Here is a fable, which is regularly used by
Christian evangelists:
Jesus told a parable about a young man who demanded his inheritance, left home, wasted all his money on wild living, and then one day found himself working in a pig-sty keeping pigs and eating their slops. He admitted his foolishness but dreaded going back home to face his father, but when he arrived home he discovered to his great surprise that the door was already open and that all his father wanted was to be near to him again.
My two cents on the above:
One of the fundamental assumptions on which Christianity is based is: "Jesus is the ONLY way". No one can go to heaven otherwise; certainly not through good deeds. So, even a Mahatma Gandhi is destined to go to hell! As per Christian belief, “good deeds” are equivalent to “rags”- clothes soiled with menstruational discharge of women!
Christian clerics package this so called great appeal of their faith in the following way: ‘Redemption is free but it is not without a cost’! For, the cost has already been paid by Jesus by shedding his blood on the cross. Inherent in this is another claim: Blood of Jesus is incomparable with that of anyone else, because only that is PURE (Virgin birth).
Similarly, a believing Hindu finds it difficult to challenge the "Atma"- soul- and the "Paramatma"- Supreme soul- theory and the antecedent claims regarding “purpose of life”; which as per Hindu belief is: the ultimate union of these two. Hindu theologians try to score brownie points by claiming that theirs is a holistic world view as theirs includes the entire cosmos. Through the enigmatic “rebirth theory” and the antecedent claim of transition of the soul through 640 million genitals they feel they have a water tight theory!
The Hindu / Vedic / Buddhist claims look more rational to people who are on wanderlust of searching “meaning of life”. Even Mr Bertrand Russel- a Nobel laureate and a declared Agnostic- accepted the philosophical appeal of these nebulous ideas.
However, in both the above streams of religious thoughts, the entire superstructure- for clarity's sake let's call it 'Purpose of our life'- is built on some priori arguments!
For example: as mentioned above, for Christianity: "Jesus is the son of God", “Virgin birth of Jesus” and “crucification of Jesus being the ONLY legal tender for a passage into heaven” are priori arguments.
The modern day Christian theologists know that these are INDEFENSIBLE. So instead of addressing the root of the cause they try to build their arguments around some seemingly acceptable notions.
With due respect; the Jesus parable, about a young man who demanded his inheritance, left home, wasted all his money on wild living, and then one day found himself working in a pig-sty keeping pigs and eating their slops; is one such attempt!
One of the fundamental assumptions on which Christianity is based is: "Jesus is the ONLY way". No one can go to heaven otherwise; certainly not through good deeds. So, even a Mahatma Gandhi is destined to go to hell! As per Christian belief, “good deeds” are equivalent to “rags”- clothes soiled with menstruational discharge of women!
Christian clerics package this so called great appeal of their faith in the following way: ‘Redemption is free but it is not without a cost’! For, the cost has already been paid by Jesus by shedding his blood on the cross. Inherent in this is another claim: Blood of Jesus is incomparable with that of anyone else, because only that is PURE (Virgin birth).
Similarly, a believing Hindu finds it difficult to challenge the "Atma"- soul- and the "Paramatma"- Supreme soul- theory and the antecedent claims regarding “purpose of life”; which as per Hindu belief is: the ultimate union of these two. Hindu theologians try to score brownie points by claiming that theirs is a holistic world view as theirs includes the entire cosmos. Through the enigmatic “rebirth theory” and the antecedent claim of transition of the soul through 640 million genitals they feel they have a water tight theory!
The Hindu / Vedic / Buddhist claims look more rational to people who are on wanderlust of searching “meaning of life”. Even Mr Bertrand Russel- a Nobel laureate and a declared Agnostic- accepted the philosophical appeal of these nebulous ideas.
However, in both the above streams of religious thoughts, the entire superstructure- for clarity's sake let's call it 'Purpose of our life'- is built on some priori arguments!
For example: as mentioned above, for Christianity: "Jesus is the son of God", “Virgin birth of Jesus” and “crucification of Jesus being the ONLY legal tender for a passage into heaven” are priori arguments.
The modern day Christian theologists know that these are INDEFENSIBLE. So instead of addressing the root of the cause they try to build their arguments around some seemingly acceptable notions.
With due respect; the Jesus parable, about a young man who demanded his inheritance, left home, wasted all his money on wild living, and then one day found himself working in a pig-sty keeping pigs and eating their slops; is one such attempt!
An uninitiated person
would fail to understand that here there is a veiled attack on people who are searching
meaning of their lives by sampling other faiths; where as, the TRUE path/ religion-
is theirs for asking! The reference to “home” is also figurative and means the
man always belonged to Jesus so coming back to Christianity is equivalent to home
coming.
It is not surprising
that with minor or no modifications this story would wonderfully suit the
purpose Hindu and Moslem evangelists!
Hindu evangelists?
Till recently Hinduism
was a non-proselytizing religion, not so now! Now there are many religious cults,
predominantly preying on believing Hindus, who are actively involved in
increasing their numbers. ISKON, Prajapita Brahma Kumaris and Satya Sai Baba’s
denomination are a few representative examples.
It is another thing that 'a man eating slops' – as described in the impugned parable- would grossly fail the test of reason. As these are not meant for people who exercise their reason and such facile arguments are good enough to fool simpletons like poor uneducated tribal in Odisha, these enjoy a wider circulation. It goes without saying that, such stories are a dime a dozen. However, when we are engaged in an informed public debate these need to be debunked.
From a pure strategic perspective; the above approach is a good ploy!
In legal parlance also willy lawyers regular practice that. The guiding dictum, where they have an indefensible brief is: When your arguments- in favor of your client- do not have a leg to stand upon; don't try to prove those. Instead, try to dilute the claims of the opponent by bringing in every possible doubt- mostly imaginary.
Conclusion:
If we apply reason, it is not clear why Jesus should be the ONLY way? However for
generations millions of people have fallen for this claim and hence today Christianity,
with all its spin-offs, is the largest religion! However, things are changing
and Abraham Lincoln’s prophetic assertion: “You can
fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the
time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time” is also turning
out to be true! What else explains the decisive power shifts, in favor of
secularism of various shades, in most of developed states, where Christians are
the religious majority?
