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  1. Jane_the_Bane

    Buddhist Is Buddhism Really a Religion.

    We need to keep in mind that most English (or western) definitions of religion are modeled after the Abrahamic faiths, Christianity in particular. When you take that as your starting point, other religions WILL fit in worse.
  2. Jane_the_Bane

    Judaism

    The Christian interpretation of Judaism is a bit silly, because they project so much: Judaism doesn't have a concept of hell, or Satan as an enemy of God, or the necessity for people to be absolutely flawless (while simultaneously asserting that being flawless is impossible) - just to mention a...
  3. Jane_the_Bane

    Poll: preservation of Noah's Ark

    I think it's fairly obvious that the whole episode is a myth: the geological record isn't partisan, and neither are the laws of physics. Even if we tried to salvage a supposedly historical core by demoting the global Flood to a local natural disaster, there's still too much wrong with the story...
  4. Jane_the_Bane

    Is there a Divine Enemy?

    It's fairly obvious to me that reality as a whole is amoral, unthinking and without the kind of directed, goal-oriented purpose that people like to project upon larger-than-life personifications like gods or devils. Plate tectonics may kill thousands in a matter of minutes, yet they are as...
  5. Jane_the_Bane

    World religions versus Christianity

    Secularism derives from the realisation that freedom of religion requires the state to be neutral. Putting the majority religion in charge sabotages the very idea of religious freedom. Atheists (and pretty much everyone else) cannot help but view evangelical Christianity as dangerous in light...
  6. Jane_the_Bane

    Questions about Buddhism

    Sounds like a somewhat skewered interpretation of Buddhism aimed at propping up Christianity as the One True Faith by demeaning other perspectives.
  7. Jane_the_Bane

    Questions about Buddhism

    Well, I'm not a Hindu and do not believe in deities, so...
  8. Jane_the_Bane

    Questions about Buddhism

    No. Anything that could be identified as identity is a construct. All the words I used are just metaphors and images.
  9. Jane_the_Bane

    Questions about Buddhism

    First of all, Buddhism had roughly 2.5k years to fracture into different schools, so even core beliefs may vary between different sects at this point, especially regarding highly transcendental aspects such as Nirvana or anatta (no-self). My particular perspective is that identity is a...
  10. Jane_the_Bane

    If God spoke to you, what do you think God would say?

    " Nothing is ever lost in this universe. Every single atom is relevant and matters by virtue of existing. Nothing is insignificant. Eternity exists in every single moment. And the essence of Being is Love "
  11. Jane_the_Bane

    How does one who does not believe in God define what is good?

    The witty answer would be: "the same way as anybody else." But that doesn't really get across what you want to hear. "Goodness" isn't random, but it IS inter-subjective insofar as a community can define totally random, ethically neutral acts as either good or immoral. In general, though...
  12. Jane_the_Bane

    Pagans, please explain your faith

    I'm very interested in humanity's spiritual and philosophical heritage, even if most of it is now outdated and purely historical. But no, there's no text I regard as extra-special. They are all relevant to our quest for understanding.
  13. Jane_the_Bane

    Pagans, please explain your faith

    My particular brand of paganism can be summed up by the aphorism: "It's all in your head. Your head just happens to be a lot bigger than you thought." Our individual personality constructs are but tiny fishes in a vast sea of consciousness, and in its depths plow gigantic whales and other larger...
  14. Jane_the_Bane

    Interesting fact to think about

    Did you just unwittingly blame colonialism, imperialism and genocide (cultural and actual) on your deity? Because that's the reason why European exclusivist religion has spread everywhere with its pronounced sense of mission. The West did not convince the rest of the world with the strength of...
  15. Jane_the_Bane

    Theosophy

    I work at a Steiner (or Waldorf) school, which is basically a religious private school based on Anthroposophy, a German offshoot of Theosophy. Due to its mostly positive public image, few people associate the school with cultish beliefs or new age-y dogma: it sounds (and often presents itself)...
  16. Jane_the_Bane

    Do you believe in supernatural magic?

    All "real" magic is performative, and all pre-modern healers (shamans, wise women, priests etc) employed ritual and theatralics to elicit a psychological response in their patients. Heck, even modern physicians still do that. That said, if you start to see parterns, messages and conspiracies...
  17. Jane_the_Bane

    Do you believe in supernatural magic?

    Supernatural? No. That's silly superstition (like "answered prayers"/miracles). I do, however, believe that our psyche is far more powerful than we give it credit for, exerting an influence upon our individual or even our shared reality that most people don't acknowledge or even realize. Nothing...
  18. Jane_the_Bane

    Your personal insights on God, etc.

    I feel that even the most intellectual definitions of "god" model divinity upon the human psyche: our drives, needs, emotions, motivations. "God", in essence, is ascribing purpose and agency to events that are driven by neither; a personification of the impersonal. Illness becomes a test or a...
  19. Jane_the_Bane

    Christian outreach to Satanists.....

    The average (Right-)Libertarian is basically just an egotistical, anti-social person who turns pathological narcissism into a political ideology. What they espouse as liberty is the freedom of the powerful to oppress the powerless, a feudalism 2.0. LaVeyan Satanists are right up that alley...
  20. Jane_the_Bane

    Mormons follow a different Christ

    I always wonder how anybody could actually believe Joseph Smith. It takes a special kind of gullibility and ignorance to look at the "Book of Mormon" and the tales surrounding its supposed "discovery" (not to mention the biography of the founder) and NOT immediately realize that he was a con man.