pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann) (09/19/86)
[I've sent followup to talk.religion.misc; I hope that's ok and appropriate!] In article <1309@drutx.UUCP> slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden) writes: >> (I wrote...) There is only one unique >> thing about the Bible/Christianity that makes it any different than other >> religions: Jesus. No other religion has a central human figure ('prophet', >> whatever you want to call it) who claimed to *be* God. > >This remark is just silly. What do you think an *avatar* is? >And much of Hindu thought is based on the concept of an avatar. [see below for important statement regarding my qualifications in this discussion] However, I find it hard to include the Hindu idea of 'God' here, since as far as I can tell, being 'God' is nothing unique: Self (atman) is the same as Ultimate Reality (Brahman), and Brahman is the supreme Lord (Isvara). In other words, we *all* are God, according to Hinduism (if we can only achieve the true knowledge). I'll admit: I didn't make my statement very carefully. In any case, Jesus' *claims* as to who he is aren't really important in and of themselves, except that he thought it was important that we decide whether his claims were true, and then act on that decision. >When you make statements like this, you make intelligent people >see your religion as being composed of either uneducated people >(if you really haven't studied what you're talking about,) that's me... >fools (if you have been told but it just hasn't penetrated,) or liars >(if you know but just don't care.) It doesn't do your cause any >good to be seen as any of the three. > >Perhaps you should educate yourself in comparative religion >before you try to make any brilliant statements on the subject. Sorry. I am *not* well educated in comparative religion. I have read some pretty good books talking about Christianity vs. <whatever> in very general terms, but haven't gone into it in great detail. Due to my lack of detailed background knowledge, I didn't qualify my statement very carefully... I guess it goes to show that general statements about complicated subjects may contain some truth, but they also allow for lots of misinterpretation! I'll try to stick to more well-defined in assertions in the future! (And just so I can continue in this discussion, I went and read 50 pages on Hinduism in a pretty good comparative religions book...I hope that doesn't suddenly make me a fool or a liar! :-)) Maybe we can now move on to more central issues. Like, is there really any hope of truly becoming one with God via any religion other than Christianity? (including Science). Or... if we are to assume there is no God, then is there any hope that humanity will improve itself? Is there evidence that we are 'improving' our lot as a species in the long run? Is there anything new under the sun (new == real change for the better as people, not new==new and better gadgets available to the rich of the world). >-- > Sue Brezden -- OOO __| ___ Peter Holzmann, Octopus Enterprises OOOOOOO___/ _______ USPS: 19611 La Mar Court, Cupertino, CA 95014 OOOOO \___/ UUCP: {hplabs!hpdsd,pyramid}!octopus!pete ___| \_____ Phone: 408/996-7746