On the train
Riding back to Antwerp today, I overheard a very odd (but inspiring) conversation between two older protestant women and four Muslim girls. They were having a civilised and fairly rational debate, though both sides suffered a tad from the "I'm skeptic and logical about everyone's holy books but mine" attitude many religious people have. Other than some mutual pope-bashing, the most intense topic was, interestingly, the nature of the Trinity. The Muslim girlswere finding it a touch absurd and the Protestant valiantly tried to defend and explain the concept.
They didn't seem to be doing too well though - I think they got into trouble because they took the whole 'son of God'-thing too literally: they were trapped into discussing what, 'since we're all children of God', made Jesus a special kid. One of them said: 'Jesus was like his real child, while we are his adoptive children', and seemed to saying that God created Jesus - I'm not sure that's very orthodox, nor am I sure it's still a Trinity in that case, but hey, it's not my religion.
I always figured it was more of a metaphor, and that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are all particular aspects of God. In a sense, it doesn't really matter a whit whether Jesus really existed or not, because the whole crucifixion is just a metaphor for the legalistic and vengeful side of God being balanced by His compassionate and just side. At least, that's my reading... Most of you are some species of Christian, how do you see it?
However, I found it very comforting to know that, despite all divisive politics and wars, it's still possible to have a reasonable and more fundamental debate about religion, and not one that instantly gets transformed into one about 'culture' and terrorism. Though that it isn't obvious, is itself perhaps a cause for concern...
They didn't seem to be doing too well though - I think they got into trouble because they took the whole 'son of God'-thing too literally: they were trapped into discussing what, 'since we're all children of God', made Jesus a special kid. One of them said: 'Jesus was like his real child, while we are his adoptive children', and seemed to saying that God created Jesus - I'm not sure that's very orthodox, nor am I sure it's still a Trinity in that case, but hey, it's not my religion.
I always figured it was more of a metaphor, and that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are all particular aspects of God. In a sense, it doesn't really matter a whit whether Jesus really existed or not, because the whole crucifixion is just a metaphor for the legalistic and vengeful side of God being balanced by His compassionate and just side. At least, that's my reading... Most of you are some species of Christian, how do you see it?
However, I found it very comforting to know that, despite all divisive politics and wars, it's still possible to have a reasonable and more fundamental debate about religion, and not one that instantly gets transformed into one about 'culture' and terrorism. Though that it isn't obvious, is itself perhaps a cause for concern...