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parallels of religons

Un biased

Un biased

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Many religions take ideas from each other some more than others ( Greeks romans ) some of them are as if they are close to the same thing but not exactly and with different names . ( Christianity , Islam ) A nice discussion on the similarities I believe is in order ( if someone already did a thread on this topic I'm sorry I did not know)
 
Un biased said:
Many religions take ideas from each other some more than others ( Greeks romans ) some of them are as if they are close to the same thing but not exactly and with different names . ( Christianity , Islam ) A nice discussion on the similarities I believe is in order ( if someone already did a thread on this topic I'm sorry I did not know)
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The most common elements in a religion are a creation story, a code of behaviour, an afterlife, and an apocalypse. The Norse mythology has much in common with Christianity, in this regard.
 
Amadeus said:
The most common elements in a religion are a creation story, a code of behaviour, an afterlife, and an apocalypse. The Norse mythology has much in common with Christianity, in this regard.
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A lot of Jewish sects had no afterlife, many pagan religions didn't have a code of behavior, Buddhism doesn't have a creation myth ..... Nor an apocalypse, a lot of pagan mythologies had no acopalypse ....
 
RGacky3 said:
A lot of Jewish sects had no afterlife, many pagan religions didn't have a code of behavior, Buddhism doesn't have a creation myth ..... Nor an apocalypse, a lot of pagan mythologies had no acopalypse ....
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I didn't say that all of these had to be included, just that they were common.
 
Amadeus said:
I didn't say that all of these had to be included, just that they were common.
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oh ic, I would say that you can't quantify religion perse, take bhuddism vrs christianity, monotheism vrs pantheism, they are all miles apart.
 
RGacky3 said:
oh ic, I would say that you can't quantify religion perse, take bhuddism vrs christianity, monotheism vrs pantheism, they are all miles apart.
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I'm not sure that is the case. Again, taking Norse mythology and Christianity, there are many parallels. There's an Adam and Eve concept (Ask and Embla). The Norse underworld? It's called Hel. There's an All-God (Odin). The major differences are largely cultural. The rest is minutiae.
 
Un biased said:
Many religions take ideas from each other some more than others ( Greeks romans ) some of them are as if they are close to the same thing but not exactly and with different names . ( Christianity , Islam ) A nice discussion on the similarities I believe is in order ( if someone already did a thread on this topic I'm sorry I did not know)
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The provability of religion ties into a lot of these similarities as well. Some see these common traits are proof that they are man made ideas and like any human ideas, draw upon each other. Others see commonalities as proof that there is actually a God, and the similarities in religions continents apart prove that. Food for thought.
 
Juiposa said:
The provability of religion ties into a lot of these similarities as well. Some see these common traits are proof that they are man made ideas and like any human ideas, draw upon each other. Others see commonalities as proof that there is actually a God, and the similarities in religions continents apart prove that. Food for thought.
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Don't forget the continents were a bit closer 1000's of years ago . I see this in the past where religions 100 of years ago in the someplace has generally the same deities with different name ( omeks , Incas , Aztecs ).
 
Un biased said:
Don't forget the continents were a bit closer 1000's of years ago . I see this in the past where religions 100 of years ago in the someplace has generally the same deities with different name ( omeks , Incas , Aztecs ).
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A bit is a overstatement. The changed in distance even over the past 1,000,000 years is negligible.
 
RGacky3 said:
A lot of Jewish sects had no afterlife, many pagan religions didn't have a code of behavior, Buddhism doesn't have a creation myth ..... Nor an apocalypse, a lot of pagan mythologies had no acopalypse ....
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I assume that you are aware that Buddhism is a sprout from the Hindu religion.
 
I have spent a major part of my life living among people of many religions, from the various expressions of Christian faith to Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Animists. With no exception, the concepts of morality and right and wrong are much closer than they are different.

As to whether man of one influenced man of another expression I have no doubt. But more important, of a Creator higher being I also have no doubt. What we have, what we see, the very nature of the earth, the heavens, life and inanimate material, could not have happened by accident. Physics taught me that matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed. We are a product of more than a big bang.
 
dnsmith said:
I have spent a major part of my life living among people of many religions, from the various expressions of Christian faith to Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Animists. With no exception, the concepts of morality and right and wrong are much closer than they are different.

As to whether man of one influenced man of another expression I have no doubt. But more important, of a Creator higher being I also have no doubt. What we have, what we see, the very nature of the earth, the heavens, life and inanimate material, could not have happened by accident. Physics taught me that matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed. We are a product of more than a big bang.
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One element common to the major world religions is the origination by a Prophet, Messiah or Buddha. They each claim to have innate knowledge usually attributed to a Revelation from God. It is also interesting that these Spiritual Lights do not belittle previous Prophets Who came before them. Their followers tend to do that over time in an attempt to show the superiority of their own faith. As a Baha'i, I accept all the Founders of the great World Religions as being genuine Divine Mouthpieces with messages that were appropriate for Their time. We see Baha'u'llah as the appearance in our time of a Divine Messenger with a Message specific for our age. He put His teachings, over 100 volumes, into writing Himself so that we would not have to depend on the memories and understandings of others. The similarities between religions makes sense if you recognize that they have a common Origin and purpose. The differences can be attributed to the varying social and culural conditions of each age. What is appropriate and necessary today may not be so 1,000 years from now. Baha'u'llah wrote that this succession of Messengers will have no end and that His Revelation will be superceded in one or more thousands of years from now. This is the first religion to my knowledge which states that it will be superceded in time. But then He also explained that all of these religions are actually just one religion with many chapters, so no religion is really superceded, but each is really a restatement of the one true religion of God, eternal in the past and eternal in the future. He centered His teachings on the reality that mankind is one and that this is the time for humanity to become united as one human family enhabiting this wonderful planet. His teachings promote this unity by promoting the selection of a world language to be taught to all the children of the world as a second language; the formation of a world federation of nations to bring about world peace and prosperity; the acceptance of science and religion as equal partners in the search for truth; the equality of women and men; the education of all children, especially the girls; the elimination of all prejudices; seeing all of the great world religions as having the same divine origin; the elimination of a clergy and the implementation of a new form of community administration which does not include partisan politics. We're all one and should not be divided up into contending parties. This is part of His teachings. There are now about 6 million Baha'is in the world from every religious background and ethnicity which shows how it is possible for such diverse people to come together in unity in a common Cause for the benefit of the human race.
 
Harlan said:
One element common to the major world religions is the origination by a Prophet, Messiah or Buddha. They each claim to have innate knowledge usually attributed to a Revelation from God. It is also interesting that these Spiritual Lights do not belittle previous Prophets Who came before them. Their followers tend to do that over time in an attempt to show the superiority of their own faith. As a Baha'i, I accept all the Founders of the great World Religions as being genuine Divine Mouthpieces with messages that were appropriate for Their time. We see Baha'u'llah as the appearance in our time of a Divine Messenger with a Message specific for our age. He put His teachings, over 100 volumes, into writing Himself so that we would not have to depend on the memories and understandings of others. The similarities between religions makes sense if you recognize that they have a common Origin and purpose. The differences can be attributed to the varying social and culural conditions of each age. What is appropriate and necessary today may not be so 1,000 years from now. Baha'u'llah wrote that this succession of Messengers will have no end and that His Revelation will be superceded in one or more thousands of years from now. This is the first religion to my knowledge which states that it will be superceded in time. But then He also explained that all of these religions are actually just one religion with many chapters, so no religion is really superceded, but each is really a restatement of the one true religion of God, eternal in the past and eternal in the future. He centered His teachings on the reality that mankind is one and that this is the time for humanity to become united as one human family enhabiting this wonderful planet. His teachings promote this unity by promoting the selection of a world language to be taught to all the children of the world as a second language; the formation of a world federation of nations to bring about world peace and prosperity; the acceptance of science and religion as equal partners in the search for truth; the equality of women and men; the education of all children, especially the girls; the elimination of all prejudices; seeing all of the great world religions as having the same divine origin; the elimination of a clergy and the implementation of a new form of community administration which does not include partisan politics. We're all one and should not be divided up into contending parties. This is part of His teachings. There are now about 6 million Baha'is in the world from every religious background and ethnicity which shows how it is possible for such diverse people to come together in unity in a common Cause for the benefit of the human race.
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Right. And a few of them just happen to advocate murdering gay people, but I should just ignore that little blip, right ?.................epic fail.............
 
RGacky3 said:
A lot of Jewish sects had no afterlife, many pagan religions didn't have a code of behavior, Buddhism doesn't have a creation myth ..... Nor an apocalypse, a lot of pagan mythologies had no acopalypse ....
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Doesn't Buddhism basically adopt hindu mythology and formulate a plan for opting out on the continuous process of rebirth?
 
Amadeus said:
I'm not sure that is the case. Again, taking Norse mythology and Christianity, there are many parallels. There's an Adam and Eve concept (Ask and Embla). The Norse underworld? It's called Hel. There's an All-God (Odin). The major differences are largely cultural. The rest is minutiae.
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You can find parallels with everything, but norse religion grew 100% independantly of Christianity, I mean people have gone around trying to find parallels between Marxism-Leninism and Christianity, American liberalism and christianity, it's rediculous.

Also Odin is not an All-God, he is A major God, and the pagan concept of God is totally different from the Christian concept, pagan gods are not trascendant, they are anthropomorphic, i.e. they have physical human characteristics, Odin has a father and mother, Odin has relationships, a wife, there is no creation ex-nihilo, Odin is just one of many Gods, all Gods (like in almost all pagan religions) are subject to the higher magical realm, which is why humans can affect the Gods through sorcery or magic, Odin is not all powerful, he is know all knowing, he is not all good, he is not the basis of reality, he's really just a super person, like all pagan Gods, pagan religion is in a totally different category.
 
Dr. Chuckles said:
Doesn't Buddhism basically adopt hindu mythology and formulate a plan for opting out on the continuous process of rebirth?
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You have different types of Buddhism but most buddhism denies any hindu gods, and it doesn't have a creation myth, Buddhism (I believe) can't be understood as a type of Hinduism, they both try and escape the continuous process of birth and rebirth.

That being said, I'm not really confident to talk with any certainty on the Buddhist or Hindu theology, I don't know enough about it.

My point is that religion is an extremely broad term, and you can't say that all religions are more or less parallel, any more than you can say that totalitarian fascism, or monarchism/aristocraticism and anarchism are parallele becasue they are both political philosophies.
 
RGacky3 said:
You have different types of Buddhism but most buddhism denies any hindu gods, and it doesn't have a creation myth, Buddhism (I believe) can't be understood as a type of Hinduism, they both try and escape the continuous process of birth and rebirth.

That being said, I'm not really confident to talk with any certainty on the Buddhist or Hindu theology, I don't know enough about it.

My point is that religion is an extremely broad term, and you can't say that all religions are more or less parallel, any more than you can say that totalitarian fascism, or monarchism/aristocraticism and anarchism are parallele becasue they are both political philosophies.
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you certainly have different types of Buddhism, but the general origin story of buddhism deals with the Buddha escaping the eternal wheel of life, if I am not mistaken, which the hindu gods (like all other gods) were merely products of. From what I saw while in Bhutan, a similar "overlaying" occured with the bhon and animist religions of that region.

hence symbols like the vajra, swaztika, etc being used in buddhism and hindusim
 
Dr. Chuckles said:
you certainly have different types of Buddhism, but the general origin story of buddhism deals with the Buddha escaping the eternal wheel of life, if I am not mistaken, which the hindu gods (like all other gods) were merely products of. From what I saw while in Bhutan, a similar "overlaying" occured with the bhon and animist religions of that region.

hence symbols like the vajra, swaztika, etc being used in buddhism and hindusim
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I see, I think they approach the wheel of life in different ways, I'm not sure, I can't really comment specifically on that, maybe someone who is a buddhist or hindu here can chime in and explain the difference? If it is fundemental or just different approaches?
 
If you really want to learn about how religions started, I recommend a series of 3 volumes, one of the comprehensive work on the history of religions.

Amazon.com: History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1: From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries (9780226204017): Mircea Eliade, Willard R. Trask: Books

"No one has done so much as Mr. Eliade to inform literature students in the West about 'primitive' and Oriental religions. . . . Everyone who cares about the human adventure will find new information and new angles of vision."—Martin E. Marty, New York Times Book Review

History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity: Mircea Eliade, Willard R. Trask: 9780226204031: Amazon.com: Books

In volume 2 of this monumental work, Mircea Eliade continues his magisterial progress through the history of religious ideas. The religions of ancient China, Brahmanism and Hinduism, Buddha and his contemporaries, Roman religion, Celtic and German religions, Judaism, the Hellenistic period, the Iranian syntheses, and the birth of Christianity—all are encompassed in this volume.

A History of Religious Ideas, Vol. 3: From Muhammad to the Age of Reforms (Volume 3): Mircea Eliade, Alf Hiltebeitel, Diane Apostolos-Cappadona: 9780226204055: Amazon.com: Books

This volume completes the immensely learned three-volume A History of Religious Ideas. Eliade examines the movement of Jewish thought out of ancient Eurasia, the Christian transformation of the Mediterranean area and Europe, and the rise and diffusion of Islam from approximately the sixth through the seventeenth centuries. Eliade's vast knowledge of past and present scholarship provides a synthesis that is unparalleled. In addition to reviewing recent interpretations of the individual traditions, he explores the interactions of the three religions and shows their continuing mutual influence to be subtle but unmistakable.

As in his previous work, Eliade pays particular attention to heresies, folk beliefs, and cults of secret wisdom, such as alchemy and sorcery, and continues the discussion, begun in earlier volumes, of pre-Christian shamanistic practices in northern Europe and the syncretistic tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. These subcultures, he maintains, are as important as the better-known orthodoxies to a full understanding of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
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so this will be my contribution to this thread :).
 
RGacky3 said:
I see, I think they approach the wheel of life in different ways, I'm not sure, I can't really comment specifically on that, maybe someone who is a buddhist or hindu here can chime in and explain the difference? If it is fundemental or just different approaches?
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If you think of buddhism as a reaction against Hindu orthodoxy it might make more sense. The approach is totally different, but the cultural and religious base is still hindu (which is a bit of an umbrella term, itself)
 
RGacky3 said:
Also Odin is not an All-God, he is A major God, and the pagan concept of God is totally different from the Christian concept, pagan gods are not trascendant, they are anthropomorphic, i.e. they have physical human characteristics, Odin has a father and mother, Odin has relationships, a wife, there is no creation ex-nihilo, Odin is just one of many Gods, all Gods (like in almost all pagan religions) are subject to the higher magical realm, which is why humans can affect the Gods through sorcery or magic, Odin is not all powerful, he is know all knowing, he is not all good, he is not the basis of reality, he's really just a super person, like all pagan Gods, pagan religion is in a totally different category.
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Odin was known as the All-Father, was the supreme god of his pantheon, and was the creator of humans. From Hlidskjalf, he could see all of creation. With the magic of runes (which he learned by crucifying himself on the World Tree), Odin could see the past, control the present, and shape the future. Likewise, Odin had a son named Baldr, the God of Light, who shared several parallels with Jesus.
 
Amadeus said:
Odin was known as the All-Father, was the supreme god of his pantheon, and was the creator of humans. From Hlidskjalf, he could see all of creation. With the magic of runes (which he learned by crucifying himself on the World Tree), Odin could see the past, control the present, and shape the future. Likewise, Odin had a son named Baldr, the God of Light, who shared several parallels with Jesus.
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Again, that isn't the same as a monotheistic God, the idea of the monotheistic God learning anything makes no sense, or a magical realm above the monothestic God learning anything makes no sense, also most polythesitic systesm have a boss God and most of them have gods having families. That isn't really a Parallel.
 
I'd say a comminality of religion is the idea of a trascendant existance (in a person or a realm or something) that is the ultimate reality and somehow on which reality is based, and that religion is an attempt at connection with that trascendant existance, or understanding of it, i.e. there is something bigger than us, more important than us, something non material, i.e. spiritual, and we can somehow connect with it.

Many religions focus on ridding oneself of egoism, many focus on some moral code (this includes all the abrahamic faiths and dharmic faiths, not so much the pagan faiths though).

Other than that it's more or less all over the map.
 
RGacky3 said:
Again, that isn't the same as a monotheistic God, the idea of the monotheistic God learning anything makes no sense, or a magical realm above the monothestic God learning anything makes no sense, also most polythesitic systesm have a boss God and most of them have gods having families. That isn't really a Parallel.
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I understand the differences, but I also understand the similarities.
 
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