There is a debate I am often find myself in the midst of, and that is the difference in life lived based on symbolism or literal interpretations. Another way to slice it is pattern observation vs. a search for mechanisms.
I'm reading a book called The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs. Basically it recounts his attempt to live a whole year by following the Bible as literally as possible. Here's the catch, he is agnostic about God, so the interesting bit to watch is whether the year instills any deeper sense of spiritualism than before. I recommend it to anyone interested.
But it exemplifies my point in that there is a debate going on. We can often be just as happy by following the intent and meanings of traditions without being trapped in a closed system of belief. And there are those out there who will only abide by strict letter of the law (and by this I am not referring to our legal infrastructure, but to general instances when people say "My way or the highway") and everyone one else should too.
And so here is the issue: Even having the debate about who's system is better is a fruitless one, and here's why. You can never truly know who's belief is better any more than you can know if we all are seeing exactly the same color green. We can assume that we have functioning eyes, therefore we see the same, but there is no way for us (yet, for all you sci-fier's out there) to access the exact data stream of ther person sitting next to you. Without that data overlayed and compared to yours, there is no way to know.
Everything is just speculation at that point. And speculation is assumption, and we all know what it means to "assume"... it makes and "ass" out of "u" and "me". :)
I don't actually have any emoticons for that one so sue me. See you later.
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