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Originally Posted by martyh
That question opens up more questions imo Chris .
Is modern religion (in your opinion) there to tell us how to do the will of god/s as laid down in a holy book ,or to guide us in how we should live our lives morally? .
If the latter then it is up to religion to change with society ,meeting changes in equality between the sexes for example,you must agree that inequality between sexes/people is wrong ,does that mean that god is wrong ?.
If religion is purely to guide us in worship of a particular deity as laid down with no compromise to his laws then in theory society should be as it was 2000 years ago because religion and society have always gone hand in hand so if religion doesn't change then nor should society,but society has changed and i suppose to some extent so has religion but not to the same degree ,religions seem to struggle when it comes to meeting modern societies demands.Is that because religion see's progress as against the will of god and therefore wrong or is it just a plain and simple power thing enforced by the male rulers of religions
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I'm all for further questions Marty. You know I love a good chin-wag.
First though, I can't give a single answer about what 'modern religion' tries to do - there are lots of religions and I can only really speak for the one I adhere to, Christianity.
Christianity says that:
1. God is a perfect moral Being.
2. Humans have offended him by living less than perfect lives.
3. It is impossible for any human to live up to God's perfect moral standard.
4. Humans would all therefore be destined to spend the afterlife excluded from God's presence ...
5. ... were it not for the fact that God, in the form of Jesus Christ, endured punishment on behalf of all humans.
6. Therefore any human who accepts all of this, and resolves to live the life God requires, by the strength that God gives him, will not be excluded from God's presence in the hereafter.
So there are aspects of both - it is about doing what God requires, and living a moral life. But Christianity derives its definition of 'morality' from God, not from society. 'Moral' is what God says it is, not what modern society says it is. This is why Christianity can't change its morals.
It is not the case that in order to live a moral life, as defined by the Christian God, we would have to live as people lived 2,000 years ago. There is nothing inherently immoral about cars, computers or central heating, for example.
Human conduct hasn't changed in 2,000 years though. The reason the Bible writer called Paul argued against homosexual practice, for example, was because there was plenty of it around at the time, especially in Greece and Rome (Paul wrote about it in a letter addressed to Christians living in Rome who wanted to know whether it was acceptable - he was unequivocal in stating that in the eyes of the Christian God, it is not).
As far as exclusively male leadership is concerned; Paul also wrote plenty about authority and roles for men and women. He taught that men and women are absolutely equal before God, but that God created men and women different, in the way they relate to each other, in order to help teach people about the relationship between God and people. This isn't nearly complete enough as an answer but I'm aware that this post is getting quite long. So I'm going to stop here ... ask further questions if you want to.
