well, this IS Taoism, strictly speaking. And this is what is
unique about Taoism and thus it is able to embrace alot of things
and tolerate alot of issues.
Look at any Taoist rituals, study them and you will realize that
every rituals target diff deities group. and these deities that are
invited and add up to hundredth, depending on the size of the
rituals.
And the point i mentioned earlier, on righteous, upright spirit as
deities, is a very important concept in the spiritual part of the
religion. Without that, the number of deities in Taoism will at
least 'decreased' by half.
Worship of the great soil, earth, land, started with a main deity
(hou tu, goddess/deity of soil), but slowly, it become that every
district has a tu di gong(earth deity) that report directly of the
command of the Goddess of Soil(hou tu). Some of these earth deities
are past sage and great men.
Allah, Christ etc.. Taoism RECONGIZED them, in fact as divines,
spiritual deities. Worthy of worship. However ,the mutual respect
comes in, cos out of respect, it is not appropriate to include them
in the Taoist panthon.
Taoists have no problem in bowing, paying respect to any of them,
if there is a need, out of respect etc..
It is ONLY in Taoist temples, one sees deities, Buddhas from
Buddhism, Confuciusm etc.. This is respect, this is tolerance and
embracement.
But because they are founders or God of other faith, it is best to
remain a 'distant' out of respect.
However, although Taoism and Taoist recongnized them, it is also
impt that Taoism/Taoists only recongnized them as Divines, worthy
of respect but their way of seeking the truth, the path is
DIFFERENT from Taoism and thus there is a need to differentiate
too. And it is only to distingush which is which, which is the
Taoist path and other path, and no conflict is to be involved
because there is no need for that as all is seeking the Truth.
