Quote:
Originally Posted by Of Mike and Men
I understood what you meant. What I was saying is you cannot accurately box a group of beliefs that all people have in common. For example, take Christianity. Within Christianity you have a denomination called Baptist. Within the baptist you have free will baptist, Arminian baptist, Calvinistic baptists. Now, to separate one of these groups, lets separate the Calvinistic. Within Calvinistic you have the moderates, the stricts, and the reformed. Within each of those sub-types you have more, and more and more, until it beats down to what the individual believes. Essentially, anything pertaining to faith should be left to asking an individual, and not grouping people to fit a type.
|
I never meant Christianity as a whole. I never boxed Christianity in as a whole. I said the Evangelical websites really represent only evangelical Christianity and perhaps not even that. I'm aware of the great diversity of views in Christianity and to some extent in other religions. I don't know what gave you that idea as I specifically mentioned several denominations.
The thing is asking an individual for an answer can give you a totally wrong answer that claims to represent the whole group. That's really assuming that people aren't misinformed on their own religion or hold outrageous views, but many people just pay lip service to their religion or just follow it because their parents did. For example, I was talking to some Christian friends who didn't understand Christians view Jesus as the Jewish messiah. Sometimes there is information that is just wrong and is not a good representation of a religious group they claim to be in. I do understand what you're saying but it's not practical, accurate, or plausible to ask every person what their religious beliefs are.
That's kind of why denominations exist. If your views differ wildly than the denomination you claim to be in you're not a good representation of that group's beliefs. If an orthodox Jew is saying the mosaic law is not binding they're not holding views on orthodox Jew would hold. If I'm a Baha'i saying you don't have to pray every day and it's okay to drink, that information is wrong.
To know the official stance of a religion or a religious group consult a reliable source for that religion. If you want to know information about the Lutheran Church hit up a book published by the Lutheran Church about Lutheranism.
You're applying what I'm saying here too broadly. I'm talking about finding information on religious groups specifically on the internet and to a lesser extent in books.
#So I doubt anyone will call me out on this but Mirza Ali Muhammad seems to be just a less commonly used name for the Bab.