SanctusEmpire wrote:Relative in terms of believing in a set of ideals determined by our environment. I live in a "Christian" environment therefore I will be a Christian. And without truly understanding the ideals of other religions my religion is right. I think and its only my personal opinion that this is the reason behind the Mongol approach to religion. At the risk of displaying a Mongol bias, they believed in the spiritual self to attain a better understanding of a God being so to speak. Religions of Abraham to me seem preoccupied with worrying about everyone else rather than achieving a state of mind and body that compliments their beliefs. Let me add at this point that when the Mongols massacred men women and children they viewed it as a release from the constraints of the physical self. The Templars or Jihadists for example on the other hand view it as sending a heathen to eternal damnation.
So now I have talked myself into another angle of my question "Is religion relative?" I think religion is relative to our environment but according to the laws of relativity can religion survive without paganism or a different doctrine, a set of beliefs from the other side of world perhaps?
Or is it simply that my version of good is better than you're version of good?
Religion is not relative. Religion is man seeking God, and at the end of time only one Religion/Philosophy about God can be true. That is why Christianity and Norse paganism clashed, why Judaism and Canaanite Paganism clashed, why Islam and Zoroastrianism clash, Only one can be true in the end of time. The thought of Relative Truth, the claim that there is no absolute truth, contradicts itself. Either Atheist are right, Catholics are, Muslims are, but in the end one one will stand the test of Truth.
SanctusEmpire wrote:Then Religion is simply a tool used for manipulating masses to achieve non-religious goals. The Devil is truly Gods best Angel. I suspect the he truly understands the nature of man better than Jesus does
And I suspect you are wrong. I don't know how the created could know more about the other created creatures better than the creator.
The United Soviet Socialist Republic wrote:While I was on my cruise I bought a sterling sliver cross. Im wearing it right now.
On my last cruise this one guy that I hung out with bought a Rasta-colored rosary, but he was not religious. I tried to get a rosary (especially since we were in Mexico), but everything was closed.