How do contemporary religious people differentiate between dead religions and their own system of belief?
Why was an Athenian citizen wrong for believing in Zeus and Athena, but you are correct for believing in Yahweh and Jesus Christ?
Isn't it just as likely that in 2300 years nobody will believe in Christianity or Islam?
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>>How do contemporary religious people differentiate between dead religions and their own system of belief?
They can't.
>>Why was an Athenian citizen wrong for believing in Zeus and Athena, but you are correct for believing in Yahweh and Jesus Christ?
Neither person was wrong exactly, just mistaken about the nature of reality.
>>Isn't it just as likely that in 2300 years nobody will believe in Christianity or Islam?
That is a possibility, but nobody can say with any certainty what religious beliefs will be popular 300 years from now.
Yeah, but that's the problem you see, many of them are extremely rational when it comes to everything other than their religion, and would never be fooled by a confidence trickster trying to lure money out of them for example, but they go to Church and have no problem being called a "flock" there.
>but nobody can say with any certainty what religious beliefs will be popular 300 years from now.
Yeah, and that's the thing. Religion thus seems so provincial, and lends me to believe it is just a cultural amalgamation, and isn't really true at all.
Perennial philosophy
I agree.
If you see myths and religions like metaphorical schools of thought and spiritual practice, many of them didn't change that much. Believe of not, ''spirituality'' can be independent of dogma, the later being more a cultural approach of existentialism than being the spiritual practice itself.
I don't mean that there are gods to believe or laws to serve, but the personal involvement with the concept of value and development, plus the desire to concern oneself beyond his own individuality is a universal feature, causing the creation of religion.
Religion needs spirituality, spirituality don't need religion. So yes, religions will change constantly, like culture does.
I agree with your post, but my sentiments are more directed towards the people who actually believe that their religion and dogma is literally true though.
And I think my argument should make fundamentalism at least seem a bit on shaky grounds.
Well a religious person is inherently operating on the principle that they are right and everyone else is wrong. So an athenian was wrong for believing in zeus and athena because they dont exist, while I am right in believing in Krishna because he does
Well you see, humans can believe anything, no mater how irrational or counter intuitive it is. We are capable of tremendous leaps of logic, it's pretty admirable.
Facts don't mater, only beliefs do. Truth is truth as long as you believe it to be truth..
People will fight to the grave for what they believe is right. I've been reading up on modern day cults, It's crazy to see what people will believe in. But to them, we're the crazy ones.
So to answer your first question, there may no big difference between general attitudes of the people from different ages toward religion and myth, but there always have been great difference between individuals.
I mean, both in the present and in the past there are people who have a strong binding to religious dogma and there are these who doesn't. Surely there are cultural and social factors that influence the distribution of these people thru the ages and regions, but there will always be both attitudes.
One essential thing is that spirituality is always present and just manifests in different ways, like myth and religion.
And yes, Christianity and Islam will someday be no more. However something new will come like always.
+1
THIS
Same here
Underrated post.
Moreover, checked.
-tips fedora-
would you like some short-sleeved shirt and cargo shorts with that?
You are looking at your own question through the eyes of (what i presume you are) an atheist. To a believer of both religions theirs is the right one.
In the case of Jews/Christians there is holy scripture that states there should be no other god than THE God. Even before the bible I would think Christians and Jews had trouble tolerating other religions since they were not a polytheistic religion like the ones surrounding them.
Through the eyes of someone of say Classical Greece the world looks a lot different. They already have numerous gods so are accustomed to the idea of large group of people who worship another god in their private homes and the rest of the patheon during festivals or disasters. This also meant that they were more tolerant of neighbouring religions. It even goes so far that they adopt foreign gods in the pantheon of their own religion.
Lastly, I do not think that a believer from antiquity would contemplate the idea of their religion dissapearing in a couple of thousand years because of a changing world and culture. The main reason probably again being: My religion is the right/only religion so this is the highest truth.
tl;dr You stand by your religion or it would be rather pointless to believe in the first place. Plus the religion of Classical Greece was a lot more tolerant of 'competitors' than for example Christianity/Judaism.
>modern day cults
Care to gimme some examples?
Only myth worth reading.
Literally the basis, or at least our earliest knowledge of almost ALL modern day religion.
>Only myth worth reading.
Forgot pic.
It's kind of pertinent that you posted Plato. For me, the push has been towards an archetypal belief. The theory of forms, archetypes, the monomyth.
It's a sense of the true metaphysical reality of infinite being beyond this existence of which we are a shadow.
The different myths and religions are all one religion (perennial philosophy) which allows one to see the truth underlying them. From the side it looks like many different forms, lined up they are the same current at a different degree of seperation from the source.
This is how the myths gain numinous qualities and allow us to affect our daily lives and experience divinity.