And so for Question 5. I shall reiterate the rules, as I would love to do some interviewing myself. Those that have already requested - I'll send you your questions very soon.
•Leave me a comment requesting an interview.
•I will e-mail you five questions. I get to pick the questions.•You then answer the questions on your blog.
•You should also post these rules along with an offer to interview anyone else who e-mails you wanting to be interviewed. •Anyone who asks to be interviewed should be sent 5 questions to answer on their blog.
•It would be nice if the questions were individualized for each blogger.5. If you were to 'take up' a religion, which one would appeal to you most of all?
Bhuddism apparantly isn't all that bad, but I've never been interested enough to look into it; from an outsider view, it seems so very boring. The old Greek gods have always fascinated me, and while belief in them would probably feel like a constant cry for mercy, their self-interested affairs and exploits always looked far more interesting, and certainly more believable than anything my casual protestant Christian upbringing ever showed me. Alas, that religion is dead and gone. Decisions, decisions.
No, I'd go for Hinduism, definitely. I like their style, I could do the whole complete holy life thing, or I could just live my life as I please (in which case, I'm not going to do anything immoral anyway) and my reward after life will be calculated accordingly. Seems fair enough. Atheism, to an extent, is joyfully compatible too, seeing as God can be interpreted as being in all things (but not in that omnipotent, working through all things way), which to all practical purposes makes God fairly irrelevant, and more of a metaphor for the whole 'circle of life' conservation of energy sort of thing.
It's the reincarnation and implication of a soul that would be difficult to accept if it weren't for that injury to the frontal lobe. Let's say I just accept the soul thing, believing that my everlasting soul escapes my body at death and becomes part of the rest of nature and all that. Right, sorted - an idea so abstract that it might as well be irrelevant (the concept seems no different to me than an Atheist's concept of inexistence). But reincarnation just doesn't make sense to me at all. Firstly, restricting it to sentient beings, the numbers don't add up - there are more sentient beings than ever before, to the point that the majority have entirely new souls. However, it's not restricted to sentient beings - if I'm really unlucky/lucky, I'll come back as a tree or something. Ok, let's say I accept that. In my life as a tree though, how can a tree live either a good or bad life? It can't; it just... is. Perhaps its goodness comes from its uses (the tree provides shelter for a poor little homeless orphan in a rain storm for instance), but I never chose to do that; if karma's tallying up what I have no say in anyway, why bother at all?
Well, thanks to my fried frontal lobe, I needn't worry about such things, so a Hindu I would become. Besides it seeming the least offending of religions, it is also the most appealing to me (one doesn't necessarily infer the other). Hinduism seems to have by far a more positive relationship with the cultures and societies that host it than Christianity ever does with ours.
9 comments:
Hinduism, really? I'm not sure I'd agree with you when you say "Hinduism seems to have by far a more positive relationship with the cultures and societies that host it than Chirstianity ever does with ours." The whole caste system seems pretty fucked up. If you are born into a lower caste then you are stuck there, with fuck all to do, because that's just the way it is. Admittedly my knowledge of Hinduism is pretty darn limited, but I'm fairly certain that knowing your place is important. I'd take a confused belief on punishment/reward in the afterlife over a class system so rigid that it makes our society look like the the American dream in comparison.
Just admit you're all God-Fearing Christians. Go on. Let the soul talk. :p
I learnt a lot about religion from this blog. It's surprising how much genuine atheists know about religion (Unlike some more narrow minded religious people). I definitely subscribe to your theories on Christianity - If Christianity is a reality then God is a kid with a magnifying glass. He makes the rules (whether immoral or not) and if you don't follow them, tough shit. If God says you can't eat cookies, then tough, you can't.
It would be nice to think in an agnostic way - God exists but free from religion. Human imagination is strong and it's clear religions are likely invented to comfort us and provide an accessible format of tribalism which humans so love.
Peace.
Shit. I hadn't even heard of the caste system, and in light of this, I'll be the first to admit that I was talking absolute bollocks about the positive relationship. To be honest, I can't properly remember what I was actually referring to when I wrote that: probably comparing some nasty personal experience with Christianity (the self-loathing of my Nana and her further disappointment in all her children as a direct result of her relationship with God) with a twee image brought about by television.
Matt, I'm flattered that I made you believe that I know anything about the subject, but before a couple of hours surfing the net, I knew very little about any other religion, and even the one I settled on I'm now uncomfortable with. But 'ah well', yet another reason why I feel better in my position of an informed agnostic - which, I should add, does not mean God without a formal belief system.
I'm not sure I was suggesting that God is a kid with a magnifying glass - the apparent irrelevance of the magnitude, or calculation, of sin that confuses me. The question of what makes 'what God says' right is an interesting point in itself, though for the purpose of the post, I was just digging at the absolute and horrid exclusivity of a perfect Christian life.
Niki, this was a good question, and I do enjoy criticism of the answer, as I can't remember actually learning something as a result of writing my own blog, so ta very much.
Wow. I'm sorry Gordon. I was only joking, like we used to do on my blog. It wasn't critisizing.
I'm really sorry, I honestly did not want to offend or harm.
Oh dear, that was entirely the wrong end of the stick - I definitely didn't intend any sarcasm in that last paragraph: it was a genuine compliment, I was actually thanking you - the criticism I was referring to was Davus' feedback, as it directed me toward something I wouldn't be aware of if it weren't for the topic raised by the question.
Oh god sorry. I clearly should sleep more.
The Hindu caste sytem is actually quite a recent aspect of the religion, or at least it's role has changed significantly as a result of colonialism. Clearly us Imperial types thought it would be useful to have a population that knew it's place, and so that part of Hinduism has received greater emphasis since the 19th Century than it did before. Not to say that it wasn't there originally, and colonial influence or not it would suck many balls to be an 'untouchable' (that's what they call the lowest caste - nice, huh?), but we shouldn't forget our role in that happy part of Hinduism. God bless her Majsety Victoria. And Jesus too, cause waddya know, Colonialism and Christianity are chums!
Though actually there were Christians living in relative peace with Hindus long before Europe dreamed of Empire. Now not so much.
If I were to go all religious I'd want to do it properly. If I'm going to suspend logic as a system of reasoning about the universe then I'd want something pretty straight forward to replace it. Hard line catholicism appeals for this reason (pope says it, there for it's true) however I think Catholicism's seemingly arbitrary rules about sex would really fuck you up (there's an obvious example of someone we know here, but I wont name them :-P) and I'd like to think that as right wing as I might eventually become, I'd never be a homophobe. Equally the consumption of weed makes rastafarianism attractive, but it's an incredibly sexist and homophobic religion, so I couldn't stomach it.
Sadly there is a trend in all religion towards the promotion of patriarchal ideas, and all the homophobia and sexism that comes with that.
At the end of the day I'd probably pick Scientology. Because the have a navy.
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