❝❝I will give you the same argument that led me to question the "faith of my fathers" and started my own search.

Which god?

Even in Christian theology, there are differences between the G*d of the Old Testament and the One of the New Testament (for simplicity's sake I'm going to leave off Revelations). Entire wars have been fought over one iota. Who is to say that the One God that Jesus taught about is the same god to have survived into the modern age?

Can you? I know that very few worship services today can compare to say, the revival tent meetings and circuit rider preachings that littered American history not so long ago. Sermons lasting two or three hours? You don't see that anymore.

Meanwhile, there are entire perspectives that simply aren't considered under the standard "Judeo-Christian" viewpoint. Interconnections for one thing.

BTW, I really don't like that phrase "Judeo-Christian." I think they are completely different faiths.

What's more, Western Civilization is not based solely on Christianity and Judaism. Those faiths, while admirable in many ways, are not THE bedrock. Our nation in particular calls back to the classical Greeks and the Roman Republic. Those were not Christian or even monotheistic. Yet their thoughts and (dare I say it?) their philosophies continue to shape our civilization today.

I'd say that Western Civilization has one difference that sets it apart and makes it successful. Parity. It's the ethic of reciprocity. Christians call it the Golden Rule. "Don't do it if you don't want it done to you." This is the real keystone of our culture. And in programming terms, it doesn't make a single call to the variable DIVINE. It doesn't rely on acknowledging any god at all yet it is a self-contained moral and ethical system.

It doesn't matter what you believe. Neither you nor I are qualified to judge another's relationship to the Divine. You and only you are responsible for how you face the Divine. What does matter is how you treat others. We know if that is good or bad because of the way we want to be treated. That's the foundation of our society.❞ class="ghoster">❞

NeoNotes are the selected comments that I made on other boards, in email, or in response to articles where I could not respond directly.

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Tags: parity test ∙ classical Greeks ∙ Roman Republic ∙ Judeo-Christian heritage ∙ Western Civilization

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