- Albert Hirsch
- Norfolk, NE
- United States
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Truth?
The earth is round we say is true. Yet at a time in history this was false. People believed the earth to be flat, like paper. We say viruses and bacteria cause illness. Yet at a time it was the work of the devil. We say that lighting is caused by the work of friction and electrons is true. But it was once the work of a God. How do we define what is the truth? The human race strives to understand and find meaning. 2+2=4 is true, yet if someone decided that 5 should come before 4, than this is false. If we said the truth is that the planets revolve around the earth, it is true. Yet when someone shows that it isn't true, that the planets revolve around the sun, now what we once believed to be true is no longer the truth, it is false. Is there such a thing as, the "truth"? Or is the truth ever changing? What do you define as the truth?
Don Wesley 50+
The Law.
“The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth.”
It is true or it is not true.
The Bible.
Luke 12: 1-3
By this time the crowd, unwieldy and stepping on each other's toes, numbered into the thousands. But Jesus' primary concern was his disciples. He said to them, "Watch yourselves carefully so you don't get contaminated with Pharisee yeast, Pharisee phoniness. You can't keep your true self hidden forever; before long you will be exposed. You can't hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known. You can't whisper one thing in private and preach the opposite in public; the day is coming when those whispers will be repeated all over town. [The Bible in Contemporary Language - The Numbered Edition "The Message"]
Douglas Mason
The Creators only rule to follow was Truth. From there it had to be a "hands off" experience, no meddling.
If all had this view we would have no religious war.That is the truth.
Nicholas Lukowiak 50+
We should have variations of "truth" - struth (slightly true), ptruth (partially true), mtruth (mostly true), atruth (always true) - (I'm not suggesting we add any words to any dictionary, rather just start thinking in variation, process and dimension)
Ambiguous statements...
A. The world is round. Rather, the world is round is true, but not entirely. mtruth - it has qualities of shape that are rounded.
B. Religion is nonsense. False, Religions vary historically and modernly, however modernly fundamentalism proves nonsensical. struth - Extremist of fundamentalism prove careless of rational, empirical and/or intuitive cultures developing globally.
The way we must look at truth should be both a process and as an anticipation of a fuzzy factor - the fact there are a lot of REAL variables we must consider to be fully aware.
While the goal is to be "objective" and "absolute" we must realize we have to do go through subjective measures to obtain those goals of knowledge. Since we are only able to be attached to our own minds, we must absorb what others have to produce and trade in the ontological and semantic realm as to gather more subjective evidence of the objective truth... While there is a constant (or should be) push and pull of internal and external belief systems... We should also realize we have a physiological part of our brain-body influencing our unconscious mind...
We are not one entity, we are three. Or at least we are not one simply entity, but a thing with three dimensions of qualities pushing and pulling on another. Mind + Brain + Body - or - meta-spiritualism + neuropsychological + physiological...
I love this speech - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WibmcsEGLKo
I would give that speech an atruth rating - explanation - the music!
We are a multitude - how can truth be any less variable than we ourselves are, if we are just a consciousness in existence?
Ken brown 30+
Edwin Nazarian 10+
What is true? ... no matter what it is, we simply can't handle it.
take your time and think about it. no matter what they historians say.
even now what is true to you can not be true to someone else.
you might have an idea of what is TRUE, but some one else might have an idea that opposes yours,
yet the other idea is true too.
so now you have got a dilemma, two different ides of TRUTH, which one is true? which one to accept?
none or both.
I agree with Khushal, in our changeable universe there will be no truth.
in our changeable societies there will be no truth.
Time changes many things, but not everything
The world has got the shape as it had always got, it was only men's interpretation of how it was.
can interpretations vary from man to man and time to time?
so at that time we chose to think it was flat (because we couldn't think of going out and finding it out or maybe we didn't want to)
we can argue about the existence of some people in the past (ex: Jesus Christ, Buddha, Muhammad, etc)
we don't know what they will say about Gandhi, Einstein, Hitler in 500 years from now.
maybe they will have doubts about these people's existence.
can it be true then? it might be true now.
is it true that a day has got 24 hours? .... if it had 60 hours, wouldn't that be true?
what if in the future someone comes up with an idea and says: "from one on, every minute is an hour"
and the rest accept that as a TRUTH
Khushal Khan Khattak
Joe Woodhouse 30+
Knowing these things, I still think it is worthwhile to try and approach the truth and to attempt to perceive it directly without words, using the capacities of the right cerebral hemisphere...
See... http://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain.html
Khushal Khan Khattak
Chris Kelly 20+
"Will be" indicates a future; If the mind is able to conceive of a future, then it is equally capable of creating it.
Truth.
Jim Moonan 30+
Here are two poems that describe the differing meanings:
"Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost
Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
"Ode to a Grecian Urn" by John Keats
The poem ends with these lines:
"When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
Obey No1kinobe 50+
For example does the sun go round the earth or the earth around the sun?
One is claim is closer to the truth. In fact you could reasonably make the claim the latter is true.
Things like morality are more subjective as they are human constructs.
The colour blue is better than red.
Women are inferior to men.
The word marriage should just be for male/female not same sex couples
But you can argue whether a claim betters the human condition.
Perhapsd there general statements most would agree on in this context.
E.g. Life is sacred.
Bills of rights try to enshrine these values in law.
They have pros and cons as the world changes.
They can be interpreted different ways.
The right to bear arms - should this cover automatic weapons, grenade launchers, nuclear weapons.
Religious texts suffer from this as well. We have moved on from stoning adulterers or killing infidels or killing witches. Actually, perhaps we have not entirely moved on.
A bill of rights is a human construct, not the truth.There are no absolute rights. There are values we aspire too.
Same for religions.
James Howells
There are things that are on the right road to truth,
and there are things that off in a field somewhere picking daisies,
and things that are are on the road but going in the opposite direction.
We want to think we are on the right road to truth...but we wont know till we get there.
Somethings we have already got there and we know as truths...the whole round earth thing for example..(sorry Chris Kelly for bringing that up again) But there are many things we are still on the road to discovering...its this journey that makes life worth living...to me anyway.
Obey No1kinobe 50+
Roy Bourque 20+
In science, the truth is determined from repetitive results. Some claims are simple such as gravity always pulls objects towards the earth. We can define it with a formula and test it repeatedly with accurate results. Some claims are complex such as evolution. We can infer various factors involved with the process, but may not be able to prove every one to be correct. The more complex the truth is, the more difficult it is to prove it without doubt.
In religion, the truth is determined from spiritual revelation (not to be confused with belief in sacred scripture). Sacred scripture was to act as a guide. It is very ambiguous and requires meditation in order to come to any understanding. Without understanding, religion is blind. Because it is ambiguous, the truth is much harder to find. Misinterpretations abound in religion because we don't have the mindset of the writer to define what was intended. Sometimes we don't even have the original words, but only translations.
"The four corners of the earth" led to the belief that the earth was flat. It really refers to the four cardinal points of the compass and has nothing to do with geometry.
Distortions in the mental field can create all sorts of psychosomatic disorders. Since Satan represents the master of deception, there is merit to the claim that the devil causes illness, but one must distinguish what is causing illness. There are many doctors that refer their patients to therapists because they cannot find any physical cause of their illness. In such cases, distortions in what a person believes has been found to be the cause.
We have to distinguish between what we know to be true, and what we believe to be true, and go from there.
Obey No1kinobe 50+
These are usually interpreted via cultural religious lens and may simply be psychological behaviour.
These insights conflict with each other.
Perhaps they should be treated carefully and not accepted blindly via faith.
I'm not sure what biblical evidence there is for satan being able to create life such as bacteria.
God created lfe according to the bible. It doesn't mention bacteria because the authors did not know it existed. Like wise there is probably more biblical consistency with god causing storms, earthquakes and floods than the devil. Some Christians still think Katrina was god punishing the USA.
Roy Bourque 20+
Revelation is a window into the unknown. Often it is not complete or all encompassing, so you are right that revelation should not be considered as truth, only a means to ponder on what the truth may be. Revelation causes us to think outside the box.
I am not saying that Satan can create bacteria, only that not all illness is the result of bacteria. There was man who was losing his eyesight. The doctor could find no physical explanation for his symptoms, so the doctor referred him to a therapist. The therapist discovered that the man had an addiction to pornography, but felt that looking at it was a sin and would incur him eternal torment, so he was praying to God to take away his desire to look at it. Unbeknown to him, his own mind was responding to his prayer by making it not possible to look at it at all. Once the therapist got the man to deal with his addiction, his eyesight was restored to normal.
Psychosomatic illness is not due to bacteria but some distortion in the mental field. That was the point that I was trying to convey. The mind computes by what it knows. So if what it knows is false, the results will be disturbing. That is the underlying nature of the character that we call Satan. Misconceptions can be deadly as any study into the witch trials of Europe would reveal.
Obey No1kinobe 50+
I'm not sure you see Satan as a metaphor or as an entity in the more traditional sense - deceiver, fallen angel, adversary, person/spirit/angel.
Satan is a fairly loaded term. Like god.
They still have issues in Papua New Guinea where people are murdered for witchcraft. Until recently they law was more lenient in these cases then for other motives.
Roy Bourque 20+
I see Satan as a mythological character as that which embodies evil in the spiritual realm. And I see the spiritual realm as the collective consciousness of all humanity, and possibly beyond. Although I don't know what beyond means, only that I have had experiences that I cannot explain by any conventional wisdom.
The mind is an amazing thing. It is sad that many are still motivated by fear and wild imaginings.
Obey No1kinobe 50+
Agree. We have enough real things to worry about without these cultural imaginings like Limbo etc.
Manish Kumar Aggarwal
Entire life people work in search of truth and this journey of search is evolution.
regards
Orlando Hawkins 20+
Many may side with the introspective approach being that it makes them feel as though they can obtain something that is transcendental but I do not think we'd would be as far as we are without the naturalistic and empirical approaches.
Yuri Gomez
" What do you define as the truth?"
Wikipedia gives what I consider an accurate definition: As such, "truth" must have a beneficial use to be retained within language. Defining this potency and applicability can be looked upon as "criteria", and the method used to recognize a "truth" is termed a criterion of truth. Since there is no single accepted criterion, they can all be considered "theories".
Or is the truth ever changing?
Well, such a conclusion could be drawn after reading tons of history books. : )
Changing paradigms takes time.. maybe because... "If it's not your experience it's not your reality"
Mary Navarro
I really think these two could be wayyyy helpful.
Thadeus Frei
natasha nikulina 50+
it is a function of what we are, not what we know.
George Ward
My example: At a dinner I noticed the person next to me was starting to lift his glass to drink.
I lifted my glass, sniffed it, tasted it and said to him "I would be careful drinking that . He asked why? Itold him I have a
bottle at home called dihydrominoxide I use as a solvent and cleaner that smells and tastes just like this. It can be very dangerous if misused. I have heard of many people who have died misusing dihydrominoxide !
He put his glass down and only sipped it after he saw me sipping mine. Obviously he did not know basic chemistry.
Every word I told him was true, but truthfully, misleading him to a to a wrong perception.
Later I explained that dihydro meant two atoms of hydrogen, monoxide meant one atom of oxygen or H2O or water.
Was his perception now true? A truth can be tested many ways by many others and if proven factual then it is TRUE
Verble Gherulous 20+
Many people believe tha truth is relative, but this is a deception: what we believe to be true becomes true to us, and in that way we are creating our own reality. And in that way we make ourselves gods.
Sounds crazy, I know, but when you've been around as long as I have, the only things that sound truly crazy arw listening to what other people are stone cold sure is the absolute truth . . . even when you know it's complete balderdash.
Much like the type of balderdash I am leaving you here.
Ken brown 30+
Ah a branch that changes or adds to the flow.Can i ask you a question? Do you know of two Truths that we can hold within us but are contradictions? I can't think of any,you might be able to.
Ken brown 30+
natasha nikulina 50+
Derek Young 30+
Thanks for reading my thoughts and feel free to share yours.
Derek Young 30+
Chris Kelly 20+
The flat earth myth was not something that has been 'cleared up' by science so we know the 'truth'.
If you value the truth, avoid accepting scientific theories as if they are scientific facts, for to do so is no less dogmatic than the religious who never question the practices of their faith.
"Prove all things."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_Flat_Earth'
Chris Kelly 20+
Zeus, the ancient Greek God of Thunder depicts the position and attributes of the planet Jupiter and its position in the cosmos.
There's a saying about truth, in that it is sounded by a bell. A bell that rings true is one that rings at the correct note. Something that 'rings true' is correct. As we are beings which resonate to vibrational frequencies, we have the ability to sense when something 'rings true', the key is to listen not with our ears, but with our hearts..
Adriaan Braam 20+
On our level truth is relative (including religious beliefs) but on the Divine level there is only one truth. But on any level, truth is the form of good. Maybe hard to envision.. but good without truth is nothing as truth without good is nothing. Every single part of this world has, for a reason, the same 'issue' it has substance and form.
This is an aticle about the different levels of truth, as there is civil, moral and spiritual truth.
http://swedenborg-philosophy.org/journal/article.php?page=1031&issue=106
This is one paragraph from that article. There is a lot more to truth than we think..
"So at the heart of our world’s ignorance about truth is its ignorance of good. And since our world is also ignorant about good, so defining truth as a form of good is not very helpful. Consider this statement: DLW 31). This moves the problem up one level, but does not solve it because we are also ignorant about love and wisdom. Most people know that there is such a thing as love, but they don’t know what it is (DLW 1). People, especially modern philosophers, don’t realize that love and wisdom aren’t airy-fairy things hovering in the atmosphere or vague words of approbation. Divine love and wisdom are substance and form itself—indeed, life itself—and we creatures are recipients of that love and wisdom (DLW 28, 40, 47). Love and wisdom constitute our very lives, and not just in general, but in the particulars of our minds and bodies. Thus good and truth are powerful Divine metaphysical forces operating in both a supernatural and natural way."
Obey No1kinobe 50+
We all get through life with a set of assumptions about the universe. These are limited either by our senses, our measurement devices, our intellect, and the information we have been exposed to and comprehended.
Reality may be so complex, absolute truth may be beyond our monkey brains.
But it is a fallacy then to say all assumptions about the universe are equally inaccurate.
There is enough practical predictability to function. If I press the L button, I believe the letter L will appear on screen. L.
We can even pass these working assumptions to others, or across generations
These working assumptions enable us as a species to build planes, computers, and all sorts of tools and devices of increasing etc of increasing complexity and capabilities.
natasha nikulina 50+
Gabo Moreno 100+
Obey No1kinobe 50+
Which I disagree with.
natasha nikulina 50+
natasha nikulina 50+
A liar paradox ?
It means that you can't grasp truth through logic. I came up with a classic paradox :
There is no Truth, there is only Truth.
Don Wesley 50+
To talk about truth is always a very practical question, thank you for it bringing up. To say there is no truth, is to mislead; rendering the word truth as useless. Of course it is very useful; essential, one could say.Truth powerfully serves Justice and lies mislead.God, [If I may] serves us the truth and the Devil Lies and mislead.
Half truths also mislead.
To enjoy the label of having "personal integrity," requires that we speak the truth consistently over our lifetime. A person without integrity is someone to avoid. Essential to surviving, is to understand that are many definitions of the different truths; each having a situation which makes it unique. Physics seeks the truth.
Perjury is lying under oath.
In the bible, "Mathew" as an example, one verse separated from another may be situationally different in time of just a few days; it is truth of another specified time; and as such a unique truth. Truth is a unique collection of stories, one could say.
Thanks again for the opportunity to share my short essay on truth to your conversation.
Salim Solaiman 50+
5 blind people went to see an elephant , time was limited.....so they tried to see the elephant with in that time span
After their elephant experience....they started describing
First saying "Elephant is like a pillar"......as s/he could touch one of the legs of Elephant
Second disagreed ....."no no its like a hose pipe or a python"....s/he could get hold of the trunk of the same
Third loudly decalred ...."both of you are wrong it's like huge size carrot"....it was the tusk s/he could grab..
Fourth ...."all of you are dead wrong , it's like a huge fan".........one of the ears s/he touched
Fifth told ..."come on friends I could see better....its like a enormous lump of thorny meatball' .....s/he could touch through the main body
That's what the TRUTH is......well it's my feeling only
Colleen Steen 500+
Salim Solaiman 50+
Well I am also giving my example.....I am myopic since my early childhood , so without spec....if something written on wall at some distance & letters are not big enough for my eye sight, it's unreadable....that's the truth for me without spec...... but to a person with normal vision it's readable.....so that's her/his TRUTH.
Obey No1kinobe 50+
Perhaps the error is to believe you have the absolute truth.
Salim Solaiman 50+
Moreover it seems only TRUTH is CHANGE......
natasha nikulina 50+
Colleen Steen 500+
I believe we base our "truth" on the information we have available to us. When humans believe we/they have the "absolute truth", we often stop exploring and/or being open to more information.I would percieve it to be an "error" on my part to believe I know the absolute truth, because I would not like to deny myself the opportunity to learn, grow and evolve.
Often, however, people feel secure with his/her "truth" as s/he thinks s/he knows it, and will not open the heart and mind to anything different....it's always a choice. I would not deny myself the opportunity to have more information:>)
Obey No1kinobe 50+
I find debate and discussion a good way to refine my world view.
The deeply held core views don't change that easily, but can change in their own time if you are open to it.
I guess some belief systems do claim to have the absolute eternal truth. Some make switching off your reason a virtue. Doubt, questioning, challenging the inconsistencies may not be seen as a virtue.
Rhona Pavis 50+
Sean Sorrell
Response: Our very vocabulary or lexicon is ever changing, subjective and individually based. Do not stop at the labels we have assigned to an item when searching for truth or fact. This mathematical question uses labels defined by humankind to express a concept of measuring quantities. The quantities measured are constant or factual. The labels of "2" and "5" can be "doodle" and "turd" but the quantity truth or fact remains the same.
Question: God created the universe?
Response: These beliefs may or may not be factually based. Millions of people once believed the world was flat. They lived, died, had children and grew in the world of their time. This incorrect flat earth belief was eventually found to be an incorrect belief. Faith is an entirely unique kettle of fish! Fact and Truth within Faith can be very much a slippery concept. Fact and truth are not a requirement to be a proven item within a faith.
Thank you both for making me think!
Obey No1kinobe 50+
Meanwhile they judge the delusions of other religions. They say science is a religion, when science is about continual improvement to fit reality not dogma.
Faith and religion is certainly a slippery beast.
Chris Kelly 20+
If you do not recognize the dogma within the scientific community, it is your own delusion you're protecting.
Gabo Moreno 100+
Obey No1kinobe 50+
If a better theory is found that predicts and fits the evidence better it replaces the old.
Yes, we have to remind ourselves that current scientific theories, or what we learnt in school may have been updated, or may be updated in the future. Science develops as our understanding improves.
I'm not deluded to think all current theories are the absolute truth and can not be improved. I'm not deluded to think we have all the answers. In fact the cosmic and quantum scales are beyond the intuition of most of our monkey brains yet the theories work pretty well.
There may be well established theories, that may be wrong. But no dogma. Also science is a human endeavour so I expect some rivalry and perhaps stuborness. The competition is good. Peers test the theories. Perhaps there are blind spots due to human nature, but the scientific process has worked real miracles. The technology today would appear as magic to the ancients.
Still it is good to maintain some healthy scepticism. I think par tof the issue is modern science has moved past the laypersons ability to comprehend it. We feel safer if we drive the car rather than a pilot flying a plane when the statistics are the other way. This lack of control, this reliance on others may be part of the issue. Plus some theories conflict with religious beliefs. Also, perhaps there are genuine phenomena that non theist laypeople with simplistic materialistic views of reality discount without proper consideration.
However, science works. You can thank science and its application for the computer you have. The antibiotics. The car. The phone. The lights.
You may be confusing Science for religion in regards to dogma.
Ken brown 30+
Chris Kelly 20+
Educate thyself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_Flat_Earth
Gabo Moreno 100+
Obey No1kinobe 50+
Anyway while that detail may be suspect, maybe change flat earth to the sun revolving around the earth. Or the evil eye causing disease. Or epilepsy being a medical condition not demons. Or the Sun being a giant nuclear furnace and actually our nearest star not something different to other stars, or evolution not creation etc and the main thrust of the point stands.
edward long 100+
Obey No1kinobe 50+
Definition is very important.
In terms of relativism, while there is no absolute morality we can argue rationally about would values and behaviour enhance the human condition. Slavery does not. Equality does. I would argue capital punishment does not.
edward long 100+
Obey No1kinobe 50+
One issue with absolute morality is that different beliefs have different ideas what the absolute morality is. Kind of makes them look like man made. Even christians argued for and against slavery. Your source material is not that good.
Thalt shall not kill. But kill witches, homosexuals, rude children, people working on a saturday etc.
If there is an absolute truth, humans probably don't know what it is. They certainly can't agree on it.
Imagine for a moment that all the religious dogma is just man made. Couldn't we have a pretty good shot at coming up with something at least as good as what they come up with 2,500 + years ago.
The challenge is when people have different values. I value men and women equally. Some don't. But we I guess I can put a better reasoned secular argument forward in favour of equality, against slavery, against the death penalty than the opposing view if you don't fall back on scriptures.
Scriptures are the bane of moral progress. There is some good stuff - lets keep that - I think we have all worked out that it is good to treat others as you'd like to be treated unless the others are masochists etc. But some nasty stuff. Do we really want to stone adulterers in 2012. Do we want to have guidelines for slavery as per scripture or no slavery. These books are the product of their time. A more barbaric pre enlightenment time. Most theists don't realise they pick and choose from the same source material depending when and where they were born. Most western christians wouldn't burn witches 2day
I think you can make a compelling argument without relying on scripture or dogma or one supposed revelation or another.
A Jain or Quaker may argue against capital punishment. A Christian might argue in favour - eye for ey
edward long 100+
Obey No1kinobe 50+
I’ll answer in two parts because I got overly enthusiastic thinking about your questions.
Are religious convictions a barrier to the truth?
“Religious convictions” covers a wide range of views. I suggest it depends on the type of convictions, and how the individual applies those convictions.
For example a Deist may have fewer constraints than a fundamentalist Muslim cleric.
If you are relying on a priest of Jupiter, the pope, your preacher, a or set of scriptures as the foundation for reality, as the absolute truth, and via faith are unwilling to examine or challenge these beliefs, then I suggest that would be a barrier to truth.
The one exception being if the religious interpretation you follow is actually the truth then obviously not. But it is highly improbable any one human religion is the truth.
However, perhaps there is wisdom and understanding to be found reading the scriptures if done with an open mind. Actually it helps to understand the bible to understand Christianity and its impact on the world. In terms of spirituality, I got more out of Tolle’s books.
Likewise any non theist who believes their high school science understanding is the absolute truth and is not open to reality being stranger than we think, that denies people sometimes actually have powerful, transcendent experiences is also closed to the truth.
However, being certain these experiences are not just psychological phenomena, or that they are from your interpretation of god, is also closed minded.
Obey No1kinobe 50+
Without giving you my full CV in this regard - I'm not an in depth expert in the thousands of gods and millions of related religious interpretations. I probably have an above average understanding compared to most non practitioners - perhaps better than many theists have of their competing belief systems. But I'm sure there are many who have a far better in depth understanding overall.
Am I qualified to suggest whether each individual religion has had an overall positive or negative impact on humanity? Who is qualified to answer that?
With respect, I believe I still make a valid point that we would be better off if we stopped seeing religious texts or what the pope said as the absolute authority on morality. For starters all these absolute moralities conflict in the details. You can not except them all.
Secondly there are objectionable god given laws. Many of us have moved past the sexism, ignorance and violence of 2000 years ago.
I find most reasonable religious people actually pick and choose what to take from the bible.
There are also those that believe that there is no basis for reasonable morality if not revealed by a god, which is ridiculous by any reasoned analysis. We don’t need imaginary or real gods to work out that the human experience and society is improved if life is valued, property ownership respected, and if we have compassion for others.
In terms of morality there is a mix of good and bad in religious teachings. Aztec human sacrifice. Stoning adulters. Killing infidels. Time we dropped the taboo of treating religion as off limits for ethical examination. Don't ignore the bad teachings, the sexism, genital mutilation, stoning, anti condoms etc.
Surely we'd be better off using our brains than blind faith in bronze age scriptures. Keep what is good and dump what is not.