Theoretical
Puritan Board Professor
The other day I was sitting down having lunch at the university and someone I'd met a few weeks previously and I got into a fairly drawn-out conversation on a number of topics (issues with the school student-government-wise, American cultural problems, and then the big one - religion). This man has a rather strange religious background and set of beliefs, or it would be were it not for the Cafeteria religion so common these days.
He said he grew up Hindu and was originally born and partially raised in India (he's 22, returning to college after a hiatus), but whose parents immigrated here something like 10-15 years ago. Where it gets odd is the fact that he was still raised with Hindu traditions here, but he was sent to Catholic and Baptist private schools, and he has an extremely universalistic world view. He claims to be a monotheist, yet still considers himself Hindu (it's immediately obvious in conversation he holds utterly inconsistent beliefs - yet he doesn't realize it).
In our conversation he displayed what has to be the most frustrating phenomenon I've seen in a discussion/debate - he refused to disagree with me about ANYTHING and furthermore said he agreed with everything I was saying. For instance, initially in the conversation he said that God was everything (pantheistic concept), but later after I had made a fairly decent description of the Christian model (God separate and pre-existing-eternal outside of the Creation), he affirmed this very different belief. The man also has an extremely loose conception of how all religions are true. I said that while most world religions shared some commonalities as far as ethical and moral standards of conduct between men and other men, they differ fundamentally as to the relationship between Man and God.
It is frustrating to speak a different theological language and terminology than the person with whom I am trying to communicate. Pray for me as I go through continued discussions with this man, as we will likely see each other around a fair amount over the coming year given some shared campus services work. I truly understand what Schaeffer was talking about in his Trilogy about how fundamentally different a modern mind is from a Biblical one.
Any suggestions on how I should handle future discussions (which will likely revolve around God's interaction with the world, the nature of the truth, and Christianity distinct and not merely a mimic of Hinduism of Buddhism of "Name your religion"?
[Edited on 5-23-2006 by Theoretical]
He said he grew up Hindu and was originally born and partially raised in India (he's 22, returning to college after a hiatus), but whose parents immigrated here something like 10-15 years ago. Where it gets odd is the fact that he was still raised with Hindu traditions here, but he was sent to Catholic and Baptist private schools, and he has an extremely universalistic world view. He claims to be a monotheist, yet still considers himself Hindu (it's immediately obvious in conversation he holds utterly inconsistent beliefs - yet he doesn't realize it).
In our conversation he displayed what has to be the most frustrating phenomenon I've seen in a discussion/debate - he refused to disagree with me about ANYTHING and furthermore said he agreed with everything I was saying. For instance, initially in the conversation he said that God was everything (pantheistic concept), but later after I had made a fairly decent description of the Christian model (God separate and pre-existing-eternal outside of the Creation), he affirmed this very different belief. The man also has an extremely loose conception of how all religions are true. I said that while most world religions shared some commonalities as far as ethical and moral standards of conduct between men and other men, they differ fundamentally as to the relationship between Man and God.
It is frustrating to speak a different theological language and terminology than the person with whom I am trying to communicate. Pray for me as I go through continued discussions with this man, as we will likely see each other around a fair amount over the coming year given some shared campus services work. I truly understand what Schaeffer was talking about in his Trilogy about how fundamentally different a modern mind is from a Biblical one.
Any suggestions on how I should handle future discussions (which will likely revolve around God's interaction with the world, the nature of the truth, and Christianity distinct and not merely a mimic of Hinduism of Buddhism of "Name your religion"?
[Edited on 5-23-2006 by Theoretical]