Religions....

[wsnpr]

Originally posted by GRUNHERZ
I consider Christianity, Judaism, and Islam more or less the same religion. Same god is same religion as far as I care.                          

So thats one.

Then we have Buddhism.  

So thats two.

Then we have Hinduism.

So thats three.

Are those the only three significant religions in the world?

Zoroastrianism?

[Wotan]

Zarathustra or Zarthost is also referred to by the name Zoroaster in western texts. He was believed to have lived during 600 B.C. in Persia, which is the region covered by modern-day Iran and Iraq. Current estimates have revised this date to anywhere between 1500 B.C. and 1000 B.C., or even earlier. This makes Zoroastrianism one of the oldest monotheist world religions.

We firmly believe that when the Saoshyant comes, the final spiritual battle between the forces of good and evil will commence, resulting in the utter destruction of evil. Ristakhiz, the ressurection of the dead will take place - the dead will rise, by the Will of Ahura Mazda. The world will be purged by molten metal, in which the righteous will wade as if through warm milk, and the evil will be scalded. The Final Judgement of all souls will commence, at the hands of Ahura Mazda the Judge (Davar), and all sinners punished, then forgiven, and humanity made immortal and free from hunger, thirst, poverty, old age, disease and death. The World will be made perfect once again, as it was before the onslaught of the evil one. Such is the Frashogad (Frasho-kereti), the Renovation, brought on by the Will of Ahura Mazda, the Frashogar.

THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA

by Friedrich Nietzsche


The Afterworldly:

ONCE on a time, Zarathustra also cast his delusion beyond man, like all the afterworldly. The work of a suffering and tortured God, the world then seemed to me.

The dream- and fiction- of a God, the world then seemed to me; colored vapors before the eyes of a divinely suffering one.

Good and evil, and joy and pain, and I and you- colored vapors did they seem to me before creative eyes. The creator wished to look away from himself,- and so he created the world.

Intoxicating joy it is for the sufferer to look away from his suffering and forget himself. Intoxicating joy and self-forgetting, the world once seemed to me.

This world, the eternally imperfect, an eternal contradiction's image and imperfect image- an intoxicating joy to its imperfect creator:- thus the world once seemed to me.

Thus did I too once cast my delusion beyond man, like all the afterworldly. Beyond man?

Ah, my brothers, that God whom I created was man-made and madness, like all gods!

Man he was, and only a poor fragment of man and ego. Out of my own ashes and glow this ghost came to me. And verily, it did not come to me from the beyond!

What happened then, my brothers? I overcame myself, the suffering one; I carried my own ashes to the mountain; I created a brighter flame for myself. And lo! This ghost fled from me!

Now it would be suffering and torment to believe in such ghosts: now it would be suffering and humiliation. Thus I speak to the afterworldly.

It was suffering and impotence- that created all afterworlds; and the brief madness of bliss, which only the greatest sufferer experiences.

Weariness that wants to reach the ultimate with one leap, with a death-leap; a poor ignorant weariness, unwilling even to will any longer: that created all gods and afterworlds.

Believe me, my brothers! It was the body which despaired of the body- it groped with the fingers of the deluded spirit at the ultimate walls.

Believe me, my brothers! It was the body which despaired of the earth- it heard the bowels of being speaking to it.

And then it sought to get through the ultimate walls with its head- and not only with its head - into "the other world."

But that "other world" is well concealed from man, that dehumanized, inhuman world which is a heavenly nothing; and the bowels of being do not speak to man, except as man.

It is difficult to prove all being, and hard to make it speak. Tell me, my brothers, is not the strangest of all things the best proved?

Yes, this ego, with its contradiction and perplexity, speaks most honestly of its being- this creating, willing, valuing ego, which is the measure and value of things.

And this most honest being, the ego- it speaks of the body, and still implies the body, even when it muses and raves and flutters with broken wings.

It learns to speak ever more honestly, the ego; and the more it learns, the more titles and honors does it find for body and earth.

A new pride my ego taught me, and this I teach to men: no longer to bury one's head into the sand of heavenly things, but to carry it freely, a earthly head, which gives meaning to the earth!

I teach men a new will: to will this path which man has followed blindly, and to affirm it- and no longer to slink aside from it, like the sick and decaying!

The sick and decaying- it was they who despised the body and the earth, and invented the heavenly world, and the redeeming blood-drops; but even those sweet and sad poisons they borrowed from the body and the earth!

From their misery they sought escape, and the stars were too remote for them. Then they sighed: "O that there were heavenly paths by which to steal into another existence and into happiness!" Then they contrived for themselves their bypaths and bloody potions!

These ungrateful ones, they now hallucinated their transport beyond the sphere of their body and this earth,. But to what did they owe the convulsion and rapture of this transport? To their body and this earth.

Zarathustra is gentle with the sick. He is not indignant at their modes of consolation and ingratitude. May they become convalescents, men of overcoming, and create higher bodies for themselves!

Neither is Zarathustra indignant at a convalescent who looks tenderly on his delusions, and at midnight steals round the grave of his God; but sickness and a sick body remain even in his tears.

Many sickly ones have always been among those who muse and crave for God; violently they hate the discerning ones, and the latest of virtues, which is honesty.

They always look backward to dark ages: Indeed, delusion and faith were then something different. To rave reason was godlike, and to doubt was sin.

Too well do I know those godlike ones: they want that one should believe them, and that doubt should be sin. But I know too well what they themselves most believe.

Not in afterworlds and redeeming blood-drops: but in the body do they believe most; and their body is for them the thing-in-itself.

But it is a sickly thing to them, and gladly would they shed their skin. Therefore they hearken to the preachers of death, and themselves preach afterworlds.

Hearken rather, my brothers, to the voice of the healthy body; it is a more honest and pure voice.

More honestly and purely speaks the healthy body, perfect and square-built; and it speaks of the meaning of the earth.-

 
Thus spoke Zarathustra.

[Vulcan]

Buddhism, getting to its pure form isn't a religion. At the core its an idea, a quest to be 'in tune' with your environment, and a quest to become enlightened - remembering that enlightenment is not a mystical power but acheiving a thought process level/method a bit better than normal (a balanced mind).

In fact, its quite OK from a Buddhists point of view to be Buddhist AND Christian/Muslim/Hindu.

Of course Buddhism has acquired its offshots, its different sects and a bit of mysticism thrown in.

You don't have to do anything special to be a good Buddhist, the goals and rules you live by are acceptable as long as you find them acceptable in your own heart. Its a common misconception that you have to shave your head, beg for rice, and not kill grasshoppers to be Buddhist.

And that is why you can be Buddhist and an Atheist, or Buddhist and Muslim, or Buddhist and Christian.

One of the things I respect most about Buddhism is the monks, most traditional Buddhist (Asian) families send the boys away as monks for a few years. So most Buddhist monks do in fact lead normal lives for a large portion of their lifespan, and most Buddhist men have a crack at being a monk. Beats turning out the kiddie fiddlers that some other religions seem to specialise in.

[gofaster]

Originally posted by Mighty1
Oh man "Death race 2000" that WAS a religious experience for me.

And it was good for America!

[gofaster]

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Gotta love the Australians...

[lord dolf vader]

so is zoastrianism where jewdaism got its start? sounds like they are very similar.  


and gosh damit read the definition in the dictionary. buddism is a religion, it can be called a philosophy yea but it fits the definition so explain why its not a religion if its not.

[Samm]

Aren't there many similarities betwee egyptian mythology and christianity ? Immaculate conception etc.

[miko2d]

lord dolf vader: so is zoastrianism where jewdaism got its start? sounds like they are very similar.

 Judaism is practically copied from old Summerian religion - Enkidy, etc. - the flood and other details.

Samm: Aren't there many similarities betwee egyptian mythology and christianity ? Immaculate conception etc.
 Immaculate conception is result of mistranslation. The Hibrew word in Prophets means strictly "young woman". It was translated into a greek word that has double meaning - like english "maiden" that can mean both "young women" and "virgin". The latin translators of greek texts took it from there...

 miko