think that (and I am talking about my personal evaluation which is no stranger to course adjustments) Western religion has lost the plot. Somewhere along the way. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years ago, to be vaguely precise.
I do find value in it, because as we agree there is an essential core at the root of all of it. But you're creating an "ends justify the means" argument, and to discount the means is to discount the ends. Because they are the same thing.
I'm reticent to go further, as I really do have strong opinions about the subversion of spirituality by certain establishments that take perhaps the highest and most noble callings of mankind and uses them instead for the lowest, most base and antithetical pursuits.
