The Crusade: Part 276
i was a quite offended by what shuyan said to me some time ago.
(shuyan, you know i love you dear, but i just couldn't get past what you said, and i didn't want to wage an all-out religious war in the middle of borders...)
the conversation went like this:
shu: do you read the bible?
me: err, no...
:
shu: i realise catholics are not as religious.
me: ?!
well, i was offended because firstly, just because I don't read the bible doesn't mean that the rest of the community doesn't read the bible, although i must admit that to a certain extent, we are not as well-versed (pun intnded) in bible quotes as our christian counterparts.
and secondly, it is very wrong and unfair to measure "religiosity" with knowledge of the bible as a benchmark. like i told her, as much as it is after all the same religion, they differentiate because of differences in beliefs, practices and especially, culture. just as i cannot say that a christian pastor is 'less religious' than a catholic priest because a pastor is allowed to marry and have children, so you cannot say catholics are less true to the faith because we don't study the bible as much or in the same way you do. similarly, i can't say that taoists are 'less religious' than buddhists because they don't practice meditation, or that buddhists are 'less religious' than taoists because they don't burn offerings.
thus, you can't measure a person's devotion to his/her religion based on how she(for simplification's sake) practises it, it is perhaps more important what she is thinking or feeling as she carries out her practices. religiosity, as the word suggests it, implies a state of mind that can neither be measured with physical counting techniques nor determined by an external second (or third--technicalities, technicalities...) party. like how you can't measure the degree of love with the number of 'i love you's said.
and so, please stop saying that "catholics are less religious" (than what? animists??) just because we do not read the bible. please go find something else against us instead.
(shuyan, you know i love you dear, but i just couldn't get past what you said, and i didn't want to wage an all-out religious war in the middle of borders...)
the conversation went like this:
shu: do you read the bible?
me: err, no...
:
shu: i realise catholics are not as religious.
me: ?!
well, i was offended because firstly, just because I don't read the bible doesn't mean that the rest of the community doesn't read the bible, although i must admit that to a certain extent, we are not as well-versed (pun intnded) in bible quotes as our christian counterparts.
and secondly, it is very wrong and unfair to measure "religiosity" with knowledge of the bible as a benchmark. like i told her, as much as it is after all the same religion, they differentiate because of differences in beliefs, practices and especially, culture. just as i cannot say that a christian pastor is 'less religious' than a catholic priest because a pastor is allowed to marry and have children, so you cannot say catholics are less true to the faith because we don't study the bible as much or in the same way you do. similarly, i can't say that taoists are 'less religious' than buddhists because they don't practice meditation, or that buddhists are 'less religious' than taoists because they don't burn offerings.
thus, you can't measure a person's devotion to his/her religion based on how she(for simplification's sake) practises it, it is perhaps more important what she is thinking or feeling as she carries out her practices. religiosity, as the word suggests it, implies a state of mind that can neither be measured with physical counting techniques nor determined by an external second (or third--technicalities, technicalities...) party. like how you can't measure the degree of love with the number of 'i love you's said.
and so, please stop saying that "catholics are less religious" (than what? animists??) just because we do not read the bible. please go find something else against us instead.
posted by benita adrianne at 1:06 PM
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