World Religion 101- historical facts and myths

[Lady Rayya]

This is a thread designed to discuss any and all religions, debunk myths, establish solid facts, and banish ignorance to the lowest levels of whatever horrific afterlife you believe in. (If you don't believe in a horrific afterlife, then ignorance will just have to be banished to whatever most horrible place you can imagine)

RULES:
1) There will be no flaming. I don't care if that is your religion. The Church of the Online Flamer is hereby declared off limits.
2) If there's something you have heard about a religion, present it as an impartial bit of hearsay. Let those who Practice that religion debunk it or confirm it.
3) Any religion is up for discussion (except for the religion banned in rule 1)
4) please include references and resources for a bit of fact you post, and for any debunking or confirming you do. I like research, ad it helps me personally to be able to look it up for myself and read it in more depth later. I own many religious works from many different religions, and I will try to quote whenever possible.
5) No one religion is to be assumed to be the correct one in this thread. That is a personal decision, and this thread does not exist to proclaim your path as the best/only one to whatever you believe in.
Forum is now open!  

[Bellabie]

Erm, sorry to write something so useless to the discussion, and all... But I just wanted to thank you. This is a rather brilliant idea and (assuming that the rules are followed) this thread should be rather successful and intelligible, as well. Many thanks. With any luck, I'll get to learn a bit of theology.

b  

[Lady Rayya]

I hope the rules are followed, argument is much less fun than discussion. smile  

[Bellabie]

Hm, debate is reasonable, argument ought to be avoided.
Again, thank you.

We may need a starter topic...  

[Lady Rayya]

How about what we left off with in the rants?

Christianity, Judaism and Islam, compare and contrast!

1) the Nature of God (or Allah)
2) Major tenets, commandments
3) important People  

[Bellabie]

Well, as far as I know, the main for in the road between Judaism and Christianity is a disagreement over the time and person of the Messiah...  

[Lady Rayya]

one of the differences, yes
The Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and the Jews do not. That he was a prophet, yes. I've never learned when/why they decided he had gone astray.

Also, Islam teaches that Jesus was born of a virgin ad was an important prophet, but that his followers were somehow turned from the true path.

So, Questions that need answering:
1) Jesus as prophet in Judaism, when did he go astray, and how does the faith deal with ordering a prophet executed?
2) Jesus as prophet in Islam, when were his followers turned astray, and how, ad by whom?  

[Master Clockfish]

Quote:

1) There will be no flaming. I don't care if that is your religion. The Church of the Online Flamer is hereby declared off limits.

Good luck enforcing that. On every board I've been on, topics about religion usually turn into flamefests and are locked or forbidden entirely. Religion is a very touchy subject for most people.  

[dronze]

I figure I'm going to watch how this one pans out before I post... I'd rather see something flourish, but I want to see what kind of views are going to be expressed, no matter how covertly...  

[Bellabie]

No worries, m'dear.
I will try to help prevent flaming, if you will allow it. I do try my best to settle disputes. Boxman, it is a challenging thing to talk about, but people can be civil to one another, sometimes...  

[Lady Rayya]

I'm trying a personal experiment: I'm being an optimist.... maybe flaming can be avoided, but I don't have the power to enforce the ban, so I can only hope other people TRY to be civil.

Usually my realist/cynical streak takes over... I'm by far not a good person, and I'm at a crossroads in my own faith, partially because I can't believe in what I don't understand. The whole faith thing is a challenge.

I do so much research in the vain hope that someday I'll understand something. I currently identify as Christian merely because that's what I was raised as, not particularly because its what I ascribe to. I perhaps should have put down No Clue.

I'm personally seeking something to believe in, and bits and pieces from different religions make sense to me. I don't like to pick and choose cafeteria-style, it seems inconsistent to me somehow. I hate being told to "Take it on faith."

Who knows, maybe this thread will answer some of my questions and help me personally. Plus, even if it doesn't, academically it can't hurt to talk to practitioners of different religions. I like knowing things.  

[Bellabie]

Does anyone here know about Hinduism and Buddhism? I'd like to become a bit more familiar with them...
What are the ideas of afterlife? Deities?

b  

[Lady Rayya]

True Buddhism has no deity... but the Buddha is the Enlightened One, meaning that he was granted the knowledge about life and all that. Basically, the world is not real, everything is just a shadow. Unlike Hinduism, there is no underlying reality.

In Buddhism when you die after becoming pure through reincarnation, you become a glorious nothing. After the suffering and self-denial that is life, being nothing is its own reward.

Hinduism has a LOT of deities. Wikipedia actually has good articles on most of them. The world isn;t real, but shadows, underlying it all there is a REALITY. When you die after becoming pure through reincarnation, you may eventually merge into that reality.

There's a lot more to the reincarnation aspect to each religion. I'm not solid on tat myself. ANyone else know it?  

[Bellabie]

Right. I know very little of the two, but all of what you've said seems to fit with the bits and pieces that I am familiar with. Buddhism is mostly about coexistence, it seems... Hinduism has too many deities for me to remember. A friend tried to describe them to me, not even all of them, and we both gave up after much effort.

Which religion does Nirvana pertain to? Hinduism?  

[dronze]

Nirvana is a staple of Buddhism, if I'm not mistaken.



it's also the diety of alt-rock, before it became all tainted by courtney love.