Side discussion on religon from Mumbai thread

[Vinay]

Originally Posted by Hylander_1314

Skybird! You believe not in the Halls of Valhalla?! Where the dead live forever!

What about the modern version of it with the 72. He may not be able to handle the 72. So request the rest be parcelled to me.

[Hitman]

I agree that all three desert relgions have violant roots, whcih maybe is no surprise since they all in the end base on Judaism and it'S revenging, tyrannic emperor-god. It took the Jews centuries to find a way to bypass this cruel concepot of god and to turn it into something more humane: by developing a very hairsplitting, highly clever way of finding excuses and "bypasses" that allows them to see the god they believe in to be depicted not as the tyrannic psychopath that indeed he is, but to describe him as more reasonbale, friendly and humane. This is what could be seen as the reason for why Jewish thinking already had the reputation to be so very clever and hairsplitting even already at the age of the roman empire.

Someone said long ago something I agree completely with: "Judaism is the most brilliant defence ever done of something impossible to be morally and rationally defended"

I don't want to offend anyone, and I respect that anyone is free to believe in what they want; but simply making an objective lecture of the Bible or Quran shows very well that they are religions based on a certain political/social situation in that time, and destined to provide social control. The idea of the chosen nation, and of the terrible God who kills and tortures their enemies and sometimes his own "chosen nation" for its lack of faith is to my eyes simply impossible to sustain. Not to mention the "revelations" that Muhammad received, many of which are contradictory with earlier ones and whose sense and logics dissapeared long ago when society evolved.

But anyway, my main critic to any of those religions remains: They are "revealed" religions, i.e. God told them to the humans. And that is a self-contradiction. A religion is per definition something supposedly valid for any time and any place in the world, yet the revelation happens in a certain place and moment. What happened for all the rest of the world after Muhammad or Moses received their revelations? What happened in China? In Australia? Nothing. The universal and intemporal message of God .... was limited in time and space, and still is. What a contradiction

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Someone said long ago something I agree completely with: "Judaism is the most brilliant defence ever done of something impossible to be morally and rationally defended"

Candy! Sweet! Brilliant...!

[Stealth Hunter]

I find the prospect of Yahweh having a wife to be quite funny:

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archi...8/1679514.aspx

Judaism, in it's true form, is not a monotheistic religion.:rotfl:

[baggygreen]

I reckon the egyptians had the right idea, their gods only lasted on average 30 or 40 years, and if you didnt like him they just killed thir god and got a new one!:p

On a more serious note tho, interesting that Ahkenaten mandated that the many gods be ignored and only 1 god, Ra, be acknowledged. Monotheism several thousand years before it was the 'in thing'. fascinating.