There are only two revealed religions from the most powerful God conceivable: Judaism through the Torah for Jews and Islam through the Koran for gentiles.
The other three religions are believed by their adherents to be written by fallible and mortal humans.
My favourite translation is the N J Dawood Penguin translation by an Iraqi Jew because it is most readable.
The most common belief of adherents is that promoted by Joseph Smith, who said he translated ancient golden plates inscribed by prophets.
The Torah is written in the third person but the Koran addresses Muhammad and the reader in the vocative ie directly.
It s interesting that the Bhagavad Gita is a dialogue.
Rules are more likely to be obeyed if they are believed to be from God, perceived to be fair and legally enforceable.
Religion and politics is a distinction without a difference. Religion has a public and private purpose. The public purpose is law and the private purpose is spirituality.
If we had the right kind of religion, we wouldn't be doing so much politicking. One of the features of a religion is shared values ie when members of a society are aware of what the rules are.
Blind men and an elephant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant
The Mandate of Heaven implies a theocracy and a deity like the Abrahamic God. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_of_Heaven
Seneca: "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful."
Religion is divided into parts: the rules, the narrative and the moral principles
The ideal religion as far as I am concerned is one that is effective, easy to follow and high status.
Judaism is the most high status religion and is the most restrictive. If you want to worship the most powerful deity conceivable with the clearest rules and with a proven track record, Islam is it.
Our principles define us as individuals and our religious principles define us morally as a group, tribe or nation.
No religion, no identity.
Buddhism is an atheist philosophy but Buddhists are supposed to believe in an afterlife. Therefore belief in an afterlife is the common feature of all the world religions.
The revealed religions are imperial because empire can only be obtained by just war and sustained by the rule of law.
An effective religion prevents a generation gap.
An event explained is an event analysed.
Atheists who are hedonists think religion is stupid because they think it would be stupid to not experience as much pleasure as they can before they die after having lived their one and only life.
Nihilism is indeed a product of atheism since nihilists do not think there are Moral Absolutes ie laws they should or should not obey as a matter of principle. Nihilists have moral principles and obey the law not because they think it is moral to obey the law but merely because they wish to avoid the punishment breaking the law would attract.
Agnosticism is the only intellectually respectable position to take because it cannot be proven conclusively that the Universe was created or uncreated or that the Creator was God, or that the Creator has the attributes of the Abrahamic God. If the Universe was created, the Creator must have been unimaginably powerful. If He is so unimaginably powerful then why would He not be omnipotent, omniscient , perfectly moral knowing our hearts and our minds occasionally answering prayers? If the Universe was uncreated, then it is up to us to find meaning and make our own laws rejecting the laws He has already made for us because we fail to see their wisdom. If faith is merely the choice to believe or not believe in God, why would we not believe that He has already give us laws to obey before even taking the trouble to read the Koran?
5:00 There is more free speech in China than in America, says an American!
Bhagavad Gita
What's the story, Morning Glory?
I think we should choose our religion for moral and political reasons - and therefore not after a religious experience - if we accept that spirituality is the reward we get when we know we are following the rules correctly.
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