Experiencing God's Presence

[Taraz]

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I think if you look at the doctrines as being more along the lines of organizing metaphors you would do better in understanding what's going on. Take the organizing metaphors of science for example. We call them scientific models. We call a photon of light a "particle". Is it really truly in reality a "particle"? What would that even mean? The metaphor "particle" organizes data for experiments in which photons act "like" particles. Then we do experiments where light acts more "like" a wave. Is it a particle or is it a wave? Well, it's neither. What it IS is a photon of light. That doesn't mean the metaphors of "particle" or "wave" are without value. They serve to "point to" whatever it is that a photon really is. Both metaphors may be abadoned completely in the future for better ones. Try to apply this as an analogy to Religious doctrines when you think about them.

I've offered this insight here repeatedly. People seem to be ignoring it.

PairTheBoard

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I actually whole-heartedly agree with what you are saying here. That's why I normally agree with the posts you make. In my view, religion is simply one of the ways that humanity makes sense of the world. It is in large part the language we use to describe spiritual experiences.

What I am trying to understand, however, is why people still believe in "metaphors" that have lost their usefulness. Why is it necessary to believe them? How do you get from having an experience that justifies some of it to accepting all of it without question? How do you go from feeling a oneness with the universe to believing in transubstantiation?

(I realize that some may ask who gets to decide on which metaphors have lost their usefulness, but I will just hope that we don't have to have that discussion in this thread. Instead perhaps consider why you have faith in a specific church/religion/book/pastor/etc to decide this for you.)