I only have a familiarity with Christianity and the “no other gods before me” thing. I am curious what other religions have to say about it.
We are fine with anyone believing anything they want, we are a spiritual mutt church, and all we want for anyone is peace and happiness in whatever you do believe or don’t.
Tiny deism is quantum religion. And thus, it is all religions.
The bible says you are allowed to do with god’s enemies as you wish.
Two words: Spanish inquisition
Didn’t expect that.
You never do
In Gita, Shri Krishna says “I am everything”. This kind of kills the “otherness” of everything.
Crom laughs at your god.
I am a Thelemite, which means I am a follower of the mystical system designed by The Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley. The idea of other prophets is addressed directly in our primary sacred text, Liber AL vel Legis:
“All words are sacred and all prophets true; save only that they understand a little…”
Most Thelemites I’ve met, myself included, interpret this to mean that most religions have kernels of useful teachings in them, but the difficulty of describing the experience of a prophetic epiphany leads to misunderstandings in the message by either the prophet or the followers.
A common practice among some Thelemites is to not criticize other religions for their ideas since we don’t always know the utility they could have for another person, but we do engage in criticism of religious organizations are doing harmful things to people, especially actions that prevent liberty or self expression.
The thing that makes Thelema a little different than other religions is that we study a variety of aspirational techniques for self actualization in an attempt to have our own epiphanies about ourselves and the world rather than exclusively taking someone else’s word for it. Thelemites are encouraged to use or ignore even Crowley’s own writings depending on how it resonates with us as individuals. We often combine tarot, meditation, journaling, yoga, ritual magick, and every other aspect of our life to create a focus towards a goal that we believe to be our “true will”, or purpose for existence.
I encourage anyone interested in learning more to check out Lon Milo DuQuette’s videos on YouTube, or visit an Ordo Templi Orientis lodge near you to see our rituals performed live.
93’s to all my fellow magicians if you are out there!
Interestingly, Christianity is compatible with Judaism and Islam in that regard, though I’m not sure exactly what the other two say in kind.
The Christian God is the Muslim Allah, who is also the Hebrew Yahweh. All the exact same being.
Christianity embraces the God of the Torah but rejects the Muslim faith. There are exceptions but mainstream no.
You’re close, but some Christians would argue that the god worshipped by those of Jewish faith is not the same god either and therefore not embrace that god. Those Christians would say that since Jesus revealed the trinitarian (Father, Son, and Spirit) nature of their god, to reject that nature is to worship a different god altogether. Similar to how Muslims acknowledge their shared history and feel a respect for Judaism and Christianity, those Christians accept and respect those of Jewish faith, but will still point out their incomplete understanding of the god the Christians worship.
Christianity embraces the God of the Torah but rejects the Muslim faith.
Still, Allah is the same being as the Christian “God”.
I’m not saying Islam is canon to Christianity. Just that when Christians talk about God and when Muslims talk about Allah, they are talking about the same being.
Just like in English, we call the protagonist of the Pokemon anime “Ash”, but in Japan, he’s called “Satoshi”. But it’s the same character no matter which name you refer to him as.
“No God before me” can have, and does have in the history of Christianity, three possible interpretations.
- the exclusivist one (Evangelical churches mainly): the Christian God is the only God, you have to confess him directly to be saved.
- the inclusivist one (mainly the Catholic church, and some Protestants), the Christian God is the only God, but you can unknowingly pray him when you pray an other God within other traditions, in other words you can be Christian without knowing it.
- the pluralistic one (other Protestants), most religions are equally valuable, but if you are Christian you should pray only the Christian God.
Of course this is just a model, all positions are deeper than that and most people mix two or even the three models. I don’t know where the Orthodox Churches stand.
For myself, I tend to be somewhere between the second and the third model.
Thank you, I was tired of endless atheist non-answers.
Atheist here. My personal philosophy says to leave them alone as long as they leave me alone. If you start to preach or force it on me, I’ll do something in the range of: politely excuse myself, to tell you to fuck off, depending on how forceful, persistent, and annoying you are.
But in almost all such encounters so far I’ve just smiled and nodded because it was often coming from people using religion to bring them comfort in difficult times, and they were often not forceful. And if they say things like “God bless you”, I take it as a sign of respect, because they often say it out of either gratitude or out of positive feelings towards me. I’ve been fortunate enough to not encounter many religious fanatics, though I’ve heard many stories of them and am ready to pull out the Ol’ Reliable in the form of “Hail Satan” if it gets to that.
Just start answering your door naked holding a sword, they will NEVER return
And if they say things like “God bless you”, I take it as a sign of respect
Very different from someone in the South saying “God bless your heart”, which means they think you’re being stupid.
Same thing here, but I am worried about the influence of “magical thinking” on our society.
And you can’t escape this. Of course whether your neighbor goes to church on sunday is their choice to make. But in my opinion the state, schools etc should be secular. And they’re not. Religion influences politicians and people to have biases, for example towards abortion, gay marriage etc. and that definitely has an influence on law, my life and that of my fellow citizens. I think lots of christians forget what the word ‘evangelion’ (the gospel) means. It translates to “Good News”. And not not prohibition and trying to tell other people who they’re allowed to marry.
Yeah, secularism is definitely something we should strive for. The effects of religion depend on which it is and which country we are talking of course.
I mean the Age of Enlightenment happened in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. That’s a long time ago. I believe it’s (still) not part of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany / constitution, where I live. It’s somewhat different for the USA due to their history. But they have the more annoying conservative politicians and parts of society. I think as of now, major parts of the population don’t care anymore about what the founding fathers came up with in the late 18th century. So there’s no advantage there.
Yeah I’m German too. We have religion in school and as a tax.
And we were a bit late to the party with same-sex marriage because of the party with ‘christian’ in the name…
What I think is outrageous is that we have denominational hospitals, schools and kindergärten, and they don’t have to abide by the same labor law as literally everyone else. They can - and will - fire people for things like divorce. Or being gay. All whilst being (sometimes entirely) funded by the state or health insurance.
And in my opinion we shouldn’t allow them to openly discriminate against women and gay people… Have a look at what the danish people did and force the catholic church to do same-sex marriages… and accept women as priests. I really don’t get why they get a special treatment when it gets to hating on people and they’re the only ones allowed to do it professionally.
Personally, as an agnostic (leaning atheist) I don’t have any particular dogma regarding other religions to follow. I will however share how I view religions.
-
I’ve yet to encounter a religion that is verifiably true. As such I consider the religions of other people to essentially be opinions (personal beliefs).
-
Opinions should not be held sacred in society, nor should they grant special rights.
-
The religions of others only really become a problem if they make demands based on said religious belief, attempt to impose their beliefs on others, or spread verifiably false information.
-
I am a pagan. There are pretty much no widely accepted texts within paganism that make any statements about subject. In my experience most pagans are quite happy to coexist with other religions in general - and given that in almost all circumstances pagans will be in a small minority that makes perfect sense. On the other hand, most pagans that I know are far less happy to coexist with the more bigoted and hateful varieties of religion.
There is a strong feminist trend within paganism and this - particularly linked with the ahistorial but often assumed heritage of witchcraft, and the associated history of hanging and burning of witches - does not lead the more patriarchal end of the Abrahamic religions to sit well with a lot of pagans - and I know a lot who are far happier about visiting the roofless moss-covered shell of an abandoned church, with a hawthorn growing in the apse than they are visiting an occupied one (unless it is in search of a sheel-na-gig etc).
On the other hand, there is a strand of Norse paganism that crosses into white supremacy and neo-nazism, so that brings its own hate, bigotry and patriarchy. I do not know what their stance on other religions is.
As a Thelemite, we’re similar enough that I just wanted to say howdy. Not many “new age” practitioners on Lemmy from what I can tell, so it’s always exciting to find another one in the wild!
It’s difficult to tell how many there are around here overall. There are a scattering of pagan, witchcraft and occult communities, but pretty much no activity on any of them: I have made a few attempts.
But then every so often someone does post something on one of them and at least some of those posts get a significant number of up votes - but then no follow-up activity at all… so I don’t know who is up voting or what their background is.
Anyway, howdy back at ya.
We hate Microsoft. Long live RMS and the flying spaghetti monster!
Ramen!
Hail Eris! All hail Discordia!
I don’t know if it’s a denomination thing, but I am what you’d call henotheistic despite otherwise checking out with the “no other gods before me” thing. Anything may exist.
Are you something like mormon? I didn’t know that there are christian(?) denominations that allow for the existence of other gods. I was raised catholic and my first of the 10 commandments was “I, the Lord, am your God. You shall not have any other gods besides me.” So that rules out any other gods. Along with the continuation of the story where god outlaws idols and sends plagues and burns down cities for worshipping anything besides him.
But I think I agree. Technically you’re just not allowed to worship them. They may exist. It’d be a bit strange since the bible goes on and on how god created all the animals, angels, satan, humans, does all the things and some get lengthy enumerations… but somehow they forgot to mention that other gods exist… Just slipped their mind as they were writing it down.
The commandment, when written as is, is “you shall not have any gods before me”. The words “gods” and “before” probably cause some kind of misunderstanding, as the commandment has never been seen as blocking the acknowledgement of other entities to me. Relevantly, in ancient times, the entities in other traditions were acknowledged as saints or demonic forces recognizable by the papacy. Saint Brigitte, for example, is a specific saint tied to a specific figure worshipped as a goddess by the ancient Irish. Angels in general are notable for having powerful or effective qualities.
But id the literal meaning of one word is important, we wave to factor in the original hebrew meaning. I don’t know what it says. But you cant pic an arbitrary translation you like best. My translation of the bible with “besides me” is equally as valid.
All religions by definition disagree with others and believe the core beliefs of the other religions to be false.
How much a religion implements it’s superiority over falsehood (which I suspect is what you are talking about), depends on who is in CONTROL Whoever is in control will bend religion to achieve what they want, and we can argue different till the cows go home, nothing will change.
Welcome to Humanity, enjoy your stay!
All religions by definition disagree with others and believe the core beliefs of the other religions to be false.
Not necessarily. God by definition, as the creator of the universe, does not abide by the universe’s laws. Thus it’s possible to say two opposing things about God which are both true, and nothing you can say can be perfectly true as the limited language can’t describe the unlimited.
100% agree. God can’t be subject to the law of the universe or he wouldn’t be God. He’d be a human then, have to abide by physics and logic. Wouldn’t be omnipotent, not all-knowing and supernatural things wouldn’t exist. Couldn’t have created the universe in the first place. So he obviously can be anything and its opposite at the same time if he so likes.
In addition there are lots of religions with the same basis and same god. We just disagree on whether Jesus or Mohammed or whoever was his last messenger.
