On Reconciliation

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By OakWyse

Virtually all cosmologies can be seen to be compatible as long as they are properly understood as myth, and not as *historical*  (remembering that the word *myth* means a symbolic story that uses metaphors to tell a truth about the Gods.)

If truth be told, I think the root ethical systems of most faiths are pretty compatible. (The *Golden Rule* seems to be universal!)  It is the cultural overlays that come into conflict.

It begins with ideas like --

There is a caring meaningfulness and logic to all creation that we personify as the Divine.  Whether we use the name (or names) Brighid, Yahweh, Allah, Lugh, Wotan, or George makes little difference except as an expression of our own personalities within our faith systems. Whether we are monotheist, polytheist, pantheist, atheist, etc. ad infinitum, makes little difference except as an expression of our own personalities within our faith system-- an expression of how the Divine makes meaningful sense to *us*.

On the human-to-human level, I think we can find much in common in the realm of ethics.  No point in arguing over whether the Wiccan Rede or the Golden Rule came first. They both express the same thing.

A great Rabbi, when asked to explain the whole Torah while standing on one foot said "Love God with all your heart, and soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. The rest is commentary."

 

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