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PinKing


Registered: 06/04/11
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Has America changed the meaning of religion?
#14564808 - 06/05/11 02:08 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Buddhism is about controlling personal conduct and how to live a life without suffering. It seems like Christianity is moving away from these fundamentals into the realm of mystical beliefs, teaching not how you can live a happy life, but how you can live a life "the lord" will be happy with.
What kind of effects does this have on personal conduct, quality of life, or the meaning of life itself? How will this effect the future of America?
These questions have really bothered me lately. Thanks for looking
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andrewss
precariously aggrandized


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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: PinKing] 3
#14565903 - 06/05/11 06:49 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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stuff n shit involving shit stuffed with more shit
-------------------- Jesus loves you.
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: andrewss]
#14566005 - 06/05/11 07:10 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Really knockin it back today I see.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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PinKing


Registered: 06/04/11
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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: andrewss]
#14566382 - 06/05/11 08:38 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
andrewss said: stuff n shit involving shit stuffed with more shit
hmm.. very interesting.
I'm just thinking that more and more Americans are losing the skills necessary to live a happy life without suffering, which I doubt will have beneficial effects. I guess nobody cares.. or maybe you all are the unhappy sufferers..
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: PinKing]
#14566476 - 06/05/11 09:04 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Better watch out. If we reach a suffering critical mass we gonna start dropping hydrogen bombs on someone.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Rahz
Alive Again


Registered: 11/10/05
Posts: 9,260
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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: PinKing]
#14566517 - 06/05/11 09:10 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Buddhism has been filtered to the West, and from what I can gather those regions have been awash in mystical beliefs same as everywhere else. Many people don't know, but there are Buddhist texts which talk about hell and torment in the afterlife.
-------------------- rahz comfort pleasure power love truth awareness peace "You’re not looking close enough if you can only see yourself in people who look like you." —Ayishat Akanbi
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Icelander
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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: Rahz]
#14566545 - 06/05/11 09:14 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Superstitious and nothing more.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Rahz
Alive Again


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Posts: 9,260
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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: Icelander]
#14566598 - 06/05/11 09:23 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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What I find odd, is that there were specific ammounts of time one would spend in any specific realm of hell, and they are all like billions and trillions of years. That's how reincarnation works in their mystical interpretation. When you die, you might be in hell for 4.687 trillion years, and THEN you get reborn into the world again to deal with some more suffering based on the remaining balance of karma you own. Yay!
Almost forever wasn't imposing enough, so they wrote it out as trillions?
-------------------- rahz comfort pleasure power love truth awareness peace "You’re not looking close enough if you can only see yourself in people who look like you." —Ayishat Akanbi
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badmountain
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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: Rahz]
#14566843 - 06/05/11 10:09 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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I think misinterpreted your question, but it reminded me of something I read previously, about how the categorization of religion is a result of western history (the main cause being the protestant reformation and the subsequent split of society and christianity this caused). Buddhism, hinduisms, taoism, etc, these belief systems were not religions in the way that we think of religions today until their interaction with the western world
tldr;
"As Jacques Derrida and Russell McCutcheon have observed, religion is a manufactured universal—its boundaries and definition emerging from a very specific Christian-inspired academic discourse."
http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/publications/jjrs/pdf/732.pdf
So the West generally has changed the meaning of religion, yes, it's very true. and re: buddhism specifically, buddhism at least by the japanese was thought of as a kind of natural law, specifically here dependent origination as the source of all causation.
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badmountain
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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: Icelander]
#14566886 - 06/05/11 10:16 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Icelander said: Superstitious and nothing more.
kind of smacks of that dawkins-esque atheist fundamentalism.
to group together all religions as mere superstitions is literally throwing away your human inheritance.
as much as fundamentalist christians bother me, martin buber's I and Thou is some deep shit.
as much as fundamentalist islamists bother me, you can't really fuck with avicenna.
and especially re: buddhism, understanding the method that buddhism spread is very important. buddhism employed upaya, a dialectic of skillful means, which means they would basically preach to each culture using the own cultures reference. this is the exact opposite of christian-style kill or convert the natives. this is why tibetan buddhism retains bon shamanism, japan shinto, etc etc etc
in any case, saying the highly developed buddhist philosophies of dependent origination and two truths theory is mere superstition only speaks to your ignorance.
sure, most buddhists in asia are superstitious. most people in america are fat. don't throw the baby out with bath water, yr missing out on some great shit.
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Rahz
Alive Again


Registered: 11/10/05
Posts: 9,260
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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: badmountain]
#14567527 - 06/06/11 12:14 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Some of the earliest Buddhist text describes the past lives of Buddha as Gods and animals. Buddha talked about hell in some text ascribed to him. Yea sure, he had some poignant words regarding reality, but if we're to believe just everything in the classic Buddhist canon, it starts to get a bit flakey. Add to that, there was much literature written on not just how monks should act, but how common people should act, and how they should marry, and work, etc.
Surely this is a religion. Western Buddhism is different, I guess because much of the baggage was filtered out in favor of the cool trippy stuff. But it's still a mystic religion as far as I'm concerned when you start mixing in trans-migratory souls. I like a lot of what The Buddha has to say, and I can say the same about Jesus. Did either one say all the things they supposedly said?
If not, seems to me they were both hijacked from the get go. Considering how Rome and Europe handled the first 1500 or so years, I kinda like how America has changed the meaning of religion, though I would suggest the Age of Enlightenment was most responsible.
-------------------- rahz comfort pleasure power love truth awareness peace "You’re not looking close enough if you can only see yourself in people who look like you." —Ayishat Akanbi
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the human abstract
malaka the werewolf



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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: PinKing]
#14567545 - 06/06/11 12:20 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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to the OP a lot of christain churches are more about helping the community than anything
and jesus said that he was not a fan of organized religion
thats all.
--------------------
★ ★★ ★
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andrewss
precariously aggrandized


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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: Icelander]
#14567687 - 06/06/11 01:14 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Icelander said: Really knockin it back today I see. 
-------------------- Jesus loves you.
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Poid
Shroomery's #1 Spellir




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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: badmountain]
#14567802 - 06/06/11 02:23 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
badmountain said:
Quote:
Icelander said: Superstitious and nothing more.
kind of smacks of that dawkins-esque atheist fundamentalism.
There's no such thing as "atheist fundamentalism".
Quote:
badmountain said: to group together all religions as mere superstitions is literally throwing away your human inheritance.
WTF do you mean by "human inheritance"? Do you honestly think that religions are anything other than elaborate superstitions?
Quote:
badmountain said: in any case, saying the highly developed buddhist philosophies of dependent origination and two truths theory is mere superstition only speaks to your ignorance.
Icelander is not ignorant about Buddhism AFAIK..many Buddhist philosophies are great, others are mere superstitious bullcrap, and he recognizes this.
-------------------- Well I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them. -- Bob Dylan  fireworks_god said:It's one thing to simply enjoy a style of life that one enjoys, but it's another thing altogether to refer to another person's choice as "wrong" or to rationalize their behavior as being pathological or resulting from some sort of inadequacy or failing so as to create a sense of superiority or separation as yet another projection of a personal fear or control issue.
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Icelander
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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: badmountain]
#14567941 - 06/06/11 03:43 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
badmountain said:
Quote:
Icelander said: Superstitious and nothing more.
kind of smacks of that dawkins-esque atheist fundamentalism.
to group together all religions as mere superstitions is literally throwing away your human inheritance.
as much as fundamentalist christians bother me, martin buber's I and Thou is some deep shit.
as much as fundamentalist islamists bother me, you can't really fuck with avicenna.
and especially re: buddhism, understanding the method that buddhism spread is very important. buddhism employed upaya, a dialectic of skillful means, which means they would basically preach to each culture using the own cultures reference. this is the exact opposite of christian-style kill or convert the natives. this is why tibetan buddhism retains bon shamanism, japan shinto, etc etc etc
in any case, saying the highly developed buddhist philosophies of dependent origination and two truths theory is mere superstition only speaks to your ignorance.
sure, most buddhists in asia are superstitious. most people in america are fat. don't throw the baby out with bath water, yr missing out on some great shit.
I wish I could throw away my human inheritance. If only.
I can get all my deep thoughts from other sources than religions. Like poets or philosophers or the bagger in the check out lane.
With so called religions like Buddhism I already took the psychological truths that the buddha discovered out and threw the rest away. IMO he never intended all that high priest crap. He'd likely be shitting bricks if he saw what had been done in his name.
Don't need it.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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4896744
Small Town Girl


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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: Icelander]
#14568466 - 06/06/11 08:48 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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"bagger in the check out lane"
-------------------- Live your Life!
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Satyapriya



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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: 4896744]
#14568621 - 06/06/11 09:41 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Yeah, in my opinion Christianity has quite an adverse effect in our country than what I would assume Jesus actually wanted. For instance, look at the doomsdayers, spreading fear throughout the country. We may not be bothered so much by it but there are many people out there who don't understand and believe it blindly. I think the majority of our country has a lot of death anxiety DUE to Christianity, fear of perhaps being "rejected by God" and being sent to suffer for eternity in hell. It is very counterproductive IMO.
Also I feel that the belief that heaven is something "out there," that can be attained to, rather than here and now, makes people care less about the health of this planet, like it doesn't matter. Some Christians act all high and mighty like they are not of this Earth, but better than it. They are the ones sitting on their asses ignoring the difficult truth that our planet is falling apart.
But don't get me wrong, there are many good Christians out there who care about the planet and don't believe in fear mongering. I'm just moreso against the present state of the bible. I think it should either be rewritten or discarded.
-------------------- www.collectivelyconscious.net - Hive mind for the awakened. ॐ Collectively Conscious ॐ is a community-powered, community-verified, alternative news/multimedia aggregation service for global citizens.
Edited by Satyapriya (06/06/11 09:48 AM)
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Satyapriya



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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: Satyapriya]
#14568632 - 06/06/11 09:46 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Still I find it pretty sad that even in countries like India and Nepal, where the majority of the population is very religious and believe in reincarnation back unto this Earth, there are still horrible ecological problems. Most of the rivers are horribly polluted and in almost any large city you will find garbage piles all over the place...etc. It may just be because of population overload, but my guess is that its largely due to corrupt politicians, of which there are many.
-------------------- www.collectivelyconscious.net - Hive mind for the awakened. ॐ Collectively Conscious ॐ is a community-powered, community-verified, alternative news/multimedia aggregation service for global citizens.
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Icelander
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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: Satyapriya]
#14568637 - 06/06/11 09:49 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Yeah lets blame corrupt politicians for it.
Who cares about all those fucks overpopulating their limited ecosystem. They're all innocent.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Satyapriya



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Re: Has America changed the meaning of religion? [Re: Icelander]
#14568777 - 06/06/11 10:24 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Icelander said: Yeah lets blame corrupt politicians for it.
Who cares about all those fucks overpopulating their limited ecosystem. They're all innocent.
HA HA. I said "largely due." Of course there is a lot of ignorance out there as well.
-------------------- www.collectivelyconscious.net - Hive mind for the awakened. ॐ Collectively Conscious ॐ is a community-powered, community-verified, alternative news/multimedia aggregation service for global citizens.
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