World Religions:

[The Sage Nabooru]

My view on all of this is that, God exists. Over time, people all over the world have been trying to create a monopoly on God - just like on land, food, water, etc. It stems from early survival mechanisms, methinks - the idea of, all for our group, all God for us, no God for you! If humans could believe that God was exclusively on their side, then it made it all the more easier to consider other humans enemies.

 

Thus we have the different religious traditions, so many of which claim the true path to God. However, over time, humans developed civilizations and learned to interact and even profit with other groups, and thus religions in more well-off, trading areas, such as India, developed a more tolerant, non-inclusive flavor. Some warlike groups still clung to their "Only-God-is-our-God" beliefs.

 

And thus we come to today. An ocean of different religious beliefs, all trying to fit a boundless God into their respective boxes. Problem is, you can't take the Infinite and stuff it in a shoebox, whether that shoebox is Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or whatever. "God is Great". We've got to stop assuming that God can fit into a particular religion. God can be known, but God is too vast, perhaps too perfect to be relegated to one religion or one definition.

 

We've been told to look to figures of authority and forget, neglect ourselves to find God. Of course, this goes along with primitive drives - be in authority and you shall gain all. God can only be found by oneself.

 

That is not to say that God cannot be found in religion. It's just that God cannot be found exclusively in any religion, God cannot be found in fundamentalism or hatred or violence/aggression. Of course, in those religious which stress those qualities - like Christianity and Islam - God can barely be found, if at all.

 

So is my experience.

[loves_learning]

All I gotta say is that the understanding of some of the terminology used throughout this post is less-than-accurate. Maya...that is not superpower. Moksa, etc, all of those definitions are dependent upon what philospher one is discussing.

 

"Hinduism" means different things to different people, and there isn't a tangible or "pure" form that anyone is aware of in current or past existence. Hinduism is a made up word by the British when they were conquering the "darkies" they found in the area of the Indus River, the big ol' river running through India. What people lump into Hinduism runs the gamut from the everyday folk who worship whatever gods and goddesses their home villages ascribe to, to dvaita vedanta, which is a dualistic experience, to advaita vedanta, which is a monistic experience, to the literature of the Vedas, Upanishads, the Bhaghavadgita, etc. None of them say the same thing, including the texts that people like to use to "prove" their points.

 

This thread stinks.