(04-08-2021, 09:35 AM)michaelsean Wrote: I would say none of them are correct, and while not being very knowledgeable of them, my guess is the Eastern religions such as Buddhism, are closest.

There are a few books out there which purport to be from Jesus written through another person, and if they are real, Jesus says we're all full of shit on what we are saying He said.  The most famous one is probably A Course in Miracles, but that is a tough one to get through.

(04-08-2021, 09:54 AM)Au165 Wrote: The existence of so many religions lends me to believe that religion is simply a manifestation of the human desire for there to be a higher existence to explain things we don't understand. We find tribes in the Amazon that have never come into contact with humans, and in these tribes, we find the idea of gods and religion. These gods, or this religion, are usually used to explain many of the same things other societies struggled to explain early on and relied on religion to explain.

(04-08-2021, 10:23 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: I think about these sorts of things, sometimes. I go to a Lutheran church, but I'm a bit of a heathen. I relate to animism in many ways and also have an affinity to the old Germanic tales. The way Christianity spread in the area during the medieval period is a very interesting subject, to say the least. The British Isles and the different groups of people that inhabited them, how the religions evolved, how the Viking Age changed things, etc. It's all very interesting stuff.

(04-10-2021, 10:17 AM)Beaker Wrote: I have given a lot of thought and reading to religions. My thought is that religion was created as a way to explain the unknown. As people do, ideas diverged and therefore so did religion. In other words, as soon as opinions divided about those explanations of the unknown, people branched off with their own ideas, thus the plethora of different religions. Religions also quickly became a way of gaining power and controlling people...a corruption from what they were originally intended to be. I think all religions hold some pieces of truth, but no one religion has all the truth. As science has gained ground and provided concrete evidence for explaining the previously unknown, the need for religion has lessened. I can easily see religions slowly fading out over time, yet exploring the idea of something beyond us persisting until we figure it out.

(04-10-2021, 10:17 AM)Beaker Wrote: I have given a lot of thought and reading to religions. My thought is that religion was created as a way to explain the unknown. As people do, ideas diverged and therefore so did religion. In other words, as soon as opinions divided about those explanations of the unknown, people branched off with their own ideas, thus the plethora of different religions. Religions also quickly became a way of gaining power and controlling people...a corruption from what they were originally intended to be. I think all religions hold some pieces of truth, but no one religion has all the truth. As science has gained ground and provided concrete evidence for explaining the previously unknown, the need for religion has lessened. I can easily see religions slowly fading out over time, yet exploring the idea of something beyond us persisting until we figure it out.

(04-11-2021, 11:12 PM)BigPapaKain Wrote: Personally the worship of Eilistraee seems the most legit to me. Dancing naked in the moonlight, hunting wild game naked with a sword, naked runs through the woods - the only downside is hitting a patch of poison ivy/oak.

(04-11-2021, 11:23 PM)Benton Wrote: Running naked with a sword and the only downside you can see is poison ivy?

High winds and I'd be done.

(04-08-2021, 09:05 AM)GMDino Wrote: I know...yours is.  


I've been doing a lot of reading and listening to podcasts on the birth and death of civilizations.  Of course a lot of that involves foreigners coming in and bringing their culture with them.  Especially when it is an invasion from outside the borders.

Most of human history is one group trying to take over another group because the first group wants "more" of something.

No matter what the reason for the initial contact eventually the conquering force imposes their own culture/religion on the people they have won against.

Made me wonder if any of these people ever stopped and wondered why their all-powerful god had never gone to these other places and appeared to them too.

I suppose one answer would be that the other people were too "backwards" or "unevolved" to understand the god of the conquerors.  But they had a religion in all places and it seems the idea that it might be the same god just presented differently isn't acceptable and the new peoples had to change completely or, in most places, be killed.

When I read of the amount of human history destroyed because of religion it saddens me.  I was taught that religion is to be used for good but the majority of our history it is being used as a tool to control people and to justify the overtaken of other people who were "different" in an attempt to "save" them.

Note:  Before the usual responses start this goes beyond white/European history obviously.  This is a human problem not limited to certain races or countries.