Ha. Goes to show you, David. I'm not that predictable! I didn't even respond!
But I will now.
While there is a lot that people do to make religion a reasoning or justification for their acts, I do think it's a stretch to say everything put down in religious texts as advocating peace in love. Also, I take it we're sticking to the Abrahamic religions for this discussion. Or even more specifically, it seems like Judaism, Islam, and Christianity? (I've been wondering why Judaism gets so much more credit than it should. It doesn't have nearly the adherants as, say, Hinduism or Buddhism, or even Sikhism.. but I guess I'll take the cynical route and blame people.)
A quick check on Wikipedia recognizes that Atheism, Agnosticism, ect.. pulls in third for major world religions. Fuck if I know how that happened. Hinduism nabs 4th for people, at 900 million. Way more than Judaism's 19 million. So, oddly, the main three are Christianity, Islam, and either nothing, or Hinduism, depending on your viewpoint. Indigenious religions, of their various sorts, seem to draw upwards of 400 million people. That's nice.
Eh, anyway. Let's make it clear, I haven't really touched any of those because I kinda don't want to. They don't interest me. The texts, I mean. I'm sure going through in full would help mountains on this, but to my knowledge, even, say, Jesus and Mohammed have their flaws and problems not befitting a spiritually advanced chap.
It really doesn't matter.. even picture perfect and having these things say perfectly how violence and anger and war, ect, is horrible, people would find a way to justify it. And, even if they don't, or religions just don't exist, something else would spring up to replace them. It's not right to underestimate humanity's ability to fuck each other over.
Yes, religion makes it easier. It really does. And it's been used to justify everything imaginable, but it's an excuse. Something else'll come up, and does. What interests me, though, is that the Dharmic religions seem to do a better job, to my knowledge, of not justifying war because of religion. At least, ignoring the whole Pakistan-India Kashmir clusterfuck. I could be wrong, and I admit that, but it appears that way, at the very least in a relative sense. I certainly haven't heard any wars declared under Buddhism lately, and as the Dalai Lama has his country being absorbed and destroyed and speaking against war still.. that tends to speak well for it. Not so well for the 'War is unavoidable.' crowd, though. Gandhi did a brilliant job of that, too. I'm not sure if that's cultural, due to the religions themselves, to specific people, or something else entirely, that keeps it that way. There is overlap, but to say it's due or not due to religion for that, is iffy.
One of the best ideas toward God I've ever heard, came from, I believe, a Catholic. However, as I don't want to paraphrase and slaughter the idea, I'm going to check for it exactly later today.
David is right, though. God is a crutch. Imma expand that to religion, because I'm cool like that. (Scientific[ally proven]!) But then, so are most things that we've adapted. I'm of the mind that people, in general, have the courage of a cross between Arnold of the Magic School Bus, Sir Robin of Monty Python, and Indiana Jones in the face of snakes. And of that, we'll generally take the easier way. Thus, anything requiring significant effort is generally eschewed for something far simpler. I mean, it isn't always true, but when it comes to something important or that can really matter, or especially hurt and cut you deep, avoidance is the order of the day. Which, is you know, another crutch. It's just a big series of them, to avoid dealing with the truth. The truth is terrifying, to be sure, and nobody really wants to go there. So what can you do about that? You can't force someone to face anything or come out of their world. And as is, probably about one in one million, or maybe one in ten million, actually don't use crutches and face the world by themselves.
So that doesn't make use extraordinarily unique. It probably just means we either don't know, or won't admit, what we use to support ourselves. (Provided that we aren't aware and sharing.)
Damn, nick.. I expected 10 paragraphs, and you only hit 8. Poor showing!
The pakistani-indian emnity is caused by pakistan. They're a muslim nation... and so not peaceful like a true Dharmic nation. India isn't truly Dharmic either, but it's close.
I've read the entirety of the Bible, probably 35% of the Qua'ran, and half of the Talmud. Haven't read the Torah yet.. I prolly should tho.
I list Judaism as higher in importance then Buddhism because of the pivotal role its members have played in world events practically since it's inception.
Besides, in older times every nation in south-east asia considered themselves Buddhist of some variety or other and there were plenty of wars.
Ptsh. Eight is good enough. So is a more than two-week delay in responding.
I'm not sure to place the blame on Pakistan alone is fair.. usually things are two-sided, even if slightly.
Not touching the reading of historical religious documents.. I've done the Tao Te Ching.. that's my bit. The others I've barely glanced at.
I think Judaism just gets more credit in certain parts of the world.. I can't say for sure.. but, say.. in Siberia? I doubt it matters as much as over here. Maybe I'm wrong, and it could well be.. just seems sort of a reporting bias. Also I'm sure that people hate Africa works itself in there. Just because.
And, good for the south-eastern Asian countries. I don't really want to look back and see what I said.. so.. I dunno. Maybe just the standby 'Grraaaoooraaawrrgghhhrrr people are stupid' bit.
But I will now.
While there is a lot that people do to make religion a reasoning or justification for their acts, I do think it's a stretch to say everything put down in religious texts as advocating peace in love. Also, I take it we're sticking to the Abrahamic religions for this discussion. Or even more specifically, it seems like Judaism, Islam, and Christianity? (I've been wondering why Judaism gets so much more credit than it should. It doesn't have nearly the adherants as, say, Hinduism or Buddhism, or even Sikhism.. but I guess I'll take the cynical route and blame people.)
A quick check on Wikipedia recognizes that Atheism, Agnosticism, ect.. pulls in third for major world religions. Fuck if I know how that happened. Hinduism nabs 4th for people, at 900 million. Way more than Judaism's 19 million. So, oddly, the main three are Christianity, Islam, and either nothing, or Hinduism, depending on your viewpoint. Indigenious religions, of their various sorts, seem to draw upwards of 400 million people. That's nice.
Eh, anyway. Let's make it clear, I haven't really touched any of those because I kinda don't want to. They don't interest me. The texts, I mean. I'm sure going through in full would help mountains on this, but to my knowledge, even, say, Jesus and Mohammed have their flaws and problems not befitting a spiritually advanced chap.
It really doesn't matter.. even picture perfect and having these things say perfectly how violence and anger and war, ect, is horrible, people would find a way to justify it. And, even if they don't, or religions just don't exist, something else would spring up to replace them. It's not right to underestimate humanity's ability to fuck each other over.
Yes, religion makes it easier. It really does. And it's been used to justify everything imaginable, but it's an excuse. Something else'll come up, and does. What interests me, though, is that the Dharmic religions seem to do a better job, to my knowledge, of not justifying war because of religion. At least, ignoring the whole Pakistan-India Kashmir clusterfuck. I could be wrong, and I admit that, but it appears that way, at the very least in a relative sense. I certainly haven't heard any wars declared under Buddhism lately, and as the Dalai Lama has his country being absorbed and destroyed and speaking against war still.. that tends to speak well for it. Not so well for the 'War is unavoidable.' crowd, though. Gandhi did a brilliant job of that, too. I'm not sure if that's cultural, due to the religions themselves, to specific people, or something else entirely, that keeps it that way. There is overlap, but to say it's due or not due to religion for that, is iffy.
One of the best ideas toward God I've ever heard, came from, I believe, a Catholic. However, as I don't want to paraphrase and slaughter the idea, I'm going to check for it exactly later today.
David is right, though. God is a crutch. Imma expand that to religion, because I'm cool like that. (Scientific[ally proven]!) But then, so are most things that we've adapted. I'm of the mind that people, in general, have the courage of a cross between Arnold of the Magic School Bus, Sir Robin of Monty Python, and Indiana Jones in the face of snakes. And of that, we'll generally take the easier way. Thus, anything requiring significant effort is generally eschewed for something far simpler. I mean, it isn't always true, but when it comes to something important or that can really matter, or especially hurt and cut you deep, avoidance is the order of the day. Which, is you know, another crutch. It's just a big series of them, to avoid dealing with the truth. The truth is terrifying, to be sure, and nobody really wants to go there. So what can you do about that? You can't force someone to face anything or come out of their world. And as is, probably about one in one million, or maybe one in ten million, actually don't use crutches and face the world by themselves.
So that doesn't make use extraordinarily unique. It probably just means we either don't know, or won't admit, what we use to support ourselves. (Provided that we aren't aware and sharing.)
Reply
The pakistani-indian emnity is caused by pakistan. They're a muslim nation... and so not peaceful like a true Dharmic nation. India isn't truly Dharmic either, but it's close.
I've read the entirety of the Bible, probably 35% of the Qua'ran, and half of the Talmud. Haven't read the Torah yet.. I prolly should tho.
I list Judaism as higher in importance then Buddhism because of the pivotal role its members have played in world events practically since it's inception.
Besides, in older times every nation in south-east asia considered themselves Buddhist of some variety or other and there were plenty of wars.
Reply
I'm not sure to place the blame on Pakistan alone is fair.. usually things are two-sided, even if slightly.
Not touching the reading of historical religious documents.. I've done the Tao Te Ching.. that's my bit. The others I've barely glanced at.
I think Judaism just gets more credit in certain parts of the world.. I can't say for sure.. but, say.. in Siberia? I doubt it matters as much as over here. Maybe I'm wrong, and it could well be.. just seems sort of a reporting bias. Also I'm sure that people hate Africa works itself in there. Just because.
And, good for the south-eastern Asian countries. I don't really want to look back and see what I said.. so.. I dunno. Maybe just the standby 'Grraaaoooraaawrrgghhhrrr people are stupid' bit.
Yeah, that'll do.
Reply
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