First off, during all my research on different religions, especially Hindu, I came to see that religion is just a belief system. Since belief systems exist in the mind, they are always subjective. Nevertheless, all people have ideas they rely on to be true, and others they judge as false, based on intellectual analysis of their experiences. At this point, the intellectual analysis is philosophy, From the American Heritage® Dictionary: Philosophy is, The study of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning. I’m sure there are many more definitions, but this will do.
So religion, is a child of philosophy, a sub-field, or sub-set, choose your term. In spite of how we define religion here, there is no universal definition of religion, anywhere, but it still is a belief system. I’m defining belief system as a set of rules derived from value judgements, accepted truths and falsehood, that were first processed by our mind, validated by our emotions, and then stored in our sub-conscious as the framework in which we operate, and the foundation upon which reality exists for each of us. Everyone has one. The roots of every culture is founded on a shared belief system, as is every religion. Philosophy though, is simply the process of thinking itself.
Of course, based on my definition above, anyone can disagree with it, because by definition, all thoughts are subjective. When you think about it, [ha ha], everything we think, is always subjective. ‘nuff said. Now that you know what I define a belief system as, keep that in mind as you follow along. I am using a rule that I hold, Keep it Simple. This isn’t a dissertation or thesis, it’s simply a deduction based on observation at a very high level. A framework, if you will, a Belief System.
Taking religion, as a branch of philosophy, my observation is that religion is that school of thought built on the accepted truth, that there is a power or powers, greater than ourselves. The debate over whether or not such an entity exists, is outside the realm of religion, because the religion stems from the accepted truth that there is a higher power than ourselves. Some examples are what is known as Pagan religions, where their Gods, are the forces of nature, clearly more powerful than we humans. The Hindus’ belief system has a long and deep framework within Philosophy as a whole, but concerns itself religiously with a God concept. Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Christianity actually all believe in one supreme being. Basically, any other manifestation of this Supreme Being, henceforth called “God”, are understood as only avatars, or personas of this all powerful being. See Supreme Being for more on God’s attributes.
I find this fascinating, that virtually all the religions have at their core, the concept of a God that is beyond human comprehension. I fail to find any logic to explain why a human can invent something that they can’t even understand, or have ever experienced themselves. What is infinite, or all-knowing, while having all thoughts at the same time? There are so many attributes that are in this category, making this is a fundamental reason to believe that humans did not “make-up” God or religion, which simply results from this belief in God.
The Belief Systems that define the major religions of our world have some common themes. Further comparisons leads to a conclusion that they grow from the same source. By identifying the fundamental truths that they all share, it becomes obvious that a single source of knowledge
The Trinity
The belief in a God that has three different personalities, yet being one entity.
Christianity:
God the Supreme being, name is: I AM
Jesus identified them as
The Father
The Son
The Holy Spirit
Creation
Paradise
Original Man and Woman
Serpent
Sin
Curse
Flood
New Earth 8 people
Sin
Tower of Babel
Sample Text
Leave a Reply