should religions be flexible,should their doctrines be open to expansion?

Question

in their explaination of existence and lifes meanings,would this attract more open minds,what do you think-good thing or bad thing

Answer 1

religious doctrines have always been flexible to adjust to the changing times... whenever they see a decline in believers due to changes in culture or society norms then they flex the rules... i don't see how this is true faith... it's more like a membership club where headcounts matter more than whether if the ppl really belong.

Answer 2

The religious doctrine has a life all it's own. It will take one word or line from the Bible and expound on this. This is what you must do, follow the examples that Jesus set forth for us. He sent the apostles to teach His Word. If the doctrine does not align with the Word of the Lord then it is just that a theologian doctrine. Read your Bible see if your religion and the doctrine you follow are one and the same. If it is not start asking why not. Every religion has by-laws if they are not in accordance with the Word of the Lord there is something wrong. That is the reason it says in the Bible study to show yourself approved. Know the Word of the Lord and follow the teachings that Jesus gave. This is not a religion but a walk, with the Lord. It is not a walk with the preacher, pope or someone else but with the Holy Spirit as a guide.

Answer 3

Ideally that would be a good thing since a lot of religious teachings have become so antiquated. This is possible for religions like Buddhism or Taoism since they are more of a practical philosophy on life, but it's not so easy for the big monotheistic religions like Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, because they purport that their gods are all knowing. If this were truly the case then anything god commands in the Bible or the Koran, etc would be just as right today as it was back then so those teachings would be unchangeable. They really kind of backed themselves into a corner with this. They do try to change some of the teachings or more conveniently reinterpret them to fit today so more people will be attracted to the respective religions but this begs the questions - If you can change some of the rules than who's to say you can't question or change the rest of them? Aren't you questioning your god by doing this? Personally I find this to be very amusing because a lot of the original teachings are very harsh and cruel by today's standards. It should be blatantly obvious though that all these teaching were actually just the beliefs of humans at that time and there was no devine influence whatsoever. Putting those kinds of words in gods mouth and telling stories where god condones slavery, incest, sex descrimination, war, killing children for minor misbehaviors, killing gay people, suicide killings, etc is actually an insult to the term "god" and the supposed entity that owns it.

I hope more people wake up soon before it's too late. Our stubborn & antiquated differing beliefs are killing us.

Answer 4

Its not the job of religion to attract the open minded people. What makes religion different from other organization is its belief system. Take that away and its just any other organization. But, do not confuse religion with those who believe in the teachings of the bible. Two different things all together. Besides there many many different religion to fit everyones needs that is looking for there point of view.

Answer 5

It's a bad thing. People already have done this & that's one reason we have so may branches of christianity, for example. People back in the day were like yeah! God rules! then they're like, umm. . . no I wanna get divorced or I wanna have lots of wives, I think it's okay to do these things, so I'll start my own religion! Obviously, I am writing this very casually, it is much more detailed than this, but that is basically what happens. When people don't wanna follow the right way, they branch off so they can feel better about doing whatever they want & having no consequences.

Answer 6

Yes, I do believe so. The wisdom of God and the Universe are so vast, that I know of no one Scripture that can contain it all. So why should there be an end to it? It is too limiting of spiritual knowledge to say it is contained only within such-and-such a canon. If nothing else, there are different ways to describe it and to word it, that might help people of various backgrounds, times, and places to understand it.

Answer 7

Religions are supposed to be flexible. In actual sense, there is no good or bad thing. Bcos from out of good comes bad thing & from out bad comes good thing. There is no sin either but expiriences of life. There is hard & normal expiriences in life.

Answer 8

There are religions that are very flexible as to what people need to believe or that have minimal requirements for membership.One example would be the Unitarians.

Answer 9

They shouldnt. Why ? Say If you are the founder of a religious sect will you allow your less than enlightened follower change your rules. For that matter God is a living God, He is not dead set. He can and will talk to you. If that is not expansive enough, i don't know what is.

Answer 10

Nope. The point of orgainzed religion is to control and indoctrinate its followers. If they were more accepting and open then its dogma would be challenged and the leaders couldn't control the followers.