Welcome to Gaia! ::

is it more important to pursue the absolute truth, while consigning all who disagree with you to hell? (obviously they can't go to heaven, because they are heretics)
or is it better to say whatever one believes is fine, as long as one is sincere?
(which seems awfully wishy washy sometimes)

or is the choice somewhere in between?

Please discuss and explain.

btw i tried posting this in ED/M&R, and it was moved to GD, here's the memo:

Your topic named: truth vs. sincerity

This topic had been moved to the General Discussion forum.

You can find it under the following URL:

http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6281291Additional notes:
This thread does not promote lengthy discussion or debate on the given topic. It's not a bad thread but with the way that it is presented right now, it belongs in GD far more than it does M&R.

what rot! look at the garbage they keep over ther in M&R! Grrr...

i confess i am inclined to agree, at least from the standpoint of intellectual humility, but many people today crave certainty.

so how do you avoid being or seeming wishy washy in a relativistic world?

i am not asking just to be cheeky, i really would like to know.

It wouldn't be appropriate for me to tell Christians that they're following a fairy tale, especially when I'm outnumbered.

Likewise, it really pisses me off when people say I worship Satan unknowingly or that I'm going to some dark, firey something or other when I die.

But then again, we could both be wrong and maybe it really WAS aliens that created us and they're all sitting up their in their flying saucer laughing at us because we all have conflicting viewpoints that we believe to the point of trying to kill each other over them.

THAT is why I believe in sincereity over truth. 3nodding

I personally believe that everyone is entitled to his or her own beliefs and opinions, which is why I will never try to sway someone to a certain path that they do not wish to take.

Now, as far as damning everyone, I don't think that that comes from true belief, that comes more from willful ignorance. For one, Jesus came down preaching about love and peace. Therefore to damn someone to such a horrible place in the name of a loving savior is downright hypocritical. I mean, why would an all loving savior damn someone? It just doesn't make logical sense.

Also, the idea of heaven and hell isn't even a Christian ideal in the first place. That idea came back long in the days of Zoroastrianism, and they had different standards for people to meet to get into their heaven. But that's besides the point.

Truth is subjective to the believer. To a Buhdist, Buddha is the truth, to a Christian, Jesus is. So there is no absolute truth. However, if you believe that it is the truth, it is important you follow your chosen path. Does that mean you should look down on others who refuse it? No. Diversity is what makes this place so interesting. If we were all blue, middleclass people of earth, life would be boring and we'd do different things to stand out and we'd find different things to try and get people to follow our way on.

So, with that said I believe in middle ground: Persue the truth on your own accord, but don't knock others while you do.

i can believe that gravity is not true, but if i drop a brick on my toe it will still hurt.

surely some spiritual things must be like that? ia m just not sure how to sort it all out.

Well, the most you can really do is determine what feels right or wrong to you. Some people feel Christianity is the right way, while others Hunduism.

I personally see no religion as wrong. This may be an odd belief, but here goes. I believe that everyone prays to the same god, they just see different faces of him/her. Its like a mother with 3 children. Each child will see the mother differently and each will come up with different adjectives to describe her, thus we see god or the gods. As far as different religions go, each child will speak to the mother differently and will have a different way of expressing themselves, and so it is with religions. If that annalogy made any sense.

Now, does that mean any of the kids are wrong about the mother when they describe her? Of course not, they just see her differently that the other ones, but its still the same mom.

first ammendment: freedom of religion, to worship what you want, and how you want, as long as no laws are broken.
there you have it. rather simple, id say.
if only it was enforced. anyone is known to be a pagan in my area, theyre considered by all the adults as squirrel torturing satanists. it doesnt work both ways though.
we insult them about religion, were heretical and even more evil, as well as excommunicated.
i wont persecute anyone for their religion, even if they do it to me. its their choice to blieve what they want, not mine.

if everything is as subjective as all that, then there is no reality at all, and we cannot talk to each other because our language does not refer to the same objects.