|
|
|
|
Site Map. Click [+] to expand.
|
|
Click 'More' for more detail,
'Next Page' (right arrow), or
'Quick Tour' (control right arrow).
If in a drill down:
you can use Shift-Down or Shift-Up,
or Ctrl-Shift up or down to exit.
If looping over a theme:
you can use Shift-Right or Shift-Left, or
Ctrl-Shift-Left or Right to exit.
When the option is available,
using Alt key toggles the option:
Alt-a - audio,
Alt-i - iconic menu,
Alt-m - music,
Alt-v - video.
View notes for page: Ctrl-Up.
Return to main page: Ctrl-Down
What do you think?
Click Feedback to email us or have your say at the end of most pages.
|
Acknowledge coding help from:
W3Schools: Best free web coding tutorials.
StackOverflow
Flaticon
ExtendsClass - PHP syntax checker
Tree Menu
Copyright (c) 2006 Mackley F. Pexton
User ID:
LFD= EN/EN/ SRC=Opt4Cur
LNM= EN TX#= '' SW#= ''
DVC= 'Dtop' BRS= 'Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)' SWF= 'AllWebSoftware'
SIT= 'GlobalBeliefs.org'
A= 'www.globalbeliefs.org'
RET= '' or ''
SLF= '/EN/4_4.php/All/favicon.ico' CUR= '4_4'
NXT= '4_5'
MVM= ','
'1,1'
'1,1'
|
|
4.4 Western
Eurasian Religions
Version 1.2 June 2017 (Previous
Version)
These are the questions we ask in
the introduction (Section 0.1.6 – paragraph 24):
If there is no god, and no other
supernatural entities, do the Western religions, such as Zoroastrianism,
Judaism, Christianity, Islam or Baha’i provide any insights for the modern
world? Is there any solace to be found in prayer? Do we find grace in good
works? Is the Law of Moses relevant to today? Was Jesus real, are his
teachings applicable now? Was Mohammed an inspired leader whose revelations
are worth following still? Does Bahá'u'lláh's life and teachings provide
guidance for people today?
|
This Chapter covers the major religions arising in the
western parts of Eurasia. These are theistic religions, believing in one or
more gods, usually with some other supernatural beings as well. All were
founded by one or a few key prophets, presented as uniquely good, inspiring
individuals.
In Ancient Egypt, more than 1300 BCE, Pharaoh Akhenaten briefly
promoted the Sun god as unique among supernatural entities, in an early form of
monotheism. In Ancient Greece, hundreds of years BCE, opinions regarding the
Gods ranged from disbelief, to scepticism to uncritical acceptance. Judaism
began as a tribal religion in which one god became the Most High god, and later
other gods were rejected. Jesus, the founder of Christianity, believed in one
god, but his disciples called him the Son of God, and later
Christians invented the Holy Trinity in which God had 3 aspects: Father Son and
Holy Ghost. Mohammed rejected the Trinity as a form of polytheism,
declared the idea that God could have a son was blasphemous, and recorded his
revelations in Arabic, in the Qur’an, which says some parts of the Qur’an
are allegories. Bahá'u'lláh later tried to merge all these religions into one.
Many religious adherents say their sacred texts are
revelations directly from God or written by holy people inspired by God. As discussed
in Part 1 (Philosophy, Section 1.1.5) we can’t
use what is in the revelation to justify choosing it, because that would be
circular. it's not reasonable to choose between the different revelations, unless
the choice is based on some “objective” reason, which would make the revelation
itself subsidiary. Any other choice, without justification, is arbitrary.
There has been conflict between Christendom
and the Muslim world since the 7th century BCE. But as history
shows it is not reasonable to infer that one of these is more violent than
the other when we consider them in the context of long term global history.
|
We propose to look at the great west Eurasian religions under
the following headings:
|
1. Early western gods:
|
What of the gods ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Scandinavia, Greece
and Rome?
|
|
2. Zoroastrianism:
|
Introducing battles between God and Satan.
|
Is it
reasonable to break down this area into these topics at this level?
Click on
feedback, or add a comment below, to tell us if you agree or disagree, or
suggest improvements.
|
|
3. Judaism:
|
How the gods coalesced into one high God.
|
|
4. Christianity:
|
How one man created evangelical followers.
|
|
5. Islam:
|
How another man created a civilisation.
|
|
6. Bahá'í:
|
How another man merged western theism.
|
As stated in
the chapter overview,
this is the current summary of our conclusions in this area:
In the great Western religions we can see the notions of universal
rights and social justice, social service and aiding the needy, and some
inspiring stories; and we can put aside the bad science, horrific stories, evil
rules, supernatural god(s), heaven and hell, original sin, the baseness of the
flesh and the need for redemption.
more Statement
24
Members can tell us (publicly) what they think of this page. How can we improve it? Enter your comments.
Anyone can tell us (privately) what they think directly by email: click on 'Feedback' below.
* * * * * * *
|
Do you know of any great music that would go well with this
page?
Or any of the other pages?
IF
YOU DO, CLICK FEEDBACK.
It could be in any language, or have no words, or just be
instrumental. From pop, to classical, a cappella to orchestral!
Examples of the
music we seek:
● On
the Tenets page, accessed from the main menu, our current choice is a Song
Without Words from Mendelssohn (who died in 1847), Opus 14 Nbr 4, called Contentment. Check it out: the Tenets
conclude most
times, I have a measure of content.
● Chapter 2.3 covers the solar system
and Earth’s development. In there somewhere, surely we should be
hearing Gustav
Holst's The Planets, which premiered 100 years ago. There is a movement for
each of the planets.
Please tell as
much identifying information as you can: a link, and/or the name of the piece
and a person’s name may be enough, but if you know it please also send
the artist/performer, composer/lyricist, year written, year recorded, record
label, copyright owner, or similar details.
We have to worry
about copyright: acknowledge it, and not infringe on it. Music that is
out of copyright, or was never copyrighted (eg like real, ie very old, folk
music) is good. Some material is ‘open source’ allowing others
to use it for free. For newer restricted copyright music we may have to
seek permission to play it, but we can’t afford to pay for it. It
depends on the circumstances. In general, copyright in text, images and music lasts
for 70 years after the year of the creator's death, even if the creator does
not own copyright.
|
|
English (English)
Español (Spanish)
Français (French)
