I dare to say that although there is no religion in China that has not become a serious climate, the story of "Thorn Birds" must be replicated in China. It's just that Ralph abandoned his beloved woman over and over again for the sake of God in his heart. In China, thousands of scholars in the past dynasties packed up their bags and left their childhood sweethearts and bamboo horses in order to test their fame.
So I think that if the love in "Bird of Thorns" is tragic, then the tragedy is not caused by Catholicism, but by the essential difference between men and women, which is only exacerbated by its ascetic character The production process of this tragedy took intensity. In a patriarchal society, women who own a man can count as owning everything, but men are different. Lucky and unlucky, after owning a woman, a woman also needs to have other things, such as beliefs, such as status, such as careers, to satisfy social impositions. Give them or themselves the huge heart they were born with.
So Maggie can fall in love with Ralph, and Ralph can also fall in love with Maggie, but Maggie can wait for a lifetime, while Ralph still climbs up the path of life that he really wants until they are separated from each other. .
This is what religion does to a group of ordinary lovers when it is a powerful law-like social norm. Women belong to men, and men, especially educated and ambitious men, belong to God. This naturally makes Catholicism the mortal enemy of men and women who fetter free love. Catholicism not only prohibits people from expressing their desires freely, but also turns your lover into a servant of God, making your lover's willing pain suffer with you, just for the sake of a nihilistic God. When the influence of this religion on the society is so strong that it is as binding as the law, the tragedy of love blossoms everywhere.
In my opinion, this is an alienation of religion itself. The son of a Bethlehem carpenter, who was born before 2009, does not force anyone to follow the social norms of his beliefs. I have never heard of a love tragedy resulting from this. After a thousand years, his doctrine has changed from a belief to a value norm forced by the people in power to accept it, and everything seems to be different. In pursuit of the embodiment of his own value, a man must only dedicate himself to God, must only abstain from sex, must he abandon the woman he loves? In comparison, I feel that the entire value system in ancient China is a little more human. Reading exams is more in line with human nature than abstinence and practice (although alienation turns scholars into idiots in the end). Therefore, this set of values and norms of Catholicism that go against human nature determines that Catholicism cannot become a social norm like the law in today's society. People will never take abstinence and closeness to God as a way of sublimating their own values.
Therefore, I think that religion becoming the code of conduct for the whole society must be an alienation of religion itself, and it is a departure from the original intention of religion. When religion does a lot of things that it shouldn't interfere with, the portraits of the gods are blurred and distorted.
Muslims are a clear example.
Christians in medieval Europe were very afraid of the mysterious Muslim opponents to the east, and the warriors with the crescent sign never feared death. Because in Muslim teachings, death in battle must ascend to heaven under the favor of Allah. This doctrine is already at work today. From the car bomb on the roadside in Baghdad, to the women rushing towards the American soldiers in Afghanistan with their bodies covered with explosives, to the suicide attack demon in the London subway, to the plane rushing into the Twin Towers of New York on 9/11, the fierce figures of Muslims can be seen everywhere. I don't see in them the serenity and peace that any religion should embody, I see only killing and killing for paranoid reasons.
In my opinion, this is a terrible alienation of religion. The teachings of Islam are the same as the law to the fanatical Muslims, and the religious leaders are the authority of the elders of the family. They solved what politics was supposed to do in a religious way, and medieval savage solutions created tragedy after tragedy.
So I think that in today's society, religion should withdraw from things that it cannot and has no right to interfere, such as human love, such as politics and human rights. The world's three major religions, the youngest Islam is also an antique produced thousands of years ago. There is naturally no lack of primitive wisdom in it, but many contents that are contrary to human nature make it impossible to extend its tentacles so deeply and so widely. Throughout the world, although developed and democratic countries have strong religious forces, religious teachings are no longer implemented in the whole society as the same law as the law. Religion has become a lubricant and an aid to society rather than a superior administrator. On the contrary, in backward and brutal areas there are always religious teachings like laws, there are always religious courts. Such as the Middle East, such as China during the Cultural Revolution, the fanatical execution of Mao Zedong's quotations, such as North Korea, which is still a myth of Kim Jong-il today.
Finally, tell a real story that happened to me to illustrate the way religion truly lives in harmony with modernity.
My grandma is a devout Christian. When my grandmother was 60 years old, she fell ill. Several Christians who lived nearby spontaneously came to sing hymns and pray for her. Soon after my grandmother recovered from her illness, she became a devout believer and began to go to church rain or shine. And there he learned to read and write at the age of sixty. She has never been to school, and now she can hold the Bible and read large sections of "God said, let there be light...". This year, my grandmother is 80 years old. She is still in good health. She goes to church less often. She always carries the Bible with her.
This is probably the healthiest and most beneficial destination for religion. If God exists, this is the best role He can play as the Father of all.
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