As a religious individual(/s), I totally agree with this. Except for my religion. Mine is totally right. Everyone else's is crazy and wrong, but mine is correct.
That's insane! Yours can't be right because mine is correct.
Unless yours is the same as mine then I agree with you and are 100% in the right.
Hey, me too!
Buddhism isn't really a religion, the way I understand it, it's not trying to sell anything like religions do, it's more of a philosophical system, with psychological exercises and disciplines that to this day have proven to be of profound positive mental health impact.
Then people went and built statues of Siddhartha Gautama, which he supposedly had asked not to happen. Then there's the "fat Buddha" from China, who was actually someone who lived almost two millennia after, and is known there as "Budai".
Those statues and idols have nothing to do with what Buddhism originally proposes, in a nutshell: there is suffering in this world and life, how can we be free of suffering?
There is a mysticism aspect that falls under the umbrella of Buddhism, too. Like if one is enlightened sufficiently, they can ascend to another life form after death, otherwise it's reincarnation to try again. I think there's more to it than that, but honestly haven't delved too much into it because the philosophy is where the useful stuff is.
And ironically, an aspect of enlightenment is accepting that suffering is a part of life so that you don't suffer more being upset that you have some suffering. Getting that one was like a switch for me and life has generally been much happier. Things don't "ruin my day" anymore.
Just as Christianity is not a unified church, and is divided into Orthodox, Protestants, Catholics, evangelists, Baptists, and the bazillion of other denominations, Buddhism is very different ranging from extreme practices of Shingon sect, to a very practical philosophy of Dogen's Zen Buddhism.
Buddhism is many things, and religion as well.
Buddhism is a religion, just not in the Abrahamic sense. Like the three Abrahamic religions there is more and less philosophical interpretations that feel less religion like, taoism for instance. Also it's not as proselytizing as the other main religions.
However it remains a supernatural interpretation of the working of the universe with an implied morality and subjugation to the tenets of that system.
I don’t know that Jesus asked for a church to be founded either, or left behind any guidance on how to organize it or run it properly. If SG specifically said “don’t do this” then wow that’s even worse that they did. But it seems like much the same deal all around.
Gods are mythical creatures,
Religious stories are fables,
Beliefs are opinions
Ignorance is bliss
Including faith in yourself...?
Yes.
That sounds very sad.
In my experience
There's a difference between 'faith' and 'delusion.'
Faith needs to be based on evidence. The evidence for the faith in most religions is...not good.
Something can be untrue without being a lie. Generally we like to say that for something to be a lie requires an intent to deceive. If I tell you “the next bus is coming at 3:30pm” and it arrives at 3:32, was I lying? No, the bus was just late.
Anyway, most of these religions are very old and it’s hard to say we know anything about the mindset of the people who started them. Having said that, Scientology is not so old and based on Hubbard’s other writings we could probably make a solid case that he was intending to deceive people. So I don’t mind if you call that one a lie!
Hindu lore is pretty sick. Any story that involves an individual named "The Destroyer" is pretty ducking sick.
Some delusions can bring comfort for life. Its not all bad.
A population trained to believe without critically thinking is dangerous to everyone.
I can believe that.
Thats a fair point but eternalism is always harmful.
I am the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM). Bow before me, fools
Just read the stories,(just don't take it seriously) they are like Avengers without any corporate bullshit. With my totally unbiased opinion some are more fun then others. (Polytheism>Animism>Monotheism). And their time line doesn't change just because Disney stock didn't rise.
What a Buddhist thing to say.
I have faith that we are all going to to die.
Faith is belief without evidence, and I have evidence everyone who has lived so far has died and the rest of us have enough in common that would cause us to die for similar reasons as those already dead. I don't need faith to believe we're all going to die, faith would be needed to believe someone won't die because we have no convincing evidence for any immortals yet.
There’s actually a nuance here that religious people love to make much of. They would say that just because everyone who’s ever lived has died does not mean you know we all will. They would say you are just generalizing from the examples you have to all cases, which is fine but is inductive reasoning and therefore involves faith. They will say you cannot conclude deductively that we will all die, you can only reason inductively that you think we will, therefore you are operating in uncertainty and therefore you are exhibiting faith. Therefore science and religion are the same thing. (They’ll say).
This seems to be the latest favorite philosophical whipping post among religious people trying to find some basis in the modern world for their magic sky fairy beliefs. The funniest thing about it, to me anyway, is that it is an argument that boils down to “you’re just making shit up as much as we are!”
belief and faith are not the same thing. it's entirely possible that you meant what you said, but I'm guessing you didn't.
The way I see it all religions are mythology, stories that cannot be proven yet stand as the foundation for civilization as we know it. They serve as the cornerstone for nearly everything and teach lessions that are objectively good. They also allow us to understand how we interact and perceive the world around us.
Bad news about the social construct of 'delusion'
whether a belief is a "delusion" or not has a lot more to do with whether it is socially convenient to those immediately surrounding you and a lot less to do with factual truth
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