While I am inclined to agree that religion is more quest than conclusions, I have to object to the repeated appeals to the Bible. For Catholics, the Bible is only one of two sources of revelation, the other being tradition. So just because something doesn't appear explicitly in the Bible doesn't mean it isn't revealed.
Also, when I was Catholic grade school, we were taught about the baptism of desire, which meant that those outside the Church who strove to do God's will were in effect baptized by that desire. I think that extra ecclesiam nulla salus is the equivalent of what a Buddhist friend said to me a while back: "Everyone is a Buddhist."
That said, I do think that one must bring to the dogmas more imagination and less literalness than is often the case. The problem with a juridical approach to religion is that it reduces faith to something on the order of painting by numbers.
Also, when I was Catholic grade school, we were taught about the baptism of desire, which meant that those outside the Church who strove to do God's will were in effect baptized by that desire. I think that extra ecclesiam nulla salus is the equivalent of what a Buddhist friend said to me a while back: "Everyone is a Buddhist."
That said, I do think that one must bring to the dogmas more imagination and less literalness than is often the case. The problem with a juridical approach to religion is that it reduces faith to something on the order of painting by numbers.
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