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The word "religion" has a lot of baggage associated with it where it seems to invoke a stereotypical undereducated westerner who interprets ancient spiritual te
by warent 6y ago
The word "religion" has a lot of baggage associated with it where it seems to invoke a stereotypical undereducated westerner who interprets ancient spiritual texts literally. There's a lot more than just that. Ancient Buddhist cosmology frequently uses metaphors to describe aeons, such as grinding mountains to dust by brushing it with silk cloth once per century, etc. They do the same with countable objects to describe the numbers of worlds and so forth.
I have the opposite experience you described. Contemplating the infinitude of reality draws me toward religion via logic. Through contemplation it seems to follow that there's something important happening with meaning beyond our comprehension.
- TeMPOraL 6y agoPerhaps GP and GGP were "stereotypical westerners who interpreted ancient spiritual texts literally". I for sure was, having been brought up in particularly scripture-obsessed denomination of Christianity. But I'd argue that view holds true for all Abrahamic religions, which comprise the majority of active faiths on Earth. Religions based on the Bible tend to be half faiths, half community management handbooks. Despite promises of various forms of life everlasting, they're very much focused on micromanaging the profane, the mundane.
- andrepd 6y ago>stereotypical undereducated westerner I take offense with this description. Take Christianity and Islam and you've got half the world's populations. Are those 3.5 billion people all stupid westerners?
- warent 6y agoWho said anything about stupid? I'm not sure why you dug that description up but I think it says more about your views than mine.