Which Religion is the One True Religion?

Dauer

I will take the fifth on that question.

You mean all three? Okay. That last statement just seemed to target Christianity and as a liberal Jew I don't understand why you feel the need to point out an often benign aspect of another religion as something you would exclude from true religion, unless you are talking about Judaism, either in general or a specific form of Judaism. In that case while I'm not sure what your example might be, I completely understand the need to make the statement. Unless of course you really don't identify very strongly as a Jew and are speaking as an outsider about all religion.

I'm also not sure I see the difference between worshipping god in our own way and the made up trappings of religion. Are you referring to belief or ritual or both?

At times it is worshipping God in our own way (both in belief and ritual) that can reshape the made up trappings of religion to better suit the community.

I've just never seen you make a fully developed statement about religion, particularly Judaism and I'm a little curious. Feel free to brush this off as well. And that's not sarcastic. I'm not about to engage you in something you really don't want to discuss. If you do respond perhaps it would go best in the "On Judaism" thread.

Dauer

A man is struck by a bus on a busy street. He is lying near death on the sidewalk as a crowd of spectators gathers around.

"A preacher. Somebody get me a preacher!" the man gasps.

A policeman checks the crowd and yells, "A PREACHER, PLEASE!"

Out of the crowd steps a little old Jewish man of at least 80 years of age.

"Mr. Policeman," says the man, "I'm not a preacher. I'm not even a Christian. But for 50 years now I'm living behind the Catholic church on First Avenue, and every night I'm overhearing their services. I can recall a lot of it, and maybe I can be of some comfort to this man."

The policeman agrees, and clears the crowd so the man can get through to where the injured man is. He kneels, leans over the prostrate man and intones in a solemn voice: "B-7.I-19. N-38. G-54. O-72. . . ."

dauer
I am tied to Judaism by birth, tradition and emotion. However, I have grave doubts about religion any religion. It is my firm belief that religion and it's trappings were devised by man in an effort to worship an unknown God as well as an answer to the mysteries that surrounded them. In addition my feelings about Judaism is more if I can put it into words more nationalistic than religious. As for God yes I believe there is a supreme being and the hereafter. Is that however based upon my emotional need and desire to believe or not I often wonder?

Four novice nuns were about to take their vows. Dressed in their white gowns, they came into the chapel with the Mother Superior, and were about to undergo the ceremony to marry them to Jesus, making them Brides of Christ.

Just as the ceremony was about to begin, four Hasidic Jews with yarmulkes, long sideburns and long beards came in and sat in the front row.

The Mother Superior said to them, "I am honored that you would want to share this experience with us, but do you mind if I ask you why you came?"

One of the Hasidic Jews replied,

"We're from the groom's family

au,

I have the same doubts sometimes. I actually make an effort not to rid myself of doubt because I don't want to convince myself that I have Truth. I consider this like building an idol. That midrash about Abraham smashing the idols in his father's shop seems to me a parallel for each successive generation, or at least each few generations when it's time for a shift in awareness. I do think that the reason Judaism makes sense to me is in part because I was raised Jewish (also because I am willing to stretch it and bend it when I need to, as it seems to me past generations have done many times) so on that I can relate. Your beliefs, at least, don't sound very radical and your doubts sound very typical for a liberal Jew willing to invest in serious questions. Are you familiar with any of the writings from the Reconstructionist movement? I don't know if you bother to read Jewish theological/ideological writings at all.

Dauer

dauer
No I do not. I did however, get a fairly good foundation in Judaism from my years at hebrew school and the three years I spent attending the Lebavitch Yesheva. But that was 62 years ago.

I may come back with a fuller reply to this posting about 'true religion'. For now, let just make these few points of principles of discussing the matter.

First, let religion refer to revealed or God-based religions.

Second, let religions that have no God in them be mere beliefs.

Third, whole question is therefore first and foremost whether you believe God exists or you dont.

Fourth, if you believe He exists, whether you believe He alone should have sovereignty, He alone should guide your life or not.

Fifth, in this regard, there are only those who believe in revealed religion and an all-powerful mono-God and those who dont. Believers and non-believers (atheists, wiccans, new age, witches etc), that is.

Yes, good spirituality is possible without any God-say-so. But if you believe in death, which (unlike belief in God) you must, then you get better, finer, more purposeful spirituality if it derives from a firm belief in God.

Quickly, for as long as there is mystery of death, non-belief can never be based on logic and rationality.

On the need for self-preservation alone, it makes more sense to believe in God and His true religion just in case it turns out to be true when you wake up from the dead in the next world.

Next, to the believers. There is nothing we can do about the influence of our environment on our choice of a way of lfie, religion most importantly.

But when you come of age, you must develop the severest methodology of making a rational choice of your religion. There are these rules of rationality for making such an important decision.

At worst, death should find you always searching for higher and higher spiritual and religious truth. If you believe in God, and it is more rational to than to go the other way, then you must believe His religion.

And then you must spend your life looking his true religion. To do this, you must have the right 'scientific' criteria of rational choice. And I mean 'scientific'.

Then you pick your religion not because you are born into it but because it represents the highest spiritual truth you can fathom as at now. Then you hold it 'till further notice'.

Who says to be religious is to be closed-minded? Gosh! A truly truth-seeking person is the most open-minded there can ever be. And look, there is nothing wrong with God's true religion.

If man did true God religion instead of his own, the world would have been a completely different peaceful comfortable place today.

If God tells man to do one thing and man does completely another, is that the fault of God and His religion or the fault of man? See what I mean?

That is the kind of NewThinkModel in spiritual and religious discourse I am organising to encourage and propagate worldwide - principled rational no-hate all-love approach - with RUNTOGODREPORT at http://www.runtogod.net.

I think it may be of immense help for members to have a look at how I am doing it.

These are just quick notes as I think the matter is so very serious for our spiritual health and ultimate salvation.

Dr Sani Udu MD
http://www.runtogod.net

The answer to your question is the I AM, the vehicle you choose to return to I AM is of no importance , the arrival at your destination is paramount. the truth can be found within you and will be revealed to you at some point before your ascension.

I cannot think of one religion that would agree with your statement.

Every religion thinks that they are the only way to god.

"Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural & spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity" Albert Einstein



HAHA trumped by albert einstein!

maporsche wrote

And every religion is a figment of mans imagination. Except of course mine :wink:

I like Buddhism and any religion that arises from nature rather than imposes itself on nature with a supernatural authority. I think of spiritual consciousness as the blooming of nature to its ultimate fruition.

Getting enlightened, Buddhist-style [FYI]


Last week, Nepal's King Gyanendra fired the country's multi-party government and cut off constitutional freedoms of expression, assembly, and movement. He has now assumed dictatorial control of the predominantly Hindu nation and appointed a council of cronies to help him run it.

Nepal has a long, sad history of similar political crises. But the nation's most famous son described a decidedly different path--to a profoundly different sort of power. Who was he? Siddhartha Gautama, also known as "the Buddha."




Today's Knowledge
Meet the Buddha

Around 560 BC, in the foothills of Nepal, Siddhartha Gautama was born into a world ripe for change. The local religion had long been based on India's ancient Vedic texts, which emphasized ritualism. But increasingly, people were looking for something focused more on the spiritual interior.

Siddhartha ("he who has achieved his goal") was born into the warrior caste and grew up in a world of privilege and power. His father was a raja. His mother died when he was still a baby, but otherwise his early life was without care. Surrounded by riches and married at 16, he may have had as many as three wives and many concubines. It wasn't enough.

Religious Renunciation

According to legend, Siddhartha was touched by religious disquiet and, at the age of 29, was transformed. Venturing outside his father's palace, he encountered an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and an ascetic. The first three signaled the basic human problem: our bodies weaken and die (and then, according to the law of karma, we are reborn into new bodies that sicken and die in turn). Yet to Siddhartha's eyes, the ascetic appeared deeply happy and spiritually satisfied.

Siddhartha decided to renounce his possessions and become an ascetic, too. He left his wife and infant son at home and, according to tradition, spent six or seven years wandering from town to town, studying with various masters. He pushed asceticism to its limit, fasting to the point that his hair fell out and his backbone was visible through the skin of his belly. He won disciples, but he didn't achieve his spiritual aim.

Meditation Method

After determining that extreme asceticism wasn't the path to enlightenment, Siddhartha adopted a "middle path" instead. His ascetic disciples abandoned him, and he was left alone. He found a large tree, sat beneath it, and meditated. According to tradition, it was there that he achieved the status of Buddha ("awakened one").

The gist of the Buddha's insight hearkened back to his earlier revelation. Human life, he realized then, is characterized by suffering. Now he saw that cause of this suffering is desire. We long for eternal youth, for wealth, and for the sort of happiness that cannot be taken from us. Such desires invariably lead to disappointment. The way to end such suffering is to eliminate the desire for such things.

The Buddha called the path out of suffering the "Noble Eightfold Path." It consists of disciplined understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. By holding to this path, aspirants can achieve nirvana ("extinction") and, at death, exit permanently from the cycle of rebirth into a state beyond suffering.

Next Stop, Nirvana

This message formed the basis for the Buddha's first post-enlightenment sermon (pictured above), and it's still the bedrock of Buddhist belief. Through teaching, the Buddha built a community of monks who followed his example--adopting homeless lives, dedicating themselves to seeking truth (dharma), and teaching what they learned to others. The Buddha never claimed to be a god, or even a unique human being. He preached that, through the proper mental and physical discipline, anyone could achieve spiritual enlightenment akin to his own.

When the Buddha died, his body was cremated and his remains distributed in cairns throughout northeast India. But his message lived on. Today there are an estimated 350 million Buddhists in the world, attempting to follow Siddhartha Gautama down the path to nirvana.

EM,
I got what you need my brother. You can be in on the beginning of my new and perfect religion......

MUSIC

We worship simply by enjoying, or making music.... There's no official name for the supreme being...There are no sermons, ceremonies or oficial prayers. Basically you set own code of ethics. Ther is only only one command ment, and it's the backbone of the religion...."Thou shalt ALWAYS respect, and be nice to other people.......
My own personal dogma is.....I believe in God.....I'll always be true to myself.......I treat people like I want be treated.

If this appeals to you, you are a member.

Sounds interesting, Boo.

Some of us get together for a brew over at the Frying Pan (Chelsea Piers) from time to time. If you think you'd like to join up some time...send me a PM.

I can't write PM's yet Frank. how long is probation?

I can recieve though.

I think all religions are equally beneficial to one's life and mental and physical health. It is only bad when it is enforced or it is used as a tool by a government or any kind of establishement. What I am trying to say is that you can achieve spirituality and a purpose in life with any religion, but just keep it personal

Amen Farhad,
Years ago when I ws trying to find myself spiritually, I made a basic study of all themost popular religions, of the west, east, and mideast, plus the best known philosophers, and philosophies. Including astrology. I found a thread of essentially the same truth permeats them all.

boman
What permeates them all is intolerance. .