What’s your point? That religion is flawed? Then, yes, I agree, that was what I was trying to convey in my original comment.
The exclusivity is a product of man trying to control others. Just look at early Christianity, which was non-hierarchical and gender-equal. It was only later that it was turned into the power structure of Catholicism.
The old ones are copying each other from oral traditions. Notice the common ideas from cultures along the Silk Road. The further away from it, the more different they become.
Absolutely, people who achieve enlightenment interpret the experience through the lens of their own culture. Buddhism is that truth seen through the lens of Buddha’s Hinduism, Christianity (minus anything Paul wrote) is that truth seen through the lens of Jesus’s Jew upbringing.
There’s even people who have achieved it nowadays that interpret life as a sort of video game.
What if their reported experiences are just delusions?
If people across time and space who have sought the answer to the question “What is the nature of the universe and what is the meaning of life” all came to the same delusion, then fuck it, let’s all be delusional together because it’s apparently inherent to human nature.
Given we haven’t even defined Enlightenment between ourselves it’s unlikely everyone else who claims to have achieved it will agree have the same definition/experience.
You are correct I have no idea, but my prior expectation is that these experiences are independently located within each person’s brain, without any external connection.
Which is it then, is there only one or multiple gods? Was the earth conceived from dreams according to Australian Aboriginals, or did a deity created it by his/her own hands according to many other religions? Where is the single truth in this?
I didn’t know that about the Australian Aboriginals, I’ll have to learn about them. And what’s the difference between god dreaming the world into existence and god making it with their own hands? It’s all allegory for creation.
It’s not allegory when both religions claim to know objectively how the earth was made and yet contradict each other. Either one of them has to be true.
I came here for the hippy dippy “I think all religions are really about the same thing” line and was not disappointed.
Why are they all so flawed? What is it about essential human nature that we are not able to get right after so many tries? You’re saying that 300 wrongs indicate the proximity of a right. What if they’re all just wandering in the same huge valley of wrong?
Besides, these religions are not just philosophical perspectives that rhyme. They make hard claims which contradict one another.
It’s not that inconceivable. I think religions are flawed interpretations of a single truth that seems to be universal to human existence.
Study enough religions and you start to see how they rhyme.
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What’s your point? That religion is flawed? Then, yes, I agree, that was what I was trying to convey in my original comment.
The exclusivity is a product of man trying to control others. Just look at early Christianity, which was non-hierarchical and gender-equal. It was only later that it was turned into the power structure of Catholicism.
I would agree that it’s not “inconceivable”. I can conceive of it just fine. It’s just a pretty absurd idea.
The old ones are copying each other from oral traditions. Notice the common ideas from cultures along the Silk Road. The further away from it, the more different they become.
Would you agree that it is unlikely thst any religion is presenting that single truth correctly?
Absolutely, people who achieve enlightenment interpret the experience through the lens of their own culture. Buddhism is that truth seen through the lens of Buddha’s Hinduism, Christianity (minus anything Paul wrote) is that truth seen through the lens of Jesus’s Jew upbringing.
There’s even people who have achieved it nowadays that interpret life as a sort of video game.
You seem pretty certain that this “single truth” is achievable and that people have done so.
What if their reported experiences are just delusions?
If people across time and space who have sought the answer to the question “What is the nature of the universe and what is the meaning of life” all came to the same delusion, then fuck it, let’s all be delusional together because it’s apparently inherent to human nature.
My point is that we have no idea they all had the same delusion. What each refer to as Enlightenment may be very different.
Even so, they may have all watched the same film, ingested the same chemical compounds or suffered the same childhood injury.
Your hypothesis would be comforting if true (particularly as we are not discussing supernature) but I remain skeptical.
You have no idea that they did, and you have no idea they didn’t.
That’s why I said before that if you can see how religions rhyme, you can find a core message in all of them. And that, I think, is the truth.
Given we haven’t even defined Enlightenment between ourselves it’s unlikely everyone else who claims to have achieved it will agree have the same definition/experience.
You are correct I have no idea, but my prior expectation is that these experiences are independently located within each person’s brain, without any external connection.
Which is it then, is there only one or multiple gods? Was the earth conceived from dreams according to Australian Aboriginals, or did a deity created it by his/her own hands according to many other religions? Where is the single truth in this?
I didn’t know that about the Australian Aboriginals, I’ll have to learn about them. And what’s the difference between god dreaming the world into existence and god making it with their own hands? It’s all allegory for creation.
It’s not allegory when both religions claim to know objectively how the earth was made and yet contradict each other. Either one of them has to be true.
I came here for the hippy dippy “I think all religions are really about the same thing” line and was not disappointed.
Why are they all so flawed? What is it about essential human nature that we are not able to get right after so many tries? You’re saying that 300 wrongs indicate the proximity of a right. What if they’re all just wandering in the same huge valley of wrong?
Besides, these religions are not just philosophical perspectives that rhyme. They make hard claims which contradict one another.