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Getting things from different religions

nuttynutskin said:
A new philosophy I've recently started thinking as far as religion goes is getting things from different religions. By that I basically mean studying different religions and taking what messages or lessons make sense and disregarding the more man made restrictions. I sort of view it as what you could do culturally as well. I think all cultures have at least something to offer or learn from. Has anyone else here come to this conclusion? Also, if you don't subscribe to one religion but don't totally dismiss it either what would that make you? Personally I consider myself some type of agnostic, but technically I guess that could also make you a freethinker even tho it sounds slightly contradictory.
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Nooooo! you can't do that! you're either in or you're out. you've gotta follow the book! do everything that it says. who do you think you are? you can't pick and choose! Only joking of course. in every bag of shite there is a little spark of gold. In my catholic upbringing there are sparks of gold but the organisation as a whole is a bad thing. I like nature.
 
pinkpapaver said:
The bad stuff being that suffering was good! ha ha ha. like I should sufer like jesus on the cross and let people walk over me and turn the other cheek and all that.
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Turn the other cheek is among the best of christianity (along with love your enemy). Awareness of/focus on sufferring is found in several religions (judaism, buddhism, schopenhaur) and can i think be positive depnding on how it's done - though i'd agree that christianity/catholicism did overdo the whole thing and miss the point a bit.

@benzos bud or booty - unsurprisingly, Islam has as much variation in content and depth over time as any large old religion, though it might be hard to come across amid the contemporary islamaphobia: e.g. the sufi muslims are a more mystical type of muslim that leave all sorts of room for tolerance and profundity (and dope smoking) - read some mullah nasrudin for example. While today a marginal sect (even though the majority of muslims are sufi i read somewhere), they were at one time the dominant form of islam for a century or two.

That period (10th -12th century i think) also saw a flowering of philosophy and science, preserving/adding to the classical heritage (eg the 'faylasuf' (sp)) - all by devout muslims. This science handily gave us 'barbarians' in europe what we needed to become the west we know.

People focus in on scare quotes from the qu'ran, often with no context, but in the little i've read from it there's much more 'nice' stuff in there than nasty. Not to mention a lot of the dodgy stuff is added later in commentaries and when sharia law is developed (e.g. women wearing stuff on their heads). Muhammad was actually a bit of a feminist believe it or not (by the standard of his time anyway).

i'm not here to defend islam in total, just feel it's also got it's 'good bits' that are worth a look for any syncretist (and feel like it needs defending more than most religions these days)
 
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^ I work in an Islamic school, and while yes, I agree there are good bits and it does need defending in this age I find the blind belief baffling, like they really "know" there will be a day of judgement (on a Friday) and all the fine details of what will happen. it's not belieif its more of a "this is it" ad it's there in the psyche. I'd say I could say the same for Christians who have blind belief. another thing, they "know" that the Koran is the word of god, especially since it has not been changed (only the Arabic version is a real Koran, translations are not true copies) and so they believe they are doing what god wanted and it hasn't been tainted by mans interpretation. Now, dig a bit further and they have the sunnah and hadiths- a book or books that interpret and advise on life according to the the Koran. this is a massive contradiction oin my opinion and gets round the Koran not changing its words.
 
Yes i agree - but i'd say that the 'blind belief', 'get out of jail free' logic thing is a human psychological strategy common in any belief system and is almost a social/political position; the mental switch that the 'saved' can throw at any point in any argument to say 'but the bible/quran says....' is an appeal to authority, often used the same as 'science says' or 'dawkins says'. But i generally assume that in any religion there are some, dare i say more sophisticated interpretations, usually by the sort of people that want to find a bit of proof themselves (mystically or scientifically).

The mainstream islam of today that i see does seem a bit calvinist, but there is more than just the mainstream i suppose
 
I personally hate the term religion. There have been so many wars in the name of religion that it is crazy. However, I personally feel that religion is a necessary part of life but not in the conventional way of society. IMO, individuals should have a religion that they base their principles on, but a philosophy that they live by that is void of religious beliefs. For example, I consider myself a Christian Taoist. My religion is for my life after this world but my philosophy is what gets me through during my time alive in this world. The two combined make up an idea greater than religion or philosophy, and that idea is spirituality.
 
Good one.

I think that's what Jesus basically did. He went all around the world to study, especially Egypt and the Far East, and created a kind of synthesis of what resonated with him in his teachings.

Not that much of it was preserved in what we know as Christianity but there's a glimpse here and there.
 
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