John Houlihan, There is a lot to learn from any / all religions and philosophies........specially about all the blood lost during centuries attempting to impose them on mankind. We have learned nothing from our History classes.
We who have truly learned know that there are bad actors who will use ANY device in order to command power over others. There are bad cops, bad teachers, bad preachers, bad politicians, bad kings, bad Christians and bad Atheists. Bad people do what bad people do and we can pick apart every single profession and belief there is just because it’s one of the best ways to rationalize a reason for making a personal choice. A person’s religion or profession is about personal choices and has absolutely nothing to do with all the bad things people do throughout history. I can just as easily say that I don’t want to be a cop because throughout history people become cops just to show how powerful they are. The truth is, I never wanted to be a cop because I never wanted to be a cop. It has nothing to do with what cops do, have done or won’t do but because my personal choice isn’t to be.a cop. Adios
By the way, I wasn't trying to send any particular message with the title. It just seemed to fit the stuff I was moving.
Although this is true, there is also lots of blood shed from non-believers too, I doubt many of the thugs and gangsters go to church, well except the mafia members. When we had a church on every corner, we had a more civil society. Many wars are fought over territory too. Lots of bloodshed in secular nations over the millenniums.
Just a suggestion, but when you take posts from one thread to create another, maybe an initial post of explanation would be helpful since many times the 'thread originator' didn't actually originate the thread ... does that make sense? I know that you post why you moved stuff in the original thread, but then the new thread sometimes seems disjointed.
Namaste Silvia. I agree with you. Which is why I am still searching. I am looking at the Eastern teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. A lot of the teachings are myths, but valuable nevertheless in giving a better understanding of what may be going on.
Namaste Marie, I can understand why you try to stay away from politics and religion. I still have more jokes left that I will tell to my drinking buddies, but I have run out of good jokes that can be posted here.
John thats ok, I seem to have run out of them too. But there are lots of other subjects we can discuss maybe not as ' exciting' but too much of that ain't good anyway. I just watched one of your older Youtube vidoes.
John Houlihan, As far as I understand things, the teachings are simple. ..Is enough with learning to respect the others.
Yes, all that and more. Here is my current understanding based on six months of studying Eastern thought. Hinduism is more than religion. It is also philosophy, psychology, mythology, with an occasional touch of science. The earliest scriptures called the Vedas go back to 6000 B.C. and have evolved into the final scriptures called the Vedanta. The Upanishads, familiar to many, are an example of the Vedanta, the end of the Vedas. In my opinion, Hinduism is the most tolerant of all religions. Hindus believe that each person is intrinsically divine and the purpose of life is to seek and realize the divinity within all of us. This Hindu belief in our divinity is totally non-exclusive and accepts all other faiths and religious paths. One of the greatest Hindu saints was Ramakrishna. Because he lived during the 1800s, his life and teachings are historically verifiable. Although he was a devout Hindu, he was open-minded enough to study other religions. Because of his intense spiritual practices in Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam, he verified that all religions are true and ultimately lead to the same ocean of consciousness called God (known as Brahman in Hindu thought). Now that is true tolerance. And one of the many reasons, I find Eastern thought to be a great supplement to Western thought. It changes some of my unknown unknowns into known knowns (discussed elsewhere). Namaste, Silvia.
John Houlihan Six months? I wonder what my Atheists friends originally from India have to say about your studies. Are you aware that millions of people in India are Atheists? Hinduism IS NOT a religion.
Hin·du·ism [ˈhindo͞oˌizəm] NOUN a major religious and cultural tradition of South Asia, which developed from Vedic religion.
Hi Silvia. I don’t understand what you are asking or implying. There are 102 million atheists and agnostics living in India. That leaves 1.3 billion Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and other believers. Believers far outnumber the atheists. So, what is your point? Also, you say Hinduism is not a religion. There is no question that Hinduism is not a revealed religion like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. But Hinduism is a man-made religion in the sense that it believes in some kind of impersonal higher power. Take care, John.