Pluralism(16)

A:Here I use an imaginary situation to help me get closer to the main point. In the next email, and after seeing your way of looking to the issue, I will continue this talk.

Supposing a fervent follower of a prophet, say Moses, leaves him for a trip. At that point he’s got used to all the rules brought by Moses and likes them all. Then after passing of a period of twenty years he comes back to Moses, not having heard of him at all during this time. He has been following these rules during this period of absence, getting used to them more and more. When he comes back, he finds out that there are some new rules added to previous ones, and some of those previous rules are changed or modified. So although he believes in divinity of the new rules, he just tells Moses that I prefer to obey your previous orders, because in my heart I feel that they would bring me closer to God. In some of the new rules, Moses has forbidden people of committing some certain acts and in others he has ordered them to do some certain acts, but he says to Moses that I feel by doing your new laws, I would lose my relationship with God. What I like to emphasize here is that he believes that Moses is the prophet of God, and as a result he knows his laws are divine laws.
1-Do you think he is right to do that?
If yes:
-Shouldn’t he have faith in that whatever ordained by the prophet of God is the best for him? So where is the role of faith here?
-How can he be sure that what his heart wants, no matter how pure he think it is, is calling him to the best?
-Shouldn’t we conform to Godly standards, whatever they are, having faith that they are the right rules, instead of choosing what we think is good for us?

If no, why?

Lets continue this story. This man has lots of memories from the time he has spent with Moses; he has been following him everywhere trying to find more and more answers to his questions, seeing how Moses deals with different issues of life, filling his mind with all the sweet memories of being with him . Coming back from that trip, having lived with the memory of Moses of twenty years ago, he has a hard time to enjoy the new physics of the prophet with his approaches seeming also different to him. So he tells Moses, that I prefer to stop being with you and want to enjoy the memories I have from you before my trip. Since by those memories, my heart feels much warmer and I feel closer to God.

2-What do you think now?
-So what about all the new possible experiences he can have?
- Is it wise for him to think that there is nothing new that the prophet of God can show him?

As you see, I am so confused with pluralism. And since you look to this issue with your heart and not by mere reason, it makes me more confused, since I believe that reasons can easily go wrong, but our heart is a much better measure. I cannot understand, how it is possible to believe in prophethood of a person, and still do without it.

(Posted by Farid)

Posted:Friday, August 08, 2003 |