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From: David
Category: Category 1
Date: 17/07/05
Time: 12:23:41
Remote Name: 222.152.234.49
Suited to the particular times in which they lived . That monotheistic religions , though originally having a common source viz Jewish writings , were adapted (evolved ) to become a tool for other power structures for their own purposes . Or , to reinforce those "other "differences they wished to promote for reasons of conquest , subjugation or other reasons politic . That not only those nouveau(for the times) religions , Christianity and Islam , BUT Judaism itself were merely drawing upon older traditions that they now appropriated for themselves . That they all claimed and were ceded an undeserved legitimacy using claims that could not be easily challenged that they were the very words of an evolving concept of Yahweh .Feed that idea into a preliterate mind and you surely have a winning formula . There is nothing more powerful than an idea that has it`s day !
When attempting to explain the possible influence of politics upon each and every one of those religions for their own custom-built purposes . Consider at the outset that Judaistic presentation to the world MAY but be a cleverly constructed tapestry to suggest a blanket commonality to an otherwise disparate number of tribes . Given a posed back-drop of the concept of a "promised land " and a "chosen" people we can see how religion provides such a handy vehicle for international politics .
In sequence , it is understandable how Christianity could , in turn , borrow from Judaistic traditions in the naissance of that church to ,itself, provide it`s own heady brew with it`s own mixture of both religion and politics in politically-charged times .
Further , in a process of political differentiation ,in a changing world, the Arab World had to secede from a once-shared religious heritage from Judaism > A natural heritage when we look at the branch provided by Abraham`s two sons .The Arabs then proceeded to sculpture their own religion , Islam , via the Angel Gabriel .
The spread or branching out of religious beliefs into separate faiths has an uncanny analogy with the evolution of human language and it`s own rich history of diversification into nourishing the differing cultures of the world .
Differences are built into our lives by hidden persuaders . Even marketing and advertising techniques persuade us to keep up with the Jones`s or better still surpass them . And we are so easily persuaded by those motivators to be different/better by using certain products or services or believing certain things . This persuasion finds a ready listener within our psyche . We all wish to be that much better that much more admired/envied or preferred by a higher authority - the Group , our left- behind onetime peers or an even higher authority than that . It is also analogous to infantile need to seek parental approval from that parent even in preference to siblings . We never leave that trait behind us from the nursery floor . Study psycho - cybernetics for the rationale behind achieving differentiation .
Ironically it is the "special" differences claimed by each of those religions (and strangely they are usually the monotheistic religions ) that have given us the world with which we have to cope today .
Is the very first step towards the only spiritual life that Einstein would concede and revered the renunciation of all those man-made religions that have been so corrosive and divided the world within which we have to live ? And that we simply act decently and humanely toward one another. While recognising that , in essence , each of us is not a jot better than those "others" alongside us who are merely trying to make their own sense of the world .
But is that simply a pipe-dream ? That certain ( the Monotheistic in the main ) religions have so stuffed up the world and, to such a degree - been allowed excessive licence for too long ( simply because they were so powerful) we are now too far progressed down that path . That it is now too late to exorcise once and for all those pathetic and immature ideas of grandeur that we , our race or our religion are better/ more deserving than those "others " .From what I have observed of those people to date I fear that we are .