Posted on 12/15/2011 1:27:56 AM PST by Cronos
Very interesting. Thank you.
Don’t the Hindus have like 12 arms?
Yup. They’re credible...
Ahhhh...The good old days, when people were taller...The NBA must seem like a yoga masters heaven!
But I didn't post this for credibility or not -- I don't believe in the tenets of Hinduism but it is good to read about their beliefs instead of making silly statements.
Also, religion influences development in many ways -- which is why ancient Indians had highly developed mathematics (think Aryabhata) prior to the Moslem invasions -- to compute these billions of years
in contrast the ancient greeks believed that the base use of numbers was vulgar and preferred their studies into geometry (congruence etc. etc.)
the Mayans too had a concept of cycles, but I do not know their philosophy very well to comment
As part of the Judeo-Christian world we believe in more of a linear movement of time -- a forward thrust of history so to speak
Islam regressed from this in the 10th century as it rejected aspects of hellenizism and now has more of a concept of "no time" or rather "time at the whims and fancies of allah", hence there is no point in science at all according to this
If you read the puranas and their concept of Maya and alternate universes, timelines, even a dream-world, you can see the themes ringing in modern day stories
I’ve come to speculate that most ancient religions or belief systems outside Christianity and Judaism contain a portion of truth but from another perspective, that of the great men of old, men of reknown who founded them. There are many curiosities in Hinduism in particular, when viewed from this perspective, beginning with but by no means limited to Vimanas. A reading of several extra-Biblical works from Qumran, known collectively as The Dead Sea Scrolls, would seem to reinforce this.
I believe that valid paths, hinduism, buddhism, basically all world faiths except for Islam were given by God when man asked for meaning..he did not lie to mankind..however, God judges our successes by our attention to Him and our willingness to recognize how sin destroys us. Given that God saw that all knowledge and paths laid out were not being walked..no one did what he asked..So, before destroying the creation and starting again..Christ knew of God’s love for us and volunteered to come to earth in a last attempt to reach mankind about our beings and relationship to God..
At that moment God severed all paths laid before from himself and declared there is no other path but through Christ that we may be saved due to the love and sacrifice of His son..A severed path does not mean the truth in it is negated, it means it is unfulfilled and will not yield the result we are seeking..it is a big deal to God when men now choose to deny Christ sacrifice for us..we cannot stand on what we have done, only by being washed in the blood of Jesus can we be fulfilled...
Oh well, Hathayoga is better than none.
(Cue up Beatles’ “Within You Without You” sitar...)
Mustn’t criticize anyone’s sacred cows around here although the time has come when we must curry favor with those who favor curry.
;^)
Did it really say people in previous ages lived 1000 to 10,000 years?
My take is a little different. Rather than thinking of founders, I think Judaism itself grew out of the more ancient faiths like Zoroastrianism and there are bound to be commonalities between the ancient faiths and Judaism/Christianity. Zoroastrianism for its part is said to have a lot in common with Hinduism.
I did read the article. Old themes get recycled and presented as novel and original as in the Star Wars movies with their purposefully religious themes.
Truly nothing new under the sun.
Sacred cows? I see. Yes, we’ll have hamburger on a ho ho ho wheat pun.
well, the Star Wars mythology is taken from various religious iconography. It was a smart move — quite frankly people NEED mysticism, a sense of awe. If they don’t get it from their religion they look for it elsewhere — where in political ideology or movies or apple-fans etc.
Ancient Irani and Indic religions (talking about Vedic and pre-Zoroastrian times around 1000 BC and prior) believed in two families of God: Asuras & Devas in indic and Ahuras and Daevas in iranic
incidently the other indo-europeans had the same -- the nordics had the aesir and vanir while the greeks made the Titans the ancestors of the Olympians
In Hinduism the earliest Veda, teh Rig Veda calls gods like Varuna and Agni as Asuras, but by the 700s the Asuras were lower-level, then became demonic by the time Christianity reached india (40 AD or so with St. thomas)
in Iran the opposite happened -- Ahuras were given a higher status. Zoroaster raised one - Ahura Mazda, the God of Light as the main god with the opposing force being Aingra Mainyu
incidently the hindus moved away from vedic hinduism post Buddhism's rise and fall and they moved to Brahmanical hinduism and stopped worshipping Indra etc. (well not stopped, but reduceD) and started Vishnu/Shiva worship and developed the hindu trinity (trilok? trinath something): Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva
Certainly the Gospel provides this sense of awe yet has a rational foundation. No form of mystic pantheism can provide this as there is no transcendental nature to the god of oneism.
Of course it does, but if we read it as the Christian Scientists do — drily, there is no sense of awe. The Word of God as we read in John 1 is more than just the written Word it is Jesus Christ. We celebrate his life with joy just as we silently contemplate His message.
That's where the higher critical, "don't believe it in the first plact, liberal "christianity" takes you. One can't communicate an indwelling spirit one doesn't have.
Actually Hinduism — modern hinduism sys that there is one god — Ishwara and that the rest are just emanations.
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