Quote (Handcuffs @ Apr 5 2024 12:00am)

God is humanity's way of coping with death anxiety.

Quote (SBD @ 5 Apr 2024 11:42)

Its not specific, just like the hundreds, if not thousands of "gods" they talk about. Dog, river, guests, etc. etc. There's thousands. Again you can read a book or you can actually go see what is being praticed. I went up along the Tibeten boarder, each town had something different from the next that just differed on what gods they believed in. Some believed in random ones that dictated their pratices, some believed in more traditional ones that dictated pratices such as death rituals, sky burial, vs river, vs land, vs fire, things like that.

Go to Nepal in those small communities and say there's no nature god / diety to them and get laughed at. Many are ringing the bell around their rock collections in the morning to show respect to their nature god.

I am not judging them, I just notice clear inconsistencies, do you need to toss your garbage out the window as you drive or walk along a trail? No. I did take time to learn, best you have is a book with no real world experience.

Lmao, I give chocolate to my guide and other guides because I am eating it in front of him and in any country I would share food when im eating in front of people randomly in that scenario, West, East, dosen't matter. I don't give to children randomly because it would incite begging.

I am also very away of the Cast system and you simply are making all sorts of assumptions over what I am saying because I think you have some moral superiority online issues. I agree their system of belief is vastly better than Western's, seeing beauty in everything is vastly better than seeing it in nothing which is typically what the Western world as develoved in, if that means seeing many gods that's fine. You just asume I don't agree with their system because I noticed inconsistency and again that's you just thinking you hold some moral superiority online so you just constantly jump to assumptions.

Quote (EndlessSky @ 5 Apr 2024 11:54)

A non-material entity that is completely in tune with the flow of the order of the cosmos. Just as the souls of Krishna and maybe even Jesus.

We probably share the same beliefs about several anthropomorphic deities like Indra and Agni.



Erwin Shrodinger said a similar thing. Belief structures can often become a crutch with which we use to crawl through life.

He was a notable atheist as well, even though he gave aspects of Hinduism his respect later in life.

Quote (SwamiVivekananda @ Apr 5 2024 09:54am)

So no other living creature has such death anxiety and automatically accepts it's fate regardless.

Only when humans made it out of "survival" did they even develop a language to try and give meaning to the meaningless.

Only when humans could SIT and DWELL did they begin to postulate that. For thousands of years humans didn't have the luxury to "think" and "ponder"/ "contemplate" unknowns. They were literally just trying to survive the day.

The origin of that death anxiety is almost entirely from that western ethos. People in the EAST accepted that destruction and creation were one and the same whereas in Abrahmic faiths like I said the destructive part of human nature is controlled by some sinister force/entity like the Devil/Jin/etc. all fabrications of the mind. The EAST bows to Kali(the goddess of destruction) because without her creation doesn't exist. Everything is destroyed and reborn but only the west see's destruction as the work of a "bad god" because their scriptures lead you to believe only "God" has power and you are nothing.

Long before Jesus said, "I am the father, the son, and the holy spirit" Buddhist were saying the exact same thing. Jesus was just the first to be killed for saying it.

In Eastern philosophy you are GOD and so all things fall on you. Whereas in Western philosophy you could never be God and to think that is blasphemy.

God means different things to different people across different cultures/traditions.

East says the power of God is within you(much like Jesus when he said the Kingdom of heaven is within you). West says bow down before Almighty god or face his wrath. Fear leads to faith and that's why Western religions(Abrahmic) have succeeded in spreading their religion. Fear of God. "Oh no if we don't convert these people God will punish us". "Oh no if I do something bad God will punish me". That's a fabrication of the mind.

Quote (Loipisdead @ 5 Apr 2024 11:54)

Only correct answer.
Being dead is the equivalent of before you were born. Nothing. Once your brain goes your consciousness goes with it ( should be common sense ). Even if something DID create us, it would have no more hold or control over our lives than the life we create in the refrigerator. There is no hell, no heaven, no afterlife. We get ONE life, that's it. We are as insignificant as the ant you kill on your kitchen counter, who also doesn't go to a afterlife when it dies

Quote (Handcuffs @ 5 Apr 2024 12:09)

Any iteration, East or West, is still rooted in death anxiety. It is too painful to the psyche to accept that there is no meaning, purpose, or narrative around one's existence. Even so-called cycles of destruction and rebirth are anthropomorphized projections.

Quote (SwamiVivekananda @ Apr 5 2024 10:08pm)

There's 300 million++ gods but I could see how you could confuse it with thousands.

I lived in India for years and visited Nepal many times you don't know what you are talking about. All beings worship nature whether you admit it to yourself or not. Nature is the reason you are here. It's not a "God". It's raw reality. You can't remove yourself from nature just like you can't remove "God" from human consciousness.

What I'm saying is that you don't know their traditions you merely saw them do something and then because they "litter" you said "oh well they clearly don't know shit because they litter".

Are you saying you've never littered? Are you saying because they litter "they don't get it".







Indeed we do and that's a better description then I can give hands down.

Swami Vivekananda was an atheist through and through until he studied most world religions and he had a slightly different view on atheist/atheism.

He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is the atheist who does not believe in himself.

The people say, “Do you believe in God? Do you believe in a future life? Do you believe in this doctrine or that dogma?” But here the base is wanting: this belief in oneself. Ay, the man who cannot believe in himself, how can they expect him to believe in anything else? I am not sure of my own existence. One moment I think that I am existing and nothing can destroy me; the next moment I am quaking in fear of death.

Quote (SwamiVivekananda @ Apr 5 2024 10:18am)

So you'll both admit that there was existence before us going back to the hypothetical "Big Bang".

In physics all matter is simply changing states. Matter is neither created nor destroyed.

So we were all of that that's behind and we will be all that going to the future. This is causal reality and backed by science.

Only religion has created a condition where this is the "one all be all". How is consciousness destroyed if it's present in all living things throughout the universe(not just Earth).

You will go on in some form. Not YOU as the name you were given at birth. Not you and all the material possessions and memories you've accumulated. Like I've said before the "tendencies" go on. That's what is reborn.

That's why we see all the virtues/principals continuing to this very day. Why are some people evil? It's a tendency. Why do some not believe in God and some do? It's a tendency.

Quote (SBD @ 5 Apr 2024 12:20)

I absolutely didn't say they don't know shit because they litter. Again that's you saying I said that because you have some online ego you cant drop. Simply highlighting that one can believe in something and have inconstant actions with such belief.

Quote (Handcuffs @ 5 Apr 2024 12:27)

The idea that "You (we) will go on in some form" is wishful fantasy that distorts science and the conservation of energy for self-absorbed human desires. Consciousness is merely an emergent, evolved phenomenon that has been beneficial for survival.

Quote (SwamiVivekananda @ Apr 5 2024 01:32pm)

Maybe it's because you only said that what they were doing is "wrong" and they "know" it.

You clearly looked down upon them because you don't know their culture plain and simple.

There's trash on the top of Mt. Everest was that from tourist or was that from people who worship the "mountain god" not caring.

Going on a "vacation" to Nepal isn't studying in a monastery for 3 years and Nepal is much cleaner then India so if you thought Nepal was bad. Take a walk down the streets of Mumbai.

I'm speaking my truth as you are speaking yours. I'm not saying "I know you are wrong". I'm saying you aren't seeing the bigger picture. There's a difference.

Quote (SwamiVivekananda @ Apr 5 2024 10:32pm)

Maybe it's because you only said that what they were doing is "wrong" and they "know" it.

You clearly looked down upon them because you don't know their culture plain and simple.

There's trash on the top of Mt. Everest was that from tourist or was that from people who worship the "mountain god" not caring.

Going on a "vacation" to Nepal isn't studying in a monastery for 3 years and Nepal is much cleaner then India so if you thought Nepal was bad. Take a walk down the streets of Mumbai.

I'm speaking my truth as you are speaking yours. I'm not saying "I know you are wrong". I'm saying you aren't seeing the bigger picture. There's a difference.