The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #79638   Message #1446257
Posted By: Little Hawk
29-Mar-05 - 05:30 PM
Thread Name: BS: Any Gnostic Believers Here?
Subject: RE: BS: Any Gnostic Believers Here?
No, I don't particularly believe in any "ism" either. I find some worth in most of them, though, and some inconsistencies (or historical misapplication of doctrine) in most of them. As with anything else in life one had best approach religions and holy books with an open mind and make use of the good that they contain, while not falling to the temptation to become an absolutist.

What an absolutist wants is for someone else (the "book" or the priest or his mom and dad or his government) to decide everything FOR him. Then he no longer has to worry, because he KNOWS he has the definitive answer, and he KNOWS where to find authority for it! :-) He does not have to engage in the worrisome business of independent thinking any longer, but can just follow the rules that have been set down for him by established tradition and customary authority....

Such people can be dangerous.