To be a Christian today is to see the world the same way as a small group of religious mavericks living in a tiny part of the world nearly two thousand years ago. It is like looking at our 21st Century world through 1st Century eyes.
Isn’t it better to look at the 21st Century world through 21st Century eyes?
We know so much more about our universe now than they did back then. Knowledge is never static, it grows and develops with each generation.
Wise spiritual seekers understand this. They do not dismiss the entire Christian tradition outright, but draw on the parts that have meaning and usefulness for them. They read the old scriptures allegorically much as we read the great works of literature and the works of the Brothers Grimm and C.S.Lewis. They understand tradition but do not follow it blindly.
Most evangelicals and all fundamentalists do not agree. That’s why they often object to scientific knowledge that does not support their prejudices.
Despite its inaccuracies, contradictions and often regrettable history, Christianity offers a moral framework and brings comfort to many people around the world – providing it isn’t taken too literally. A placebo maybe – but therein perhaps lies its value.
©David Lawrence Preston. 2015
Follow me on Facebook and Twitter @David_L_Preston
Balboa Press, 2015
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