There are more factors involved. I sympathize with Buddhist ethics, but don’t believe in reincarnation, and still haven’t solved the dissonance. Buddhist ethics can function very well without all the other added beliefs, but sections of scripture insist on the importance of believing in reincarnation in order to remember the need for ethics. This is a case where in my everyday life I can successfully ignore the belief I don’t like, but I can’t change the fact that it’s still part of the package.
To be a Catholic and ignore the doctrines concerning the Eucharist is a similar matter only if you don’t mind being excommunicated. To very devoted Catholics, the risk of ignoring beliefs you don’t like is too big.
In these two scenarios, you can’t modify the package: the less palatable parts are still there, like it or not. But there are other scenarios where you can modify it, with varying degrees of chance of success. If you live in Saudi Arabia, and are very happy with the laws there, but want your wife to drive her own car, you’d need to change the minds of a big enough number of authorities before they catch up with you and put you in jail for agitation. Now suppose you live in Texas and are pretty content with most of the laws, but don’t like the death penalty. In that case, the rules of democracy give you some chance of changing the part of the system that you don’t like, without (in theory) any risk to you personally.
There are more factors involved. I sympathize with Buddhist ethics, but don’t believe in reincarnation, and still haven’t solved the dissonance. Buddhist ethics can function very well without all the other added beliefs, but sections of scripture insist on the importance of believing in reincarnation in order to remember the need for ethics. This is a case where in my everyday life I can successfully ignore the belief I don’t like, but I can’t change the fact that it’s still part of the package.
To be a Catholic and ignore the doctrines concerning the Eucharist is a similar matter only if you don’t mind being excommunicated. To very devoted Catholics, the risk of ignoring beliefs you don’t like is too big.
In these two scenarios, you can’t modify the package: the less palatable parts are still there, like it or not. But there are other scenarios where you can modify it, with varying degrees of chance of success. If you live in Saudi Arabia, and are very happy with the laws there, but want your wife to drive her own car, you’d need to change the minds of a big enough number of authorities before they catch up with you and put you in jail for agitation. Now suppose you live in Texas and are pretty content with most of the laws, but don’t like the death penalty. In that case, the rules of democracy give you some chance of changing the part of the system that you don’t like, without (in theory) any risk to you personally.