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Name: Keno
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Subject: RE: RE: Theology.... (NSC)
Date: Thursday, March 12, 2015
Time: 12:12:52 PM
Remote Address: 162.255.159.6
Message ID: 292598
Parent ID: 292578
Thread ID: 292493
I sort of wish my parents were religious fanatics to have made us go to Church so I would have learned more.
You sound like my second wife Jenn. She would say that, and with my luck, when I was married to her was the time she decided to see what she misses in not ever having a religion. So she took this bible class and they would invite spouses to their meetings and one day, after I promised to behave, I went to one with her. I guess a believer would say the devil (me) attended that night, not that I believe in the phony devil either, or act like one, and I was respectful to them on this night, but I started to ask questions about the bible they could not answer and although the leader had the bible memorized word for word it seemed, she had no clue what the words really meant. The fact I knew the bible myself better than half the people there (about 12 of them) also was an advantage to me, but I realized that night that it was a waste of time to try to get these people to see the true light of the bible since they just wanted to believe in it regardless of what in the book was/is wrong or just plain messed up. But at least I got my wife to stop going to those brainwashing bible classes after that.
But then again, I'm sure I should just be happy they never forced that on me (that would have sucked you were forced into it).
Yes and no. My parents weren't right wing Christians by any means, they were liberal Catholics, my dad, by the time he married and had kids (in his 30s), went from being a womanizer and a songwriter, to being a social worker who never cheated on his wife, yet my mom was the more liberal one out of the 2. But they both always went to church on Sundays and wanted their kids to be church going, too. But if you know how Catholics are, they aren't that big on the bible as other Christians are, but they do believe in it and what their kids to know about it. Yet where I grew up in NY was a mix of Catholic and Jewish families (only one WASP family on the entire street), and I would look at my Jewish friends and see that they never went to their temple or Sunday school, and they could eat fish on Fridays (back then Catholics could not), so I would figure they had a better and less demanding god then we had. So by the time I was about 9 or so I stated to not believe in Catholicism and maybe wanted to be a Jew, until I realized they still believe in the bible too, and no religion, no bible, and no god at all was for me.
It could have made me an avid believer in some religion just because my parents made me go.
Yes, that seems to happen to many, yet the opposite happened to me. I think living in a half Jewish neighborhood, and growing up in the crazy and wild '60s is what got me to see the real light on religion.
Some of the religions are brainwashing imo.
Some, no question about it, are! Maybe most are, but not all. Buddhism is totally free of brain washing, heck, the Dalai Lama in at least 2 of his books, tells you that maybe you should not leave the religion you belong to, as Buddhism isn’t for everybody. I know Zen masters and Zen monks who speak in the very same way. Plus since where I live, not only is Buddhism big, but Hinduism is the second biggest religion in town, so I’ve gotten to know a lot more about this religion just by living here, and this religion is the same way, although perhaps a bit more inviting to those who want to learn to live as a Hindu; not to say Buddhist aren’t inviting, they are very much, but they are just more open about what you will learn and what you may not what to learn, or maybe you should learn about it and still believe what you already believe in. This is why you have some Buddhists who are still Jewish, or part of another religion.
Now the other major religions, especially the Christian based ones, are big time brainwashing and big time into converting as many non-Christians over to their side as they can, as most reading this already know, and I flat out hate that! Then we have the Muslims, they of course what to kill you if you don’t join them, as their main holy book demands this of them. Plus again, not all Muslims read or believe that part of the Quran, but most of them do, even if most of them don’t follow those orders in their book.
Whenever I find some spare time, I will start with the Buddha religion first as it sounds a lot more up my ally than any of the others.
It is a cool way of life for sure, and very hippie like, Buddha and the other first Buddhists were the first hippies ever in the world, no question about it. I say that with total respect, too.
I do believe in the afterlife and have a lot of great books on that subject and a lot of those beliefs follow Buddha.
I said it before, the only reason we have religions is because we’re all mortal. Plus everybody wants an afterlife since we don’t totally understand death, the idea of being 100% unconscious for the rest of time after we die does scare many to believe in a god that will give them enteral life in some heaven after their body dies. But yes, then you got this “religion” (Buddhism) that also believes in afterlife, but doesn’t believe in a god, either, other than you being your own god. Yet they don’t believe in an eternal soul that will live on either, at least they say that they don’t, but deep down they do. They use a few different words for what they believe you have instead, “ego-entity” is one they will use, but it’s really the same thing as a soul, only with them you get to keep what’s inside your brain after you die, whereas with a soul you don’t, and neither makes any sense to me, other than this explains why many Buddhists claim they can remember living in the past as a different person. This is a part of Buddhism that I don’t buy, it’s interesting, very much so, but I don’t believe it. For the most part I don’t believe in an afterlife, I want to, but I see no proof it exists. But I could be wrong, hope I am, yet if I am wrong, I’m never gonna know it, because if we do come back as somebody else, we aren’t going to remember our past, since our brain does die when our bodies die. That’s the way I look at it, cool if it happens, but don’t worry about it, live and enjoy your life to the fullest, and be a good person, since there’s no guarantee that anything is up next for us.
you can believe some of it to a point but after that, you ask yourself why do we have to believe it all or do these crazy rituals?
Again, it’s because we all die, that’s the only reason why. If you’re a Muslim, you got to bow to Mecca and the the Kaaba every day. If you’re a Christian, you got to go to church every Sunday, and read or at least know the bible. Hindus like to honor others as often as possible, and they have all of their different gods. Buddhists just simply say ‘live, be a good person, and be happy’ (okay, there’s more to it than just that, for all the religions of course). So that’s why I’m closest to the Buddhists, but again, I’m not a Buddhists, but I love Zen.
Sweet Virginia, since you want to learn more about Buddhism, I would suggest you find this book, it has several different titles, but it’s official name is Sermons of the Buddhist by Soyen Shaku, copyrighted in 1906. It is printed today as “Zen for Americans”, at least it was back in 1990 when I first read it. But I’ve read many books on Buddhism and Zen, and this one is not only is the best one out there, but the best one to start with, other than skip the first chapter (which is “The Sutra of 42 Chapters” and read that last, as it will only confuse the shit out of you if you read it first. But Soyen Shaku was a Zen master from Japan who didn’t even speak English ( the book is translated by DT Suzuki, another good man) . Soyen died in 1919 I believe, maybe 1918, and in his book he talks about how one lives on after death. Well, this man lives on in this book for sure, I felt like he was talking to me when I read it! But of all the books on religion I’ve read as an adult, this is the only one I’ve read more than once, and I’ve read it several times. It explains all that you need to know about Buddhism and Zen, and some of what we talked about here in this thread, with having or not having a soul, and not believing in any gods, etc. It is the best book I ever read in my entire life! And someday I will read it yet again!
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