Now we have to take in to consideration that misunderstanding can play a huge role into this, especially if you are preaching to a congregation of people. Yeah, this trend has started in ancient times and has plagued it through it's (religion in general) entire life time. What I mean by this is people come to a misunderstanding of religious doctrine for two reasons, more often than not, at least in my experiences. The first being told by someone else that you look as a teacher misinformation. That teacher preaching their misguided and poor or lack of interpretation, or something to that affect. How many different religious have spawned out of the same book but think everyone else is wrong?... Yeah, hundreds for all the "Big Books" (Tanakh, Bible, Koran) have created 100s of different branches within themselves. But I digress, the second reason of misunderstanding religious doctrine is over analyzing and making things out of stuff that makes no difference. I will give you an example, people thinking eating Kosher also means you should not use anything that may have animal fat in it like fabric softeners and other crap like that... Come on really!?!... That is over interpretation from someone that needs strict guidance by a good teacher, which most that fall under this group have a cult leader, not a teacher. Take the word from the Logical Spiritualist, having a family member that thinks that they are right and everyone else wrong can destroy the strongest of family relationships to the point where they can never be fixed... again take my Word for it...
Why does everyone get so caught up in the esoteric aspects of religion? Other than the obvious answer that we had to come from somewhere other than an evolving life form that has taken millions of years to get where we are now. This is irrelevant.... Yes it is! Don't argue with me... Sorry about that.... What people need to do is take the book as it is.... Those fables (or truths, whatever) hold the truth to having good moral value and just being a "good person". Do not dig any deeper than you need to in order to be that good person... because when you do dig too deep you will likely fall into one of the two categories I have mentioned above, misguided by someone, or yourself. Wow that would have been a lot easier just to say that, than the paragraph above! <sigh> we live and we learn.... at least some of us do...
The bad thing is I can not offer any suggestions as to how to fix this problem, as it has plagued family members of mine for my entire life and still see no solution. Sometimes religion can bring such a darkness upon someone that not even the light of loving-compassion cannot shed light on. Truly sad... again take my Word.
My advice to this is this and only this... If you are feeling deceived by yourself or someone else in regard to religion back up and take a minute to look logically at the situation and make the right decision, if not you could end up on the path to extremism.
Hoping to inspire thought in a seemingly thoughtless world, your friend. -automachi.
