slippery:
causing or tending to cause objects to slip
liable to slip from the grasp, a position, etc.
not to be relied upon
liable to change; unstable
An ardent Jehovah's Witness once tried to convince me
that if there were a God of love, he would certainly provide mankind
with a reliable and infallible textbook for the guidance of conduct.
I replied that no considerate God would destroy the human mind
by making it so rigid and unadaptable as to depend upon one book,
the Bible, for all the answers. For the use of words, and thus of a book,
is to point beyond themselves to a world of life and experience
that is not mere words or even ideas. Just as money is not real,
consumable wealth, books are not life. To idolize scriptures
is like eating paper currency.
that if there were a God of love, he would certainly provide mankind
with a reliable and infallible textbook for the guidance of conduct.
I replied that no considerate God would destroy the human mind
by making it so rigid and unadaptable as to depend upon one book,
the Bible, for all the answers. For the use of words, and thus of a book,
is to point beyond themselves to a world of life and experience
that is not mere words or even ideas. Just as money is not real,
consumable wealth, books are not life. To idolize scriptures
is like eating paper currency.
Therefore the Book that I would like to slip to my children
would itself be slippery. It would slip them into a new domain,
not of ideas alone, but of experience and feeling. It would be a temporary
medicine, not a diet; a point of departure, not a perpetual
point of reference. They would read it and be done with it,
for if it were well and clearly written they would not have to go back
to it again and again for hidden meanings or for
clarification of obscure doctrines.
would itself be slippery. It would slip them into a new domain,
not of ideas alone, but of experience and feeling. It would be a temporary
medicine, not a diet; a point of departure, not a perpetual
point of reference. They would read it and be done with it,
for if it were well and clearly written they would not have to go back
to it again and again for hidden meanings or for
clarification of obscure doctrines.
~ Alan Watts
from The Book on The Taboo against knowing who you are
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