Interesting Facts about Different Religions

[rousseau]

Ok, I'll try. Let's see, Wiccan has nothing to do with witches/devil/dark magic. Several religions were created as a joke, farce or money making scheme - the most well known is Scientology.

It's a cult, joke, farce etc until it gains enough members and then it is a religion

This is off topic for this thread.

 

[humbleman]

Hope this contributes to the thread.

I visited New Mexico and traveled all around the State. Miles and miles of a white fence showing the borders of the Indian Reservations.

My disappointment was to see no Indians with feathers in their heads riding horses but dressing like Mexicans driving Toyota trucks.

Still, their religion? or beliefs won't allow them to make videos of people. I myself had to change from video to camera the setting in my device in order to take pictures only.

Their belief is that a spirit can be trapped in the video so for them is very important to avoid such event of phenomenon.

 

[Sarpedon]

That's a pretty horrible posting. Do you know anything about native americans? Those of the american SW are in fact closely related to "Mexicans." A number of tribal territories once straddled what is now the border, and the Toltecs, who were the precursers of the valley of Mexico civilizations, were believed to have journeyed there from the north, thus probably being themselves related to our SW tribes. And why should they ride horses around when no one else does?

 

[humbleman]

That's a pretty horrible posting. Do you know anything about native americans? Those of the american SW are in fact closely related to "Mexicans." A number of tribal territories once straddled what is now the border, and the Toltecs, who were the precursers of the valley of Mexico civilizations, were believed to have journeyed there from the north, thus probably being themselves related to our SW tribes. And why should they ride horses around when no one else does?

No. I didn't know much about native Americans until I went over there to that zone and I learned things about them which I was never told in school.

When I was a child my house was full of souvenirs my family bought while traveling around the world. Until I became a teenager, my understanding was that Asians ride in camels, Puerto Ricans dress with colorful clothes and dance all day on the shores of the beach, and so forth.

After I started traveling by myself is when I catch up with the information: They never called me kemo sabe... sigh*.

 

[steve_bank]

A few months back I spent some time studying indigenous beliefs (both African, and North American), and one re-occurring aspect of their belief systems that I found interesting was the 'trickster' character. That is, there were characters built into their mythology which reinforced the importance of following social norms.

This type of thinking would have been critical in a world where an unsuccessful hunt, or other minor quibbles could quite literally mean the difference between life and death.

Religion has always been a social glue. The early Romans considered it essential to social order and stability.

 

[Hermit]

Probably cute rather than interesting.

The most important deity, regarded as an emanation of their supreme god rather than the supreme god himself, of the Yezidis is Tawûsê Melek, the peacock angel who created the universe and rules it.

At one stage Tawûsê Melek fell from grace by disobeying the supreme god. After he repented he became a demiurge and created the cosmos from the cosmic egg, a rather common motif in religious creation stories. Then he wept for 7,000 years, his tears filling seven jars, which then quenched the fires of hell. Not so common, and the reason why, if some sort of divinity existed, I'd rather have it be him than any other.

  Melek Taus

 

[rousseau]

Not so much a fact, but was listening to Bob Marley on the way to work this morning and decided to take a look at the Rastafari Wikipedia. Interesting read.

 

[Jobar]

Back in 2012 at the Secular Cafe, I re-posted a list of some two thousand gods, god-kings, supernatural beings, and legendary heroes, which was first made by a poster on Internet Infidels known as Elephanticity (I think.)

It's long enough that I'll just link to it, instead of repeating it here. I know of 'gods' that aren't listed there, but I admit most of them I'd never heard of before Elephanticity first posted.

 

[Angry Floof]

Back in 2012 at the Secular Cafe, I re-posted a list of some two thousand gods, god-kings, supernatural beings, and legendary heroes, which was first made by a poster on Internet Infidels known as Elephanticity (I think.)

It's long enough that I'll just link to it, instead of repeating it here. I know of 'gods' that aren't listed there, but I admit most of them I'd never heard of before Elephanticity first posted.

Whoa!

 

[rousseau]

Back in 2012 at the Secular Cafe, I re-posted a list of some two thousand gods, god-kings, supernatural beings, and legendary heroes, which was first made by a poster on Internet Infidels known as Elephanticity (I think.)

It's long enough that I'll just link to it, instead of repeating it here. I know of 'gods' that aren't listed there, but I admit most of them I'd never heard of before Elephanticity first posted.

It's amazing how consistent the need for an explanation was sans a scientific understanding of the universe. People couldn't just call it a mystery, there always had to be a creator.

Makes me wonder how often individual people questioned the supernatural before materialism became a thing.

 

[Angry Floof]

Back in 2012 at the Secular Cafe, I re-posted a list of some two thousand gods, god-kings, supernatural beings, and legendary heroes, which was first made by a poster on Internet Infidels known as Elephanticity (I think.)

It's long enough that I'll just link to it, instead of repeating it here. I know of 'gods' that aren't listed there, but I admit most of them I'd never heard of before Elephanticity first posted.

It's amazing how consistent the need for an explanation was sans a scientific understanding of the universe. People couldn't just call it a mystery, there always had to be a creator.

Makes me wonder how often individual people questioned the supernatural before materialism became a thing.

I'm not convinced that "gods" has always meant what it means now, or that it always means an invisible entity. I think early humans had every bit the capacity for metaphor and poetic interpretation as we do now. Many of those gods represent human experiences that cannot be represented by concrete objects or straightforward activities. There's no reason to think they wouldn't have the ability or tendency to describe powerful human emotions and experiences as metaphorical entities.

What we might call a goddess today could simply be a notion representing a reverence for the miracle of motherhood. I see no reason to automatically assume fearful superstition and ignorance to every artifact and story from the ancient past. Even what we now call "ancient Greece" was a very modern time compared to, say, the time of the "Venus of Willendorf" figure. This is why some scholars would rather she be called "Woman of Willendorf." "Venus" is a much more recent concept than the time the figure was carved.

 

[rousseau]

Back in 2012 at the Secular Cafe, I re-posted a list of some two thousand gods, god-kings, supernatural beings, and legendary heroes, which was first made by a poster on Internet Infidels known as Elephanticity (I think.)

It's long enough that I'll just link to it, instead of repeating it here. I know of 'gods' that aren't listed there, but I admit most of them I'd never heard of before Elephanticity first posted.

It's amazing how consistent the need for an explanation was sans a scientific understanding of the universe. People couldn't just call it a mystery, there always had to be a creator.

Makes me wonder how often individual people questioned the supernatural before materialism became a thing.

I'm not convinced that "gods" has always meant what it means now, or that it always means an invisible entity. I think early humans had every bit the capacity for metaphor and poetic interpretation as we do now. Many of those gods represent human experiences that cannot be represented by concrete objects or straightforward activities. There's no reason to think they wouldn't have the ability or tendency to describe powerful human emotions and experiences as metaphorical entities.

What we might call a goddess today could simply be a notion representing a reverence for the miracle of motherhood. I see no reason to automatically assume fearful superstition and ignorance to every artifact and story from the ancient past. Even what we now call "ancient Greece" was a very modern time compared to, say, the time of the "Venus of Willendorf" figure. This is why some scholars would rather she be called "Woman of Willendorf." "Venus" is a much more recent concept than the time the figure was carved.

I would definitely agree that many rituals and myths were metaphoric. If you look at something like the Trickster character that was a part of a lot of native religions, I'm not sure whether people believed that these stories were literally true.

Although, on the other hand it's not clear to me whether creation stories were believed to be literally true or not. Based on what I've read I'd lean towards that they were, but it'd be dangerous to generalise across thousands of tribes. I don't know that I'd call it fearful superstition, necessarily, just a need to explain why the hell they existed.

 

[Jobar]

Though I've often referred to that as the 'Big List o' Gods', I should note that many of those are not actually gods (personified, individual objects of worship, usually supernatural), but are rather legendary heroes or monsters, akin to Nessie or Bigfoot.

I wish I could find a reasonably complete list of known names of gods from all over the world; I expect it would be way up in the tens of thousands, if not more. After all, there are Hindu sects which claim there are as many as a crore (ten million, IIRC) of gods!

 

[Underseer]

I always thought  Baha'i is pretty cool.

It's kind of a supplemental religion intended to be practice alongside other religions. It's kind of a theistic humanism. They believe all gods are different aspects of the same god, different religions are different ways of worshiping the same god, and the differences between different groups of people are illusions. I believe their goal is to reduce the amount of holy wars in the world.

They have a special temple on each continent except Antarctica, and the one for North America happens to be here in the Chicagoland area.

Yes, their supernatural claims are as goofy as the supernatural claims of every faith, but I can't exactly fault myself for their goals.



Oh, and then there is the Ainu people in Japan.

They are an oppressed minority that kind of got pushed aside in a way not dissimilar to indigenous Americans, and they are at risk of losing their culture and ways to assimilation.

I hate to mock the religion of a minority that's at risk of extinction, but they believe that all animals are gods[ent]hellip[/ent] but they aren't vegetarians. Yes, they perform elaborate rituals of apology/thanks when they eat meat, but I still find it highly amusing that they have a practice that takes the god-cannibalism thing far more literally than belief in transubstantiation. I mean, sure, Catholics can use their imaginations and convince themselves that they are eating the flesh of a god and not a cracker, but the Ainu actually get to see and taste the blood.

 

[whollygoats]

The Seventh-Day Adventist Church is a Millerite sect of Protestant denomination that observes its sabbath on Saturday, holds to apocalyptic teachings (adventism), and kosher laws, even unto vegetarianism.

The pioneers of the Adventist Church had much to do with the common acceptance of breakfast cereals into the Western diet, and the "modern commercial concept of cereal food" originated among Adventists.[40] John Harvey Kellogg was one of the early founders of Adventist health work. His development of breakfast cereals as a health food led to the founding of Kellogg's by his brother William. In both Australia and New Zealand, the church-owned Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Company is a leading manufacturer of health and vegetarian-related products, most prominently Weet-Bix.

These days, the Adventists are known across North America for their hospitals and medical clinics and for the ongoing work on nutrition done through the auspices of the like of Loma Linda University and the Loma Linda Foundation. Textured vegetable protein (TVP) is their invention. So, I think that means 'vegi-burgers' are their invention, too. I guess they are all still waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus, though.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Ninth Day Congregationalists believe that the End Times will commence when Bert Lahr's casket is helicopter-dropped into a silo of buckwheat in the Seychelles.
I find this contrived.

 

[Politesse]

I'm not convinced that "gods" has always meant what it means now, or that it always means an invisible entity. I think early humans had every bit the capacity for metaphor and poetic interpretation as we do now. Many of those gods represent human experiences that cannot be represented by concrete objects or straightforward activities. There's no reason to think they wouldn't have the ability or tendency to describe powerful human emotions and experiences as metaphorical entities.

What we might call a goddess today could simply be a notion representing a reverence for the miracle of motherhood. I see no reason to automatically assume fearful superstition and ignorance to every artifact and story from the ancient past. Even what we now call "ancient Greece" was a very modern time compared to, say, the time of the "Venus of Willendorf" figure. This is why some scholars would rather she be called "Woman of Willendorf." "Venus" is a much more recent concept than the time the figure was carved.

I would definitely agree that many rituals and myths were metaphoric. If you look at something like the Trickster character that was a part of a lot of native religions, I'm not sure whether people believed that these stories were literally true.

Although, on the other hand it's not clear to me whether creation stories were believed to be literally true or not. Based on what I've read I'd lean towards that they were, but it'd be dangerous to generalise across thousands of tribes. I don't know that I'd call it fearful superstition, necessarily, just a need to explain why the hell they existed.

A friend of mine, when starting a Coyote story, would say "This isn't how it happened, but this is what happened."

I tend to consider a literalism or lack thereof a European obsession, and a question that just wasn't often asked nor seen as all that important by most throughout antiquity.

 

[rousseau]

I'm not convinced that "gods" has always meant what it means now, or that it always means an invisible entity. I think early humans had every bit the capacity for metaphor and poetic interpretation as we do now. Many of those gods represent human experiences that cannot be represented by concrete objects or straightforward activities. There's no reason to think they wouldn't have the ability or tendency to describe powerful human emotions and experiences as metaphorical entities.

What we might call a goddess today could simply be a notion representing a reverence for the miracle of motherhood. I see no reason to automatically assume fearful superstition and ignorance to every artifact and story from the ancient past. Even what we now call "ancient Greece" was a very modern time compared to, say, the time of the "Venus of Willendorf" figure. This is why some scholars would rather she be called "Woman of Willendorf." "Venus" is a much more recent concept than the time the figure was carved.

I would definitely agree that many rituals and myths were metaphoric. If you look at something like the Trickster character that was a part of a lot of native religions, I'm not sure whether people believed that these stories were literally true.

Although, on the other hand it's not clear to me whether creation stories were believed to be literally true or not. Based on what I've read I'd lean towards that they were, but it'd be dangerous to generalise across thousands of tribes. I don't know that I'd call it fearful superstition, necessarily, just a need to explain why the hell they existed.

A friend of mine, when starting a Coyote story, would say "This isn't how it happened, but this is what happened."

I tend to consider a literalism or lack thereof a European obsession, and a question that just wasn't often asked nor seen as all that important by most throughout antiquity.

Yea, I don't know the word for it, but I think some of us in 2018 often take the mind-set of people throughout history for granted.

Put yourself somewhere in North America, circa 5000 BC, when no one had ever conceived of modern technology, science, Abrahamic religion, or basically anything that didn't exist within the confines of your own tribe and it's ancestry, and the human experience is vastly different than how a person of European descent living in North America would experience the world now.

Your social and universal knowledge couldn't even be written down, and so everything you knew relied on someone else passing the knowledge down.

If we extrapolate the common experience of a community of Christians circa 13th century Europe, it is very likely that a pre-colonial native tribe would take these stories literally. You might get the odd savant who has a moment of clarity, but for the most part the stories that were told were reality.

Not entirely different from Europe in the medieval era. I've read some journals of people during the late period and you can see them completely enamored with God.. it isn't questioned, it just is.

This is why the post-Darwin, scientific era has been so incredibly disruptive to religion. Now there's actually a feasible, alternative explanation to mythology.

 

[Jobar]

I'm not convinced that "gods" has always meant what it means now, or that it always means an invisible entity. I think early humans had every bit the capacity for metaphor and poetic interpretation as we do now. Many of those gods represent human experiences that cannot be represented by concrete objects or straightforward activities. There's no reason to think they wouldn't have the ability or tendency to describe powerful human emotions and experiences as metaphorical entities.

What we might call a goddess today could simply be a notion representing a reverence for the miracle of motherhood. I see no reason to automatically assume fearful superstition and ignorance to every artifact and story from the ancient past. Even what we now call "ancient Greece" was a very modern time compared to, say, the time of the "Venus of Willendorf" figure. This is why some scholars would rather she be called "Woman of Willendorf." "Venus" is a much more recent concept than the time the figure was carved.

I would definitely agree that many rituals and myths were metaphoric. If you look at something like the Trickster character that was a part of a lot of native religions, I'm not sure whether people believed that these stories were literally true.

Although, on the other hand it's not clear to me whether creation stories were believed to be literally true or not. Based on what I've read I'd lean towards that they were, but it'd be dangerous to generalise across thousands of tribes. I don't know that I'd call it fearful superstition, necessarily, just a need to explain why the hell they existed.

A friend of mine, when starting a Coyote story, would say "This isn't how it happened, but this is what happened."

I tend to consider a literalism or lack thereof a European obsession, and a question that just wasn't often asked nor seen as all that important by most throughout antiquity.

Perhaps this is a bit of a derail, but maybe not. I know that some people here follow the Gunnerkrigg Court webcomic; Coyote is one of the central characters. That link goes to the beginning of a Coyote tale; I suspect it's a re-telling of something ancient, but I find it fascinating that there are new tales of Coyote being created by the author of that comic.

 

[Politesse]

A friend of mine, when starting a Coyote story, would say "This isn't how it happened, but this is what happened."

I tend to consider a literalism or lack thereof a European obsession, and a question that just wasn't often asked nor seen as all that important by most throughout antiquity.

Perhaps this is a bit of a derail, but maybe not. I know that some people here follow the Gunnerkrigg Court webcomic; Coyote is one of the central characters. That link goes to the beginning of a Coyote tale; I suspect it's a re-telling of something ancient, but I find it fascinating that there are new tales of Coyote being created by the author of that comic.

Easily my favorite currently updating webcomic.