JUST A THOUGHT ON - IF I WERE A MAN, OR, INDEED, WOMAN OF THE CLOTH, HOW WOULD I BE ABLE ...? PART.4

 

..to live with myself, if I were to find, or admit that have misled 'the flock'?  

After all, religions faiths are, indeed, one of the central pillars of most, if not all of our human societies. 

Even if the level of  belief and devotion, at given times, might, like the tide of the ocean, ebbs and flows. 

Or, in some societies, even steadily decline as 'irrational belief' gives way to increased scientific dominance and intellectual enlightenment.

But, is it enough?  Can it ever be enough for men and women of the cloth of any theistic religious faiths.  

To use the cultural imperative, the fact that 'we were born into our religious faiths, which is an important part of us', to explain away or mitigate their culpability, if they have mislead their flock?

I mean, although it would be a credible defence to argue that men and women of the cloth are simply keeping the customs, traditions and cultures of our ancestors alive.  

By continuing to preach and teach the religions into which they themselves have been born and nurtured. 

Would it be legitimate for them to have continued to do so, despite the accumulated knowledge and evidence which has since been revealed.  

Suggesting, if not even proving that some of what they have been preaching and teaching as 'the truth', is in fact not so?

It has been the custom and traditions for certain elements and concoctions to be used as medicines or in some processes. Elements such as mercury. 

But now that we have the knowledge that some of these things are harmful, we do not expect anybody to continue to apply them in the 'traditional way', arguing that it is their or our custom. 

If anyone were to do so, we would consider them to be negligent and deliberately harming the people they use it on or who are affected by the usage thereof. 

Should not the same reasoning be applied to men and women of the cloth?  

Namely that, once they have acquired or are given reliable evidence to know that what they are preaching and teaching, believing or refusing to accept as not being the 'truth', is not so, as it were.  

To be continued!