First of all, the so-called Izagani/Izamnami 'religion' is not a world
religion. It is specific to Japan, and very likely to only a specific
locality in Japan. I beg forgiveness for not being specific. Any
'religion' of less than a million I reserve 'cult' for (nowadays). In
a populous country like Japan, you can quadruple this number. At the
time of the spread of these religions, what was the number of their
respective followers?
This is the same reason I do not consider the followers of "Reverend
Jim Jones" a religion. He had followers also.
Second of all, I may have forgotten to mention there are only three
'religions' that promotes murder of others, and they all come from the
middle-east: Judaism, Christianity, and Shiite Musliminism.
These three religions share the same mythos. ALL other major
religions I can think of (forbidding errant local religions which may
number in the millions) share common concepts. That being the major
'gods' are those of the cosmos. The local (tribal) 'gods' are
secondary. This is exempt from the 'Semite' religions where there is
no 'seasons' so there is no 'god of rain', 'god of fertility', 'god of
this-or-that'. Well, Astarte was a goddess that originally had the
same power as 'YHWH' or 'Yaweh' but her cult was cut down vehemently
by the Levite Jews.
In the desert 'Semite' tribes the 'tribal 'god'' was supreme.
Ergo, YHWH became 'THE GOD'.
When the 'Greeks' (Macedonians) or 'Romans' or 'Celts' conquered
another people they recognized 'who you call Dagda we call Jupiter'.
Or some equivalent. They merged. Religion was *NOT* the reason they
conquered.
- ----------------------------------------------
A rose by any name would smell as sweet.
-or-
Call it art if you wish, it is still junk.
- ----------------------------------------------
David R. Laws <david.laws@nih.gov>
Systems Alchemist
DarkMatter is out there...
NIH/CIT/NSB/SDSS-NT
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lee Daniel Crocker [mailto:lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net]
> Sent: Friday, May 01, 1998 5:57 PM
> To: extropians@extropy.com
> Subject: Re: Jesus Christ????
>
>
> > Race has nothing to do with doctrine. Every doctrine I've read
that
> > was by a 'religious leader' said nothing about race. It is (was)
> > always about how YOU live YOUR life. Racial racism is a very Bad
> > Thing when it concerns religion. Give me one instance of where
any
> > religious leader imposed racism in their doctrine.
>
> The Shinto religion has many Japan-specific mythologies: for
example,
> the divine couple Izanagi and Izanami giving birth to the Japanese
> islands. I should hardly have to mention the Exodus, in which God
> specifically instructed the nation of Israel to occupy the promised
> land by burning the natives and their cities to the ground. That's
> two off the top of my head.
>
> --
> Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com>
> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and
past,
> are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or
modified
> for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."-
LDC
>
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