From: Jon Gilbert (jjj@io.com)
Date: Fri 22 Nov 2002 - 03:29:11 GMT
>
>The TRUTH of today's world is a different meme than the TRUTH that
>comes to us through religion. Only one of them prepares us to face
>the world of the 21st century, and it's not religious TRUTH.
>
>Grant
Your notion of what "religious TRUTH" is, is itself a meme.
I would argue, from my memetic constructs, that true religion is the
ability to find the truth for yourself with the aid of religious
texts, which contain the clues left behind by those who have
travelled the path. But if you lack the fundamental question that
illuminates the esoteric meaning in religious texts and renders them
"alive," then you are interfacing with those texts on an exoteric
level that sees them in terms of logic and analysis, comparison and
evaluation. Fundamental human experience is the same now as before;
that is not to venerate the past, but it is also not to discount the
value of wisdom. Life is what you make it, and so are religious
texts. When you approach something to discover the truth hidden in
it, the contradictions that are revealed are in yourself, not in the
text. Then you smile at your own imperfection.
Language itself -- religious texts themselves -- do not contain
memes. Memes are formed by your interpretation of the text, i.e. the
integration of that text into your existing belief-space, related to
your existing memetic constructs. Dreams can introduce memes to you;
from where do they originate?
JS Gilbert
"ekei eimi en meswi autwn"
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