Religion and Adaptability.

Earlier this morning, Reliah posted an interesting response in the " What Do You Want? " thread, and it got me thinking.

I didn't want to derail that thread, because it's going in an interesting direction, but I did want to discuss some of the things I was thinking at the time.

On the one hand, I agree: people change. More relevant to the topic at hand, societies change. Things that are acceptable now weren't hundreds of years ago, and it's foolish for a religion to hold to outdated teachings out of the sake of pure tradition and not keep up with the age in which we live.

On the other, however, most religions are based on some mixture of Morality and Truth, and how much do those really change, at their core? How much does the human spirit change year after year? If the Campbell lectures taught me anything, it's that we're the same people we were thousands of years ago, we've only got more information to parse than they did.

On top of those considerations, let's look to Science, which has adaptability of this nature, and is evangelized (in the current social standard) as much as religion is, and often, preached as its opposite. Why can't they coexist? If science and religion were both adaptable, would they butt heads as often? Does scientific truth cancel out the Truth of spirituality?

*opens the floodgates of discussion* WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

A quick response: morality and truth are individual experiences. They are ideas in our own brains. Religion is where someone had an idea and shares it with the members and they use the same idea. I'm not saying that's a good or bad thing, just stating what I've experienced from religion.
Some people believe it is immoral to marry a divorced person. Some believe it's immoral to even be divorced.
I hope I've made sense..
All in all: different things mean different things to different people. If you belong to a religion who tells you to view them differently than you actually do, there is usually conflict somehow.

I sort of think perhaps religion needs to slip quietly through the night into the realm of psychology and supernatural, leaving behind any conflict with physical science. I can easily think this because I enjoy both psychology and the supernatural, so it does not diminish the importance of religion for me by doing so.

In this way I also think the religious teachings are best understood as particular path's and not any nature of absolute truth - but having said that faith could be an important tool for psychology and the supernatural so the content could operate within that path as absolute truth, but perhaps not outside it as explained above.

So from all that I can see them science and religion sitting together, and that religion does not need to adjust its content if it doesn't want too, just perhaps limit the scope to within its own members.

I can't find the quote on this phone, but I like the dalia lama's stance that if science prov es something in buddhism not true, then buddhism will have to adapt to this new information. It would behoove other major religions to adhere to this precept as well.

I have to agree with everything thats already been said.

The Campbell lectures in the IP programme made me realise something that I already knew but didnt understand. Religion is simply a frame work thats been placed over spirituality. A set of "rules and regulations" if you will for what one should believe and how one should behave when a member of a certain group. Like belonging to any club really. Morality as Reliah said is an individual experience. Which is why its difficult to have conversations on "what is good or evil" because the question always has to be asked, "According to who?". and unfortunately unless God, the force, or whatever name you use to describe your belief directly emails us a copy of the Law, the answer will always be, some guy said so.

Religion changes when enough people change. Its happened many times in human history and will continue happening for as long as we have imaginations and something to explain that is beyond our language and understanding.

Truth on the other hand, there I think we may be on to something, because (in my uneducated opinion anyway) truth is what is at the absolute core of us, before we are taught religion, bias, intolerance, and is always there if we listen carefully enough. I believe that at the absolute core, the "truth" is universal.