Do All Religions Teach Their Way Is The Only Right Way?

[IndigoChild5559]

What is the fate of non-Jews in the world to come (according to Judaism)?

It depends on if they are righteous or wicked. Righteous Gentiles have a share in the world to come. That's why it is not necessary for anyone to become a Jew.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

I struggle to consider Paganism a religion.

My years on RF have led me to organize religions into polytheistic and monotheistic. The polytheists broadly speaking are either pagans or Dharmics, and the monotheists are the Abrahamic religions. I realize that that isn't exhaustive, as monotheists also include Zoroastrians, but I've found the outline I suggested to be a useful framework for organizing religions.

This is also useful because the polytheists tend to be earth-oriented, whereas the Abrahamics focus is on other worlds and afterlives. Also, the polytheists aren't commanded by their gods. These are very important differences in my opinion, and why as an atheistic humanist, I identify more with the polytheists, whose attention to the here and now and their connection to nature is more like my own worldview and understanding of authentic spirituality, which is earth- and life-centered.

All religions are Infact half truths

You must have a different definition of truth than I do. I reserve words like truth, knowledge, correct, and fact for ideas that are demonstrably correct and which can be used to accurately predict outcomes. Other kinds of ideas can be called inspiring or irresistible intuitions, but not truth.

There’s several theories about how religion first started.

I think it's pretty obvious how religions came to exist. Once you add reasoning and language to any mammal, you'll get magical thinking and efforts to explain and control circumstances by appealing to unseen agents. This begins with nomadic peoples and is a bottom-up phenomenon with a simple hierarchy headed only by a shaman, who was also a hunter. Once we have civilization and large cities, we get organized religion and priests as specialists who don't do other work or support themselves. Instead, there is a large central meeting place where people come regularly to listen to and support the priesthood.

You can tell about when this happened with the Jews - whenever the Sabbath was invented. Think about it. In nomadic days, every able-bodied person worked every day, and it was no doubt a "sin" to be lazy or fake illness. But then life changed with the advent of civilization and cities, and people needed to travel to a central temple and spend hours there on a regular basis, and suddenly, it became a "sin" not to take a day off from work and bring the family to the temple. This became institutionalized two ways. The Commandment to not work on the sabbath was added to others, and the creation myth was modified to include a timeline and a new unit of time, the week for the six days of creation and one of rest. If God rested one day in seven, you need to as well.

And think about the week. Compare it to the other units of time - the day, the month, and the year. These are all natural and correspond to the motions of the moon around the earth and the earth around its axis and around the sun. If monthly visits to the temple were too infrequent and daily visits too frequent, a new unit was needed, and so, we have the invention of the work week and the weekend.

This is the top-down aspect of religion, when it becomes organized, centralized, and an extensive, authoritarian hierarchy and an official, codified orthodoxy are created.

Like I suggested, give monkeys speech and symbolic reasoning, and they'll invent gods and religions that day.

I suspect in a world without religion even more people would have died.

I suspect the opposite. Let's ask the Israelis and Gazans.

A few great "myths" about religions like Christianity and Islam are that they are religions of love, that they are moral exemplars and generate moral people, and that the charity they provide is more than just crumbs. They've successfully marketed themselves as such as your comment suggests, but the facts say otherwise.

"Religion. It's given hope in a world torn apart by religion." - Jon Stewart

While sad. I wouldn't blame the religion for it.

That was in response to, "The report estimates that 216,000 children were abused by Catholic priests between 1950 and 2020, and that accounting for abuse by other Catholic church employees increases the total number to around 330,000. Around 80% of the victims were boys. Wikipedia"

You wouldn't blame Catholicism for that and its unnatural, imposed celibacy for that? I do. Priests can't date or have families. Like prisoners, they have the sex that their situation limits them to. And thought the Church would probably prefer that their priests not become pedophiles, if the choice is between that and letting them have families, the pedophilia is much less expensive than supporting priests' families, and until recently, free. Today, it costs a bundle in dollars and lost respect, but that's a modern phenomenon.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

Thank you. I should have included that. I struggle to consider Paganism a religion. It's a way of life? It's a collection of religious practices?

How strange. Perhaps you can share what you think religion means?

 

[dybmh]

How strange. Perhaps you can share what you think religion means?

A regular practice which does not produce immediate observable benefit, but it is performed proactively with faith that it will render the desired result eventually with ... regular practice.

Examples:

"I religiously walk to work, instead of driving, regardless of the weather. I know it's good for me and the environment even if I do not notice the results immediately"

"I take my medication religiously. I don't know what it does, or if it helps. But I take it any way. "

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

A regular practice which does not produce immediate observable benefit, but it is performed proactively with faith that it will render the desired result eventually with ... regular practice.

That was an answer to, "Perhaps you can share what you think religion means."

Doesn't that also describe yoga and taking up a musical instrument?

And why does your definition not pertain to paganism? Here's one description of it:

"Paganism encompasses a diverse community with some groups concentrating on specific traditions, practices or elements such as ecology, witchcraft, Celtic traditions or certain gods. Wiccans, Druids, Shamans, Sacred Ecologists, Odinists and Heathens all make up parts of the Pagan community."

Examples:
"I religiously walk to work, instead of driving, regardless of the weather. I know it's good for me and the environment even if I do not notice the results immediately"
"I take my medication religiously. I don't know what it does, or if it helps. But I take it any way. "

If you're calling those activities religion, that's metaphor. That's a different word from literal religion, which is spelled and pronounced the same but has a different meaning (or you can call it the same word with a different definition, but for me, that makes it a different word).

 

[dybmh]

Doesn't that also describe yoga and taking up a musical instrument?

Yes to a small degree. But most are observing gradual improvement until they plateau. During the plateau, yes, somewhat religious.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

A regular practice which does not produce immediate observable benefit, but it is performed proactively with faith that it will render the desired result eventually with ... regular practice.

Examples:

"I religiously walk to work, instead of driving, regardless of the weather. I know it's good for me and the environment even if I do not notice the results immediately"

"I take my medication religiously. I don't know what it does, or if it helps. But I take it any way. "

Erm... that sort of figurative use of the word is not the way the word is used in this forum. Do you think it is called Religious Forums because we are here to discuss things we do regularly, like take our medication?

Would you like to try again to explain why you think paganism is not a religion?

 

[dybmh]

Erm... that sort of figurative use of the word is not the way the word is used in this forum.

OK.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

OK.

So, no answer?

 

[dybmh]

Would you like to try again to explain why you think paganism is not a religion?

An individual can be pagan without the religious practice if it's a way of life, world-view, or personal philosophy.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

An individual can be pagan without the religious practice if it's a way of life, world-view, or personal philosophy.

Paganism is defined as the those religions other than monotheism. They include the animistic and polytheistic religions.

Would you like to share your own definition of paganism?

 

[Link]

It depends on if they are righteous or wicked. Righteous Gentiles have a share in the world to come. That's why it is not necessary for anyone to become a Jew.

I think only wicked enter hell. The issue is you guys have it okay to reject God's guidance and follow their own path to be good. In Islam, it's not okay to reject God's guidance because the guidance contains clear proofs, but it's also not the case that all non-Muslims go to hell.

There is a middle ground of people who neither reject God's guidance nor sought the truth hard enough to find the truth, but searched it and weren't apathetic towards truth. They go to paradise, just don't have the same reward of the righteous.

The concept is known as musthathafeen in Quran. "Except those weakened who cannot find a means nor are the guided a path".

I think most poor people are under this ,because, Quran also comments about people in hell as people who were well off and lived life of luxury.

 

[Heyo]

A regular practice which does not produce immediate observable benefit, but it is performed proactively with faith that it will render the desired result eventually with ... regular practice.

Examples:

"I religiously walk to work, instead of driving, regardless of the weather. I know it's good for me and the environment even if I do not notice the results immediately"

"I take my medication religiously. I don't know what it does, or if it helps. But I take it any way. "

I think you are missing a quirk of the English language. Not always does a word retain it's meaning when it changes type.
A religion is a slightly different thing from people who are religious, and even more different from a habit that is followed religiously.
In other words, you can't define "religion" by explaining what "religiously" means.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

Yeah right....................in a world without religion would have less children been abused?

The report estimates that 216,000 children were abused by Catholic priests between 1950 and 2020, and that accounting for abuse by other Catholic church employees increases the total number to around 330,000. Around 80% of the victims were boys. Wikipedia

If I recall right, there has just been an investigation in NZ and it had nothing to do with religion in the strong sense as it also happened under the state.
Yes, religion can be problematic, but in practice I can't find anything that religion can do, that can't be done in a similart non-religious sense.

 

[dybmh]

I think you are missing a quirk of the English language. Not always does a word retain it's meaning when it changes type.
A religion is a slightly different thing from people who are religious, and even more different from a habit that is followed religiously.
In other words, you can't define "religion" by explaining what "religiously" means.

Non-religious people don't like my definition, because, it includes them. They don't like this.

 

[VoidCat]

Thank you. I should have included that. I struggle to consider Paganism a religion. It's a way of life? It's a collection of religious practices?

I think it depends on the pagan if it's a religion or spiritual belief.

Some pagans are secular pagans or philosophical and dont see their practice as religious.

Personally I consider my beliefs as a pagan religious. But not every pagan does consider their practice religious.

 

[VoidCat]

A regular practice which does not produce immediate observable benefit, but it is performed proactively with faith that it will render the desired result eventually with ... regular practice.

Examples:

"I religiously walk to work, instead of driving, regardless of the weather. I know it's good for me and the environment even if I do not notice the results immediately"

"I take my medication religiously. I don't know what it does, or if it helps. But I take it any way. "

Most pagans would fit this definition.

 

[VoidCat]

Non-religious people don't like my definition, because, it includes them. They don't like this.

An individual can be pagan without the religious practice if it's a way of life, world-view, or personal philosophy.

Religion is personal. People have different definations on how they view it. There's no one definition. I would for example consider worldview as part of religion. For me my religion is part of my way of life. But not everyone sees religion the same way.

To me it boils down to individual labels if one labels themselves as religious they are. If not then they not. It's a personal thing different meanings to everyone

 

[Pawpatrol]

Well, I know that no religion believes it's the wrong way.

If a religion says their way is "a" right way and others are "a" right way, they aren't certain about being right.

 

[I Am Hugh]

If a religion says their way is "a" right way and others are "a" right way, they aren't certain about being right.

It isn't a question of right or wrong. Firstly, because they never remain true to their own teachings. They're all syncretistic. But also, because what is right for one person isn't right for another. It isn't a question of whether Buddhism, or Taoism, or Christianity is "right" or "wrong." It's subjective. Also, right or wrong about what? They aren't even asking the same questions, and I've never personally held to the idea that any of them answer some deep mysterious, meaningful universal question. They say, this is our way, if you want to walk it. If not, there are also other ways. The idea that there are many paths leading to God - well, there are countless personal individual journeys which may or may not lead to one God or another, and each one is preferred by their adherents. Even that is pretty subjective. Everyone has different reasons for various degrees of participation, for various reasons. There are children dragged against their will, there are atheists who are more concerned with tradition, culture, community, there are those who believe in God as various concepts, etc.

Then there are the diverse sects, denominations within the same basic paradigm. Differences in doctrine, dogma, tradition. That too is subjective, obviously. Up to the individual.