3 ms·

> perhaps similar to similar patterns within protestant christianity Dead on. Once you eschew centralized authority, the group fracturing as everybody discove

> perhaps similar to similar patterns within protestant christianity Dead on. Once you eschew centralized authority, the group fracturing as everybody discovers their own slightly different version of truth seems inevitable.

PaulHoule 4y ago
... it's a feature that makes Protestant Christianity relatively healthy. Salvation is between you and God, no terrestrial authority can say "you've displeased me, you're going to Hell". Or rather, they can, but you're free to go to the church across the street which believes roughly the same thing.
- d883kd8 4y ago
  This is backwards! Religion should not adapt itself to the people. It is not a democracy. How can an organization claim to represent the will of god when they are shaped by the market process you describe into an average of human desires?
  - dkarl 4y ago
    Many humans desire a religion that claims to represent the will of god.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - rektide 4y ago
    The knowability of god seems itself a false & deceitful pretense. Accepting any organizations interprettation of what facts tales & stories they have seems to many like folly. We have to listen, quietly & somewhat individually & in small groups, for the heartbeat of god. The only earnest truth is that it's a interpretation. Unsurprisingly, I really enjoyed Newell's similarly titled, "Listening for the Heartbeat of God" (1996), on early celtic christianity, https://books.google.com/books/about/Listening_for_the_Heartbeat_of_God.html?id=boWIpiLkoPQC https://books.google.com/books/about/Listening_for_the_Heart...
  - yellowapple 4y ago
    How can an organization claim to represent the will of God at all? There is no salvation except that which is negotiated between the individual and God (or many gods, or no gods, or what have you). No Earthly church or temple or synagogue or mosque or coven or what have you has the authority to dictate how you connect with the broader universe in which you exist.
  - BeFlatXIII 4y ago
    Because if enough people dislike what God is telling them, they'll leave for the church across the street that says that God has, in fact, revealed something slightly different and more agreeable.

PaulHoule 4y ago

... it's a feature that makes Protestant Christianity relatively healthy. Salvation is between you and God, no terrestrial authority can say "you've displeased me, you're going to Hell". Or rather, they can, but you're free to go to the church across the street which believes roughly the same thing.

d883kd8 4y ago
This is backwards! Religion should not adapt itself to the people. It is not a democracy. How can an organization claim to represent the will of god when they are shaped by the market process you describe into an average of human desires?
- dkarl 4y ago
  Many humans desire a religion that claims to represent the will of god.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- rektide 4y ago
  The knowability of god seems itself a false & deceitful pretense. Accepting any organizations interprettation of what facts tales & stories they have seems to many like folly. We have to listen, quietly & somewhat individually & in small groups, for the heartbeat of god. The only earnest truth is that it's a interpretation. Unsurprisingly, I really enjoyed Newell's similarly titled, "Listening for the Heartbeat of God" (1996), on early celtic christianity, https://books.google.com/books/about/Listening_for_the_Heartbeat_of_God.html?id=boWIpiLkoPQC https://books.google.com/books/about/Listening_for_the_Heart...
- yellowapple 4y ago
  How can an organization claim to represent the will of God at all? There is no salvation except that which is negotiated between the individual and God (or many gods, or no gods, or what have you). No Earthly church or temple or synagogue or mosque or coven or what have you has the authority to dictate how you connect with the broader universe in which you exist.
- BeFlatXIII 4y ago
  Because if enough people dislike what God is telling them, they'll leave for the church across the street that says that God has, in fact, revealed something slightly different and more agreeable.