Yet again religion

[eric100]

As a response to my last question, see(follow on from Religion) I now ask the question that if until this day there had been no faiths of any kind, would anyone be able to create faiths that could grow to the size of Christianity, Islam or the other major faiths?. Are'nt all faiths just our interpretation of the indoctrination of our particular Religion and not based on anything more than words in a book, that's translation is also based on interpretation and if so are we any more advanced in our thinking that there is a God, than a person from an earlier century who thinks that thunder/lighting or earthquakes are God showing his displeasure?. A llittle bit deep but i look forward to any answers..

[DavidUK]

Is there any evidence that Jesus Christ existed, as Einstein states, other than what is written in the bible? I understood that, strangely, there were no other references to Jesus in other writings of the time. If the only evidence is contained in the bible I consider that pretty flimsy.

[gazzawazza]

Josephus, a respected Roman historian of the time did verily confirm the existence of a wise man named Jesus having many followers and apparently having the ability to work miracles, cure the sick etc.

Scholars give great credence to his writings as much of what he wrote has actually been confirmed by other texts/means.

Christians would claim greater credence due to the fact that being a Roman, Josephus would not even have mentioned Jesus were He not considered an important historical/religious figure of the time.

[Miss Zippy]

But aren't new 'faiths' or 'religions' being 'created' all the time? The two that immediately spring to mind at the moment are the Raelians (founders of Clonaid, the company who claims to have cloned humans), a religious sect that believes that beings from outer space created life on earth and David Icke. OK, David Icke's workings are not a religion as such but he promotes a certain way of thinking and viewing the world which could be interpreted as a form of 'faith'. I don't know how many 'followers' or 'believers' the likes or Icke or the Raelians have, but I guess some reseach into this will go some way to answering the question whether 'alternative' faiths can gain sufficient credibility to grow to the size of established religions. Any new religions springing up are going to find it incredibly difficult to gain any kind of credibility in the media-driven age that we live in any event, as David Icke's ridiculing proves.

[Andromeda]

Well, remember that Christianity has had two thousand years to grow to it's size and Islam 900 years. Both of them have had a pretty aggressive recruitment process as well. As for modern religions / faiths, hmm, Wicca was founded in 1951 and counts millions as followers now.

I think you are a little confused as to the difference between Faith and Religion. Religion is the deification of a central figure (be it person, book, doctorine or object) Faith is the utmost belief in something or someone, be it religion or a sense of being right. Personally I think you are not wrong in equating belief in a god to belief in thunder and lightning etc as 'Acts of God' as both are acts of our desire to make sense of that which is not currently comprehendable. However to equate all religious believers to ignorant primatives is wrong. After all we know that thunder /lightning and earthquakes are a natural factor of our planet. We have not yet disproved the existence of god.

Andy

[paulperoni]

Everyone, If you say a sentence of words to someone, ask them to repeat it to someone else an hour later, that person to someone else again an hour later and so on. After only 8 new people and 8 hours later, that sentence would have changed completely. Now, add the fact that the Bible was written until LONG after J.C snuffed it. Now add the fact that the bible got rewritten so many times, as language changed and as new testements came about. All from something which was word of mouth to begin with. Do you really think that such scriptures can be taken seriously? but in direct answer to your original question: yes, i think you can create religions. In their initial states they get called 'cults' which most are destryoed in the same way that a big supermarket chain crushes the smaller family run shops. dont forget, religion is a POWERFUL tool, one which has been used for controlling people for millennia. plus, the christian church is a HUGE business, run more like a business these days than a place of worship. the revenue that these places generates doesnt bare thinking about. the point is, nothing remains sacred for very long.

[annonymous]

a simple example to answer ur question.If u floating in the middle of the sea without any chance of being saved.No matter if ur a atheis or not u will finally plea for god mercy and help.And why do you do that....because ur instinct tell you too.This is a proof that god exist..whether ur like it or not...it is the human nature..