Religious Philosophy Lesson 19

MY VIEW: MASTER OF RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY LESSON 19

                                                     Food for Thought

• Cao Dai is the eclectic Vietnamese faith that has shamelessly "borrowed" from other faiths in an attempt to create a faith that is universally unifying. Do you think that selecting rituals from multiple faiths and then merging them together provides a stronger faith than those from which you borrow? Or, do you believe that this dilutes and diminishes the value of the original faith?

Answer: I think that selecting rituals from multiple faiths and then merging them together do not provide a stronger faith than those from which the idea is borrow rather it makes the new idea a fake, counterfeit and imitation.

• The Ainu are so socially attuned that they greet strangers with irankarapte, meaning "let me softly touch your heart". What do you think of this? Are they a sensitive, caring, socially tolerant people? Or, do you think that this is insincere and phony? If it is legitimate, why do you suppose that the dominant Japanese culture has treated them so poorly (the official government position is that they are "noble savages")?

Answer:  For the dominant Japanese culture to have treated them so poorly (the official government position being that they are "noble savages" or brutal people is a danger signal. There wouldn't be any smoke without fire. There I will believe that their irankarapte attitude is insincere and phony.

Though judgments should not be passed without hearing from both sides; who knows if at first they struggled for some things with the dominant Japanese (like lands and positions of headship or leadership and the dominant Japanese won) and now the dominant Japanese treats them so poorly with their culture. The dominant can overcame the minority group and push them to the corner where they may either be morning and calling on their God silently. If such is the case one would say that their irankarapte attitude is justified, sensitive, caring, and shows they are socially tolerant people to have even tolerated the now dominant Japanese who treated them so poorly with their culture.

Let's not forget (the people you harbor can at times turn against you and overpower you).

 

 

Thanks,

Yours in Him,

Ikpenwa, Chizoba Gabriel

Universal Life Church