The Multitude of Faiths

How do you cope?

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Yet upon closer examination, only Christianity is true

It's very hard.
Hinduism rings incredibly true, like I see so many paralels between their god and our God, I am sometimes tempted.
Also, the idea of their God loving us so much that he reincarnates us until we can finally join him in heaven as perfected beings is incredibly comforting.

The problem with Hinduism is that it's not a very coherent religion, and it has no real fruits. India is a perpetual slum. There is truth in all religion, but only one has the fullness of revealed truth. This sick world is not eternal, God will not allow sin to perpetuate eternally and all things will come to an end. True justice will be delivered once and for all

That is not an appropriate way to judge the religion though.
They think this world only serves as a battleground to test yourself against and grow as a person so that after numerous rebirths, you can join god in perfect unity.

Hindus know this and possibly this is the reason they don't bother with trying to turn India into anything other than a slum. They believe that all existence will eventually return into god and be reconciled there in love.

Hinduism is correct about this, but they lack the revealed truth of Christ. There's a lot more to it than what their conclusions, and who's to say anyone could ever repay their karmic debt through countless reincarnations? The reality of a personal soul is the truth, and there is only one "you" that will ever exist, your worth is infinite, you're not just a reincarnation of some vague essence, you were made by a personal God to join him in eternal communion

???

Like?


That's nonsensical, and means the soul is essentially doomed to endless reincarnation.

The Soul being a one-time thing gives it relevance, if it's some sort of shake'n'erase thing, then what is a soul? Some sort of Operating System?


Hinduism gives no real explanation of casuality, they believe in "Turtles all the way down", essentially, endless being. Where is God in any of this? It's tantamount to saying that God is creation, not a creator, and wouldn't He be more like a She if this was the case?

Judaism/Christianity is actually the only religion that separates the Creator from Creation.

I don't disagree with you, I'm just saying that many of their ideas are incredible.
My main issue with hinduism is that they are kinda dodgy about the problem of evil.


God loving us so much that he never gives up on us. Instead he keeps giving us infinite chances to finally reach him, no matter how much we fail and how much we may hate him.

Wanting relevance as a human being in vanity and pride though. You should never argue with God. You should never define what is true, good or right based on what you want (on your terms, because the only terms that matter are the ones that God sets).
Relevance is literally irrelevant. You are irrelevant in any regard that doesn't include God.


Nope. Once you reach god, you leave the cycle of reincarnation according to their beliefs.

Why is it so hard to just be a truly saintly person?

pantheistic shit that has no solid base. Everyone can pick it up and do wtv they want with it. So there's no absolute truth about it and therefore dropped.
Spin off of hinduism. Egotistical piece of shit that focuses on yourself alone trying to get to the absolute nothing aka nirvana. Why should I believe in a random dude who revealed us those "truths"? Why should Buddha know better if shit want revealed to him by the pantheistic God of him? That is Buddhist is mostly an agnostic religion. No God can help you. Only your will power will get you to the nirvana
Bunch of doctrines contradicting themselves. More like philosophy than a religion. It would be like saying Greek tradition is a religion. They had one but most of the shit was philosophical systems. Again were is their authority?
>Islam
Pedofile/murderer prophet that could speak alone to Allah and didn't prove it to the other. Just believe me dude. Also Allah usually told the prophet that he could have the women he was listing for etc basically a tribal religion so mohammad could be in charge of all the shit. No one discusses the flawed theology of Islam because its forbidden. Its forbidden because it crumbles under the test of logic. And again why should I belive in Muhammad?
Some random 1000BC texts predicted exactly that a Messiah would come and would do exactly what Jesus did. Jesus also proved He came from the Father with miracles and even resurrected. And then His Apostles spread the word. You can say they could have died, but after intense poverty, beatings, barbaric tortures, nudity, fear etc one of the 12 should have admitted it was a lie. And what did they gain with that?
One lost his head, another was crucified upside down, etc etc. But they gained the reward Jesus had for them in Heaven.
And the church Jesus founded is still standing and the doctrine never changed and unlike every other religion in 2018 it still states it is the only True one and all the others are satanic bullshit. Kinda like the Romans didn't worship the God of Israel because He demanded that only he should be adored and glorified.

Fixed

I can say 2+2 is 5, 6, 22, 2.2, but only 4 is the right answer.


I had my Advaita period too, go and visit their monkey infested temples and witness their third world idolatry of monkey gods and elephant gods.
On paper hindu philosophy is very deep and abstract, there is no better antidote than see how it really is in practice.

He never gives us up, but it is us that give up on Him. He gives us a definitive judgement at the end of our lives. We aren't meant to live a sinful life on repeat for eternity.


You don't understand what you're saying, it is impossible for man to reach God on their own. To give man infinite chances means man will struggle infinitely, we need God's Grace to get us through.


It is God Himself that gives us relevance through His Passion, and where is the Vanity and Pride in that?


I'm arguing with you.


You seem to be completely disregarding the Passion and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ here, speak to yourself.


Man cannot reach God on their own. The end.

Based.
I'd like to add
John 14:6
Jesus saith to him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.

Only through Jesus Christ man can be saved. No other philosophy or religion can get us to the Father. The Hindu and Buddhist shit of getting to God is impossible. Since God is infinitely perfect, good and all powerful, its impossible for an human being, a finite creature to get to God (wtv that means) unless there's a mediator between man and God. And that Mediator is Jesus of Nazareth, true Man and True God by whom all man that believe in Him are saved.

I have a great deal of respect for Hinduism, but its strength lies in the philosophical end existentialist reasoning, not in its actual theology.

Buddhism is a very twisted religion in regards to its fruits. There are perhaps more charlatans in Buddhism than in even Pentecostal Christianity, which is saying a lot. They've memed their way into the west through riding the hippy wave and pretending they're 'just about peace dude'

Judaism is wrong, but I respect their devotion to scripture and commentary.

The rest I have no time.

I've always had a soft spot for Daoism and the mystical aspects of Islam (sufism, tasawwuf whatever you want to call it). Even though these religions are either incomplete (in the case of Daoism) or the result of prelest (Islam), the things they have in common with Christianity are sometimes expressed beautifully in the poetry and religious life. Christ is the Truth and no one is saved except through Him, but smaller kernels of lowercase t truth can be found in other faiths.

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The only other faith I get tempted at is probably Gnosticism. I like reading about esoteric stuff and it always leads me down that road

Gnosticism is all about acting haughty and glossing over theological issues.

NOT ON MY WATCH

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What multitude? There's only one God. You have faith in that one God. The end. No multitudes to worry about.

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There's zero in talmudism.


Hindus literally worship demons.

Wrong. The Talmud is the proof the Devil exists.

...

I'm sorry are you trying to be sarcastic?
I don't quite understand what you're trying to say.

How the hell does praying to an elephant pantheistic God rings true somehow?
Christianity just sounds natural.

It is though.
"For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man."

Is my understanding correct in that they don't really categorise it as a problem, because they don't have the same view of morality, including the distinction between objective good and evil, as the monotheistic religions do? We have God, and creation, defined as being good, and ultimately the baseline or natural state of reality (albeit the latter is fallen and not currently in this natural state) with evil an ontological deficiency of this goodness. Both may approach the problem of evil similarly in claiming that suffering is a test of sorts, permitted by God, but ultimately, their view of reality of the true nature of God (being Brahman - not Brahmin or Brahma wholly ineffable, and that reality itself is simply a dream or a dance or a drama being played out by God who is playing all the different parts of creation for keks.

Karma comes in as the observed cause-effect mechanism of reality, and on the basis that the actual goal of hinduism is to escape the karmic cycle of reincarnation (moksha), and get back to your true self, which is is understood as being part of and no different to Brahman. So morality is not framed within a view of what is good and evil and rightous and sinful for it's own sake like Christian's do because God is the absolute arbiter of that standard, but rather because 'good' actions are those which advance one's path to attaining moksha. Further to this, supposedly morality, or what is a good action or bad action is not absolute in Hinduism and it is acknowledged that the goodness or otherwise of an act will depend on the circumstances, so it preaches a kind of relativism of sorts.


I am not sure but I'd inclined to say they don't actually have the same concept of holiness or of the goodness of God. This is because God is a) completely immanent there is the problem of God being tainted with sin (and the Gita talks about sin, apparently, I think there's a mistaken perception that Hinduism doesn't have the concept of sin, maybe the people who say this mean they don't have the same concept of sin) and b) so wholly ineffable that means 'it' (yes it's a non-personal force, the source of 'being' and only true 'being' outside of the maya (illusion) of the material world) that I don't think they see God as the source of 'all goodness' like we do, but simply rather 'the source' and which, by virtue of it being the 'true' and 'ulitmate' source, is a reality, for the spiritually/truth-seeking inclined, worthy of pursual through spiritual devotion (works). It is not worth worrying about objective good and evil in and off itself, which is ultimately an illusion of the created world.

So morality for them is simply a tool by which they reach the source/absolute etc. Interestingly I'm pretty sure I remember reading/hearing that the goal of the Hindu practitioner/devotee is to literally get to a state where their action 'karma' has literally zero effect or impact on the world. This is when you know you've made it. I know I heard Theraveda Buddhists' think that they when they achieve enlightenment they literally disappear. Of course, Hindu's and every other religion would argue that their concept of morality includes and their adherents strive for compassion, justice, mercy, love etc. etc. It's in these areas that I'm trying to determine how, in the other world religions, their definitions of these concepts fit in and how they differ to Christianity which is what I'm most familiar with. I think there's a lot of very meme tier answers that get thrown around (potentially like saying there is no absolute truth - I used to hear this a lot but haven't actually come across it once in any proper reading?) but I don't think these do them or the Christian critique of them any justice.

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Having said that things that put me off about Hinduism are several:

Firstly it's that their scriptures are sprawling and not definitive - they are put forward as the philosophy, contemplations, myths and legend that encapsulate experiences and contemplations of many 'masters.' But in most cases (the four Vedas excluded) they're just that acknowledged as being only that, and are not claimed to be 'word of God.' I would assume that the 'word of God' status of the Vedas is not taken too seriously either. People are free to pick and choose form their scriptures, build on them, disregard them etc. With the myriad of different approaches and philosophies to choose from, how do you know which one is true? Doesn't matter too much I suppose given we have infinite lives to get through them. Contrast with the gospel, is simple, direct, immediately comprehensible and compelling.

Secondly, related to their low view of scripture and doctrinal precision, is that they place emphasis of experiential 'truth' over doctrine. This comes by works including asceticism, meditation and yoga. It would seem to me that, in addition to all the mind bending philosophy, the apparent results of these practices, when undertaken with a view to particular spiritual attainment along the lines of connecting the 'true self' with the absolute is a perfect opportunity to invoke spiritual and demonic infiltration into the mind. Again, the alternative the gospel and Christianity provides, which requires a balance of doctrinal precision and experiential truth to be revealed in the heart of the believer by the work of the Spirit, to me seems like a much more attractive offer that almost seems common sense it seems so right.

Finally, there's the weird lore with all their small 'g' gods and their role and relationship to creation. Again, recipe for possession if you're trying to invoke them to my mind, but also when you're aware of what the alternative is in the God of the bible and in the person of Jesus Christ, why on earth would you choose to worship these entities when the solid arguments that make it plausible that Christianity is the truth are stacked so high? (Interestingly I think supposedly you can pretty much worship such a god in Hinduism, the name/term escapes me, but it of course isn't the 'true'/ultimate manifestation or nature of reality, because there's always the actual Brahman behind him). It's my understanding most practitioners don't even think their gods are real either, but literally just useful myths and legends on which to focus on as an aspect of Brahma of your choosing during devotion.

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That's what happens when they decided to believe in pantheism. Their God is literally nothing. This imperfect universe is God? It's plain stupidity and ofc not to mention and horrible heresy. And this .
And the worst thing about this is that westerners fall for this shit. Their personal feelings are above anything else. And Hinduism is kinda a make yourself religion. A degeneration of brahamism. Some versions of Hinduism even talk about Jesus so there's no real solid system of dogmas so only a reduced number of axioms define Hinduism. On this regard even Muslims are better than those pagans.
One that shit stops being trendy for millennials it will die in the west, and later in India due to increased education of the people since a critical analysis of that religion shows its nothing and only cultural elements might remain. So may God help them stop worshiping those demons.

The way I understand that is that they see evil (and pain) as a tool that inflicts pain on all beings, and this pain forces every living being towards God. Hindus see life and existence as a state of pain due to a separation from God, and the pain we feel slowly (sometimes over many lifetimes) pushes us towards God.

Adherents of Advaita Vedanta claim to be monotheists.

This is true. Truth only matters to them as long as it has salvific value, as in, it takes you closer to God.
In Christianity truth is worth all sacrifice, because God is truth.

I think the key of understanding Hinduism and their God lies in undesrtanding what the Nirguna and Saguna Brahma are.

Is this not similar to most faiths, inc. Christianity?

Ofc, well spotted, I actually meat Abrahamic faiths but didn't want to trigger a bunch of REEEEEEEs

>Nirguna and Saguna Brahman
I don't know too much about htem tbh, but the former is what I was referring to w/ my reference to God being ineffable

why are you posting a shopped version of lynch?

That user phone posting here, didn't realise it was shopped, just thought it was a funny pic and vaguely appropriate to the post I made (re: discussing different conceptions of God etc.)