The greatest misconception that one person can have about another person’s religion is that the other person is somehow less informed or not as intelligent or more primitive to be taken in by the imagery in the representation of the godhead, or the creation story or the ethics of the religion in question.
Atheists sometimes imagine that believers are simpletons, while Monotheists tend to look down on Polytheism as being more primitive than believing in a single, centralized god for the entire universe.
Recently Julia Hanna and I talked about some of the glaring misconceptions that stand in the way of mutual understanding between people of different faiths.
Here is a short list of things that might help us to understand others of a different faith:
- Religion is not primarily about facts. That is the role of science. Religion is about feelings, preferences, values and culture.
- When you want to know if someone worships a god, the question is not whether or not the god exists. The question is whether the god as depicted in the religion is loved by the worshiper.
- Love is only in the mind of one who loves. The same is true of worship. It is entirely possible to worship without seeking a concrete form for the thing worshipped.
For a more detailed discussion, watch the video embedded below.
