Religion's glorious complexity

Religion is indeed variegated, bewildering and complex. So is the tax code, for similar reasons. Both are man-made. Both are fundamentally simple, but they have been overlaid by immense complexity. The main purpose of this complexity is to bamboozle people and pick their pockets. The tax code is made complicated to hide gifts to special interests and disguise the fact that wealthy people don't pay much. Religion is complicated to impress people, and also as a "Courtiers Reply" to doubters -- as a way to make religion look sophisticated and difficult to understand:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/12/the_courtiers_reply.php

Even though religions are variegated, and quite different in the moral lessons they teach, their core assertions are the same in all cases, and quite simple. They are: a conscious, willful God or gods exist; God created the universe; and -- for most religions -- God believes in morality, watches what you do, and punishes or rewards behavior and answers prayer. There is not the slightest evidence for any of these assertions. Most of them would violate the laws of physics. So all religions are alike insofar as they are all without foundation and all physically impossible. Since that is the case, comparing one to the other seems fruitless, or at least boring, like comparing the tax system of country to that of another.

Perhaps somebody could name a religion that does not pretend to know things that it does not know. All religions that I have ever seen do this. And I can cite specific examples from all of them.

I have not yet come across a religion that I can not lump into the one category of "pretending to know things they do not know."

Can anyone give me an example of one that does not?

Spirituality need not and is not complex at all. Man has created the complexity to stupefy, mystify, dazzle, guilt, mesmerize, scare and manipulate the masses.

The main problem with religion, especially the Abrahamic ones is ethnocentrism or a stubborn, uncompromising
"my-way-or-the-highway" intolerance of anything and everything different. This is combined with an arrogant "do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do" hypocrisy we see among the ultra-right Huckabees and some Catholics who gay-bash on one hand and defend and hide their pervert priests on the other.

It's real simple - we all are one. Any attempt to separate, exclude, judge or condemn any part of us is like one cutting off his big toe because he thinks it is ugly.

People make the error of assigning absolute claims to truth for all religions for all time. By doing this, they then pit each against the other in an endless azrgument over exclusivity. This fails to take into account that each religion was a prescription for a specific need or "disease" at a particular time and/or among a particular people. For a Baha'i (a follower of Baha'u'llah) - which Prothero leaves out of his book - one has to grasp that religiouos revelation is a set of progressively revealed dispensations throughout time through individuals the Baha'is call Manifestations of God. With this perspective, one can contemplate certain level of oneness in spiritual principle (for instance, the golden rule, which is in every religion) and the differentiation among their specific practices and understandings that occurs because of the time and place of their revelation.

"That the divers communions of the earth, and the manifold systems of religious belief, should never be allowed to foster the feelings of animosity among men, is, in this Day, of the essence of the Faith of God and His Religion. These principles and laws, these firmly-established and mighty systems, have proceeded from one Source, and are rays of one Light. That they differ one from another is to be attributed to the varying requirements of the ages in which they were promulgated."

"The utterance of God is a lamp, whose light is these words: Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and fellowship. He Who is the Daystar of Truth beareth Me witness! So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth. The One true God, He Who knoweth all things, Himself testifieth to the truth of these words."

(Baha'i scriptures)

Looks like this blog doe snot like symbols.

W is less than X is less Than Y. Likwise, W is less than, X is less than Z. And Y is different from Z.

For some reason my post got clipped.

Then we can safely say that W

The atheist do not lump all religions into one. But all of them do on some issues have the same position. The main one among them is in all case their fundamental belief that there is a supernatural being. We atheists vehemently maintain that is without merit, as there is no basis in fact for that assertion. Other than that we all maintain that there are varying degrees of stupidity & superstition these religions adhere to. Case in point, if Judaism is W units of silliness and Christianity X, Islam y, and Mormonism is say Z. Then we can safely say that W

Did the professor mention Paganism in his book? If not, he neglected the great effect the horned one and his goddesses have on all of us?? Or maybe paganism is not mentioned on the streets of puritanical Boston? Or maybe he read the following:

"Starhawk: The Pagan Pat Robertson
By Brian Carnell – September 21, 2005

Earlier this month, I mentioned my disdain for pagan activist Starhawk. But I did not appreciate just how nutty she is until my wife directed me to Starhawk’s A Pagan Response to Katrina.
"
http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2005/starhawk-the-pagan-pat-robertson/ to see the complete opinion

"If only people of the world whould know the history of religions, ask questions, have a open mind ."

No thanks; too many people have been killed for asking the wrong questions of the wrong religions.

"Many religions but only one GOD for most."

Actually, many imaginary gods.

"What do you non practiicing atheists think of this?"

What, exactly, is a "non practiicing atheist"?

It's an interesting book that's been much discussed, this. While it has its problems, it's a topic too-often not-broached.

I think too long have some 'well-intentioned' interfaith types, (often just smarmily-condescending ones) will project their belief of 'what you believe' onto all others, as though 'sameness to me' could be the only possible way to respect another person.

It's not really exactly pluralism and respect so to do, though.

From some people's biases, 'Not worshiping my One True God' must mean 'You must worship my Devil, and it'd be rude/correct/nonsensical to say so.'

For some the answer is to say: "Well, it's nicer to say we're all really worshiping the same God, mine."

Mind you, there are *some* spiritual/religious experiences that all humans may/do share. Numinous senses of universal connectedness and oneness: these may be interpreted differently, but I think are very similar in many ways: From some points of view, one might well say 'God/dess' or 'All,' or as Asimov said, 'A-ha!' but it's still the same feeling: it's the doctrines and more humanized faces that different paths see as coming from that that may differ.

Some may say, "This is the only thing that is, so anyone spiritual must be seeing my God," and some may say, "That's not the Gods of my religion, that's something *They* may know, too."

(For this reason I think that the best interfaith ambassadors are not the theologians and demagogues and hierophants, but the *mystics.* Those who know that experience well and can see it in another's eyes, however different the language about it. One thing we all have in common is that everyone's got someone like that.

Forget the Dawkinses and the Popes and scribes and televangelists and people with all the degrees.

Send the Sagans, send the poets, send the seers, send the shamans, send the Sufis, send the storytellers.

These are the folks that can sit around a table, or pass in the streets and alleys and country lanes,and smile and wink at each other and be like, 'Ah, they've been there.'

Not all of us are strictly allowed in all faiths, but this happens all the time. And it's a whole lot better than preachers trying to convert each other.

No, it's *not* all the same, but it is all connected. And that's maybe what the 'dividers' fear. We don't have to accept their definitions. We can *be* different and still glad of each other's presence.

Here is a link to an article written by Professor Prothero himself on the subject of his book.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/04/25/separate_truths/?page=1

It seems to me that a religion that promises rewards in an afterlife for acts in the here and now is questionable. The pertinent question for those who engage in spiritual practice, coming from a place of freedom, is, "Does it make you happier today?" If the answer is no, I suggest you try another tack. If it is yes, no argument can prevail over such self validation.

Wonderfully refreshing and love your grandmother's warning. The major religions are really different and polite conversations about those difference would go along way toward a meaningful and honest respect for faiths other than someone's own. A wonderful example of this is from Islam as the second Khalif, Umar ibn al-Khattab (radhiAllahu anhu), understood both Christianity and Judiasm, allowed for it practice within the Muslim world and treated the members of those religions with both respect and fairness. He understood that neither of those religions was Islam and never soft pedaled the differences because he knew they mattered.

If only people of the world whould know the history of religions, ask questions, have a open mind . Many religions but only one GOD for most. What do you non practiicing atheists think of this?

"Stephen Prothero's new book, God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World - and Why Their Differences Matter. Prothero's tour of Islam, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Yoruba Religion, Judaism, and Daoism (with a coda for atheism) sets some interesting pecking orders and boundaries."

The following synopsis will save you some money:

1. Abraham founder/father of three major religions was either the embellishment of the lives of three different men or a
mythical character as was mythical Moses, the "Tablet-Man" who talked to burning bushes and made much magic in Egypt.

Many of the 1.5 million Conservative Jews and many of their rabbis have relegated Abraham to the myth pile along with most if not all the OT.

Current problem:
Realization that the Jews are not god's chosen people.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20E1EFE35540C7A8CDDAA0894DA404482

2. Jesus was an illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter/simple preacher man who suffered from hallucinations and who has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth to a mamzer from Nazareth (Professor Bruce Chilton, in his book Rabbi Jesus). Analyses of Jesus’ life by many contemporary NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists) via the NT and related documents have concluded that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian, Jewish and Pagan sects.

The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed/plagiarized and/or improved from those who came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, OT, John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics.

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html

For added "pizzazz", Catholic/Christian theologians divided god the singularity into three persons and invented atonement as an added guilt trip for the "pew people" to go along with this trinity of overseers. By doing so, they made god the padre into god the "filicider".

Current problems:

Pedophiliac priests, atonement theology and original sin!!!!

3. Luther, Calvin, Joe Smith, Henry VIII, Wesley, Roger Williams, the Great “Babs” et al, founders of Christian-based religions or combination religions also suffered from the belief in/hallucinations of angelic visits and "prophecies" for profits analogous to the myths of Catholicism (resurrections, apparitions, ascensions and immaculate conceptions).

Current problem:

Adulterous preachers, "propheteering/ profiteering" evangelicals and atonement theology.

Continued below:

4. Mohammed was an illiterate, womanizing, lust and greed-driven, warmongering, hallucinating Arab, who also had embellishing/hallucinating/plagiarizing scribal biographers who not only added "angels" and flying chariots to the koran but also a militaristic agenda to support the plundering and looting of the lands of non-believers.

This agenda continues as shown by the massacre in Mumbai, the assassinations of Bhutto and Theo Van Gogh, the conduct of the seven Muslim doctors in the UK, the 9/11 terrorists, the 24/7 Sunni suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the 24/7 Shiite suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the Islamic bombers of the trains in the UK and Spain, the Bali crazies, the Kenya crazies, the Pakistani “koranics”, the Palestine suicide bombers/rocketeers, the Lebanese nutcases, the Taliban nut jobs, and the Filipino “koranics”.

And who funds this muck and stench of terror? The warmongering, Islamic, Shiite terror and torture theocracy of Iran aka the Third Axis of Evil and also the Sunni "Wannabees" of Saudi Arabia.

Current problems:

The Sunni-Shiite blood feud and the warmongering, womanizing (11 wives), hallucinating founder.

5. Hinduism (from an online Hindu site) -

"Hinduism cannot be described as an organized religion. It is not founded by any individual. Hinduism is God centered and therefore one can call Hinduism as founded by God, because the answer to the question ‘Who is behind the eternal principles and who makes them work?’ will have to be ‘Cosmic power, Divine power, God’."

The caste/laborer system, reincarnation and cow worship/reverence are problems when saying a fair and rational God founded Hinduism."

Current problems:

The caste system and cow worship/reverence.

6. Buddhism- "Buddhism began in India about 500 years before the birth of Christ. The people living at that time had become disillusioned with certain beliefs of Hinduism including the caste system, which had grown extremely complex. The number of outcasts (those who did not belong to any particular caste) was continuing to grow."

"However, in Buddhism, like so many other religions, fanciful stories arose concerning events in the life of the founder, Siddhartha Gautama (fifth century B.C.):"

Archaeological discoveries have proved, beyond a doubt, his historical character, but apart from the legends we know very little about the circumstances of his life. e.g. Buddha by one legend was supposedly talking when he came out of his mother's womb.

Bottom line: There are many good ways of living but be aware of the hallucinations, embellishments, lies, and myths surrounding the founders and foundations of said rules of life.