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Old Aug 18, 2018, 05:09 PM
DechanDawa DechanDawa is offline
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Member Since: Nov 2015
Location: United States
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Quote:
Originally Posted by My Paper Heart View Post
Something tells me your "What now?" was a bit rhetorical but since there's so much math and science in this thread, I figured I'd throw in some history.

Because people tend to hold so strongly onto their beliefs, I don't think you can ever truly 'destroy' a religion until every believer of that religion has died.... But even that isn't right anymore thanks to written records -- now the digital age -- because there will always be a record of it and it's inevitable that someone will eventually try to restore it.

{RANT} History is just as important as math and science. As George Santayana said, "Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it." If -- culturally speaking -- something died out, there was a reason for it doing so and before resurrecting it, it would behoove you to figure out why it died out in the first place to avoid making the same mistakes and thus ending in the same result. {/RANT}

I'm a bit of an outsider on religion since I never ascribed to one (even when my parents pushed it when I was a child) and maybe it's partially that I still don't fully understand them but the one thing I've found that religions seem to have in common is that they tie back to a creation myth (no offense). It doesn't matter if it's monotheistic (e.g., God) or polytheistic (e.g., Isis/Osiris/Horus/Ra of Ancient Egypt, Odin/Thor of Norse mythology, Zeus/Athena/Poseidon of Ancient Greece, etc), it always seems to go back to at least a bit of a creation myth. Heck, even Pastafarianism with its Flying Spaghetti Monster had a creation myth!

Circling back around.... I can't fathom how people would be willing to revamp a religion thus the only possibility would be to scrap it and start anew, but that's unlikely to happen without a new myth as a basis.

However, I will concede that things in history tend to cycle back around and polytheism -- in the form of neopaganism -- is becoming more and more popular around the world. So maybe it won't be too long before there's a new option out there that doesn't involve naked Wiccan dancing.




Even Buddhism has a creation myth although it is too complicated to go into here. But it has to do with what Buddhists call "a full emptiness" which is not the same as
"void" and now Buddhist scholars prefer that void not be used when talking about Buddhist non-theism.

I personally do not have a problem with creation "myths" and the symbolism that is at the heart of all organized religions. As long as it is reflective of something good. But if one isn't raised in a particular religion, and brainwashed, the myths can come across as pretty crazy. I have always said that no religion can be defined because its members all contribute their own interpretation. There would be a "sort of" consensual reality but it is actually pretty loose.

However, with all that is coming down within the Roman Catholic church...all tolerance is thrown out the window. The way this religion is set up it allows for power mongering, secrecy, and criminal activity...and seemingly attracts pedophiles. Yuk.

I need to reread this thread. Most of what is being said is going over my head.
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