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IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.
Christianity
- Thread starter Jools
- Start date
Actually I'm lead to believe L Ron was fairly highly influenced by the gnostics like this dude. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samael_Aun_WeorTiger74 said:
Add bit of modern psychology and you have yourself a highly profitable religion.
There is nothing really new in religion. Just various refinements and mixing and matching of the same stuff they were talking about around the desert campfire, in India and around the Mediteranean 2500 years ago.
evo said:
thats interesting because in my reading I have found many who seem to have deified the Buddha, but of course there are many who haven't.
evo said:
The original Buddha never claimed to be a god as far as I can tell or even a relation of god, unlike jesus who claimed to be the son of god
Yeah he definately didn't.
In fact if you read what he actually wrote rather than the myriad of interpretations of the various schools that followed he actually instructs his students not to be sucked in by the idea of God/Gods.(Ishvara)
Remember of course that he is coming from the already extant tradition of Hinduism where they have a number of Gods.
In fact if you read what he actually wrote rather than the myriad of interpretations of the various schools that followed he actually instructs his students not to be sucked in by the idea of God/Gods.(Ishvara)
Remember of course that he is coming from the already extant tradition of Hinduism where they have a number of Gods.
evo said:
Indeed and i find that quite refreshing. It seems a much more organic and helpful set of beliefs, unlike a lot of the others which seem to set up dichotomies like good and evil, heaven and hell, reward and punishment and so on.
Evo, do you have any thoughts on christ's missing years? He seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
I would only be guessing.Play Centre said:
It seems to me the fact that there is so much of gap in his historical record points to the fact he was just a man who managed to attain some real insight into 'reality(from some "road to Damscus moment") and then felt the need to express it around Israel. But because it was rather risky and contrary to the pervailing doctrines at the time the Romans killed him. He wasn't particularly special in being crucified--seems like that they were doing that daily around his time.
Whether he came to that knowledge by himself under a tree the way buddha did, or just pieced it together from readings, or went off to India , or learnt it from some insightful traveling Gnostics, Greeks, Hebrews or Zoarastrians or whatever, it is hard to tell.
It could a bit of all those I suppose.
It just seems to be too much of a gap for my liking. A lot of christians give the NT a lot of historical credibility (unlike the OT) and if his early life was so well documented, and also his last couple of years, it seems to be a bit of a problem.
And to not give any explanation is also weird. You'd think someone would have come up with something.
And to not give any explanation is also weird. You'd think someone would have come up with something.
I agree.
It is not a problem for us though. We don't have a vested interest in him being the literal son of God.
If archeologists turned up tommorrow with incontrovertible proof that he went India when he was 16 and returned when was 29 and started preaching what he'd learnt there(but using the mythos they already understood around Israel) it wouldn't suprise me at all.
It is not a problem for us though. We don't have a vested interest in him being the literal son of God.
If archeologists turned up tommorrow with incontrovertible proof that he went India when he was 16 and returned when was 29 and started preaching what he'd learnt there(but using the mythos they already understood around Israel) it wouldn't suprise me at all.
evo said:
i think there is a book by a Russian bloke on the subject but it was generally discredited. A fascinating idea.
Playcentre
There are broad similarities between certain Buddhist teachings and certain Christian teachings, but the religions are completely dissimilar. I mean it is not hard to draw similarities between Christianity and any number of pagan philosophies and religions; as long as you are not too critical and don't look at the fine detail.
Anyway off the top of my head:
Buddhists have no personal Deity
Buddhist believe in reincarnation
Buddhists are against taking the lives of animals
Jesus was believed by Christians to be God not an enlightened man
Jesus revered the OT and the Jewish faith and continually drew his teaching from it
Jesus Himself and His audience were orthodox Jews, many of whom believed Him to be the Jewish Messiah (and He affirmed this). Hard to believe that orthodox Jews would have been interested in such an obviously pagan religion as Buddhism!
These are not minor differences!
On your idea that Jesus went on a jouney to India the Bible says of His 'missing years' that during this time 'Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men' Luke 2:52. This would seem to me to indicate that he spent the 'missing years' living a perfectly ordinary life in His home town of Nazareth. There is not a hint elsewhere in the NT would allow us to draw any other conclusion.
There are broad similarities between certain Buddhist teachings and certain Christian teachings, but the religions are completely dissimilar. I mean it is not hard to draw similarities between Christianity and any number of pagan philosophies and religions; as long as you are not too critical and don't look at the fine detail.
Anyway off the top of my head:
Buddhists have no personal Deity
Buddhist believe in reincarnation
Buddhists are against taking the lives of animals
Jesus was believed by Christians to be God not an enlightened man
Jesus revered the OT and the Jewish faith and continually drew his teaching from it
Jesus Himself and His audience were orthodox Jews, many of whom believed Him to be the Jewish Messiah (and He affirmed this). Hard to believe that orthodox Jews would have been interested in such an obviously pagan religion as Buddhism!
These are not minor differences!
On your idea that Jesus went on a jouney to India the Bible says of His 'missing years' that during this time 'Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men' Luke 2:52. This would seem to me to indicate that he spent the 'missing years' living a perfectly ordinary life in His home town of Nazareth. There is not a hint elsewhere in the NT would allow us to draw any other conclusion.
Dj, thanks for your post. Just for starters, from my reading, you might need to be careful with some of the aspects of Buddhism that you mention.
For example, it would be better to say that 'some' Buddhists believe in reincarnation an in not eating meat.
And it could be argued that Buddhism is not actually a religion.
But it's an interesting debate, nonetheless.
For example, it would be better to say that 'some' Buddhists believe in reincarnation an in not eating meat.
And it could be argued that Buddhism is not actually a religion.
But it's an interesting debate, nonetheless.
here's a poke in the eye for those Christians who think the world is only 6000 years old.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/ida-provides-unique-link-with-our-past-20090520-bfp6.html
http://www.theage.com.au/world/ida-provides-unique-link-with-our-past-20090520-bfp6.html
More particularly this is also one in the eye for the Creationists who claim that the fossil record is "incomplete". This fossil demonstrates the connection between the primates (including us) and other mammals. The missing link indeed.