The General Religion, Mythology, and Theology Thread

My general position on the whole faith/spirituality thing is that I don't particularly care what people believe but at the end of the day you're either right or wrong.

If you believe in anything other that secular materialism, then I think that you're wrong.

edited 4th Apr '13 11:53:59 AM by Elfive

I didn't mean to offend.

It was an honor

Could you give some examples please? I believe it but I don't know much about theology other than Judaism and Christianity.

edited 4th Apr '13 11:57:44 AM by Wildcard

My personal position is that I have yet to see any evidence of gods nor any evidence against materialism or nihilism, so it would be irrational to believe. No matter where I look I see no evidence that there's anything more to this world or any purpose inherent to anything.

Christianity does to other religions what English does to other languages.

Except it steals holidays instead of words.

edited 4th Apr '13 11:57:59 AM by Elfive

About praying for those of other faiths. If I were to pray for folks (I'm an atheist, but if), I would pray for them to be better people, regardless of belief. Sort of the old, "if you do good, you do it in My name; if you do bad, though you invoke My name, you do it not in My name."

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self-thumped

edited 4th Apr '13 12:08:20 PM by TheStarshipMaxima

It was an honor

Guys I know your just joking but I can see why it would make people mad.

What is the oldest surviving religion?

If I were to guess, I'd say Hinduism or Judaism.

Pretty sure it's Hinduism.

I'm not exactly offended, Starship, I just want you to keep in mind that Paganism isn't some irrelevant extinct phenomenon that you don't need to consider.

That right there is the problem. I've often had the experience of coming into a discussion like this, saying "What if the Divine is plural, or female, or not omnipotent?" and getting either no response or a patronizing/dismissive one.

And the oldest surviving religion is probably Animism.

edited 4th Apr '13 12:12:05 PM by Karalora

I really thought it was Judaism.

Ani..what?

edited 4th Apr '13 12:12:39 PM by TheStarshipMaxima

It was an honor

Wikipedia thinks people think Hinduism is oldest.

That was the amazing part. Things just keep going.

Animism: The belief that the world and various phenomena within it are inhabited by spirits.

The question didn't specify organized religion. That's another problem I often run into with these discussions...the assumption that only organized religions "count."

Animism is the belief that everything has a soul and/or is a god and should be worshipped. Animists would worship the spirits of the forest or the rocks or stuff like that.

Animism. Basically the idea that everything has a minor god attached to it.

Double ninja'd

edited 4th Apr '13 12:15:08 PM by Elfive

Or if not everything, enough things that you never know what might have an indwelling spirit, so you should be respectful to everything just in case.

Shintoism is an animistic religion, but animism itself far pre-dates Japan.

Ah. I see.

It was an honor

I know of older mythologies like Egyptian and Greek but I never learned much about Paganism. How much active participation does it have in the world?

edited 4th Apr '13 12:19:13 PM by Wildcard

Define "active participation."

How many people identify as Pagan around the world and follow what it teaches? Like I don't need an exact just a general idea of the numbers.

edited 4th Apr '13 12:21:04 PM by Wildcard

There are people who still worship the Norse gods around, so pretty much any religion has at least a few hangers-on today.

Personally I've had a go at coming up with my own metaphysical cosmology, just to see if I could get something self-consistent.

Starship: Thanks a lot

Probablyinsane:

I do too. But I also like truth, and I think that it is impossible to separate the pursuit of good from the pursuit of truth. If my beliefs are mistaken, then my attempts to do good might easily end up causing evil, for example.

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Ah, see, you've already imported something you take for granted into the discussion. Paganism isn't generally about "following teachings" but following traditions and practices. We don't have holy scriptures or commandments from on high, though many have adopted the central tenet of Wicca: "If it harms none, do what you will." There isn't anything in particular you have to believe to be counted as Pagan. It's more of a multidimensional spectrum/Venn diagram revolving around ritual practices.

How many people identify as Pagan? It's hard to get an accurate count, for several reasons:

1. Most modern Pagan religions are not centrally organized. This is true of both Neopaganism and Reconstructionism.
2. Not everyone agrees on what really counts as paganism. An argument could be made that Hinduism is pagan, but other people think paganism only refers to European polytheisms and we shouldn't impose our terminology on other cultures.
3. In a lot of places, Pagans have to be quiet about their beliefs or risk persecution, maybe even prosecution. I wouldn't admit to it if I lived in the Bible Belt, for instance.
4. We tend to be pretty quiet anyway, because we consider religion to be personal.

With all that, the best counts give over a million Neopagans worldwide, mostly concentrated in the U.S., UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

edited 4th Apr '13 12:33:36 PM by Karalora

Indeed, that's why I put a premium on truth myself. The prayer that I would make, as I said, if I were to make one, would be something like this: " I don't know if you're out there, or who you are. But please help me, and all others of this troubled world, come to understanding. And may that bring good things and good will to all. May it be so."

edited 4th Apr '13 12:32:12 PM by TheGirlWithPointyEars

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