How the Mystical Poetry of Rumi Drew Me Away from Christianity

Religion is what one makes of it. One thing that gave me an immense amount of respect for Thomas Jefferson was learning about his religious views. [1] In a nutshell, he took from religion what made sense to him, while also being aware of the tendency for later iterations to be politicized in various ways or for things to go from mundane to mythical over repeated tellings.

He even created the 'Jefferson Bible' [2] which was made by quite literally cutting and pasting various sections of the Bible, across multiple translations, into his own version which made sense to him. The reason this gave me immense respect for him is that this was done at a time when, at least in our version of what the past was like, dutiful obedience to religious orthodoxy was still critical. And he simply disregarded such norms and said and did what made sense to him. That takes amazing strength of character.

In any case the point I make is that trying to find some truth in an 'orthodoxy' that is about as orthodox as a puddle of muddied water is nonsensical. What we have left of religion are pieces that have been bent, contorted, and spun over millennia.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Thomas_Jeff...

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible

There is no real answer. Maybe you can try to triangulate between these different ideas. The contradition might be superficial.

For example, if you read Neville Goddard, he has a completely different approach to Christianity.

Archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20230903034052/https://steemit.c...

I really do hope that the 21st century is finally the one where humanity escapes the clutches of dogmatic christian stupor. There is a lot that religion has to offer, but Christianity has proven over and over that it's much more a tool for coercion than for enlightenment. Bravo to the author for making the personal effort to price together a bigger picture, and for sharing that with the world.