Amaleq13

John Kesler's post notwithstanding, this thread seems to be more about religion than biblical criticism so I think a change of venue is in order.

-Amaleq13, BC&H moderator

spanner365

Maybe the advent of writing was a factor in the longevity of some religions. The Bible gives people something to study and something fixed and palpable to have faith in.
I am not saying this is the only factor, but it may be contributing.

Dharma

generally the record has been that the poorest and the most illiterate people become Christian or Muslim in third world countries, the rest stay in their own ancestral traditions.

Generally cults also feed off of your insecurity...they wait for you to fail and be miserable, then they say it's because you weren't "baptized" and your God/s failed you since they are "false Gods", etc...of course they never answer why third world African and Latin American countries are poor and miserable despite being Christian/Muslim... they feed off of human weakness.

Thomas II

Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism have lasted longer than Christianity...
Do you still want to make longevity *the* meassure?
So let's ask then WHY HAS RELIGION LASTED?
I would agree with Jung when he said that it is because it is connected to our COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS, and this collective unconscious contains archetypes which provide the source for our ability to symbolize universal human situations...

That is probably the most basic reason, but of course the Church also enforced its tenure by other means, for example:
"Ok,it's like this: you either believe or we kill you..."
And usually that was the end of the story...either way.
And that worked for quite a long time...
Then they also programmed people with the concept of "don't ask...or else"
and that eliminated all questions about the religion...
So with "believe or else" and "don't ask or else" the bases were covered...
People just followed along because there was little option to do otherwise.
Soon it became simply part of the traditional culture...
We also have to understand that unity of religion was a strong motivator to fight against invading barbarians from the north or muslims from the south.
The Moors and Berbers invaded your country,Spain, and were there for about 800 years, and the unifying force to get them out of the Iberian peninsula was the Catholic religion,so no wonder Spain became one of the last bastions of Catholicism...
One way or another, the Roman Catholic Church has been connected in symbiosis to some type of government, plus they are A COUNTRY all by themselves! They even had their OWN army, and the capacity to mobilize other armies...A few promises here and there and Mr.Knight was on his way to the Promised Land faster that you could say Yoohoo!!
Anyway,welcome! :wave:

Classical

Great Ceasar's ghost! An angry god demanding a constant river of blood from little animals and then eventually slaughtering himself in the form of his own son to satisfy his sense of justice - THAT makes sense?!?! :huh:

Anyone who thinks christianity and the bible are without holes just must not be educated on the subject.

The only reason christianity and islam are still around is very simple: people are scared of their own mortality and the far-fetched promises from their respective holy books keep their fears in check.

Wallener

You've been reading Jefferson again, eh? Makes a lot of sense, but the reality seems to be that an awful lot of people want to believe someone somehow has the Easy Answers to the Hard Questions. Which is, really, the heart of all superstitions.

Tubby Lardmore

I believe it was Douglas Hofstadter who pointed out in one of his books that a religious faith that includes a hellish afterlife of unending torment for those outside of the faith has a built-in advantage over other religions, as far as acquiring and keeping converts.

ThinkDifferent

1) People always needed religion. They needed a super-nathural god to fill in the "gaps".
2) The religions that have existed for a long time probably do because:
- They recieved political patronage.
- They help to provide the godmen an easy way of sustenance. This keeps the godmen motivated to spread and strengthen their religion.
- They help to control other people. So a political leader or a religious leader finds them handy.
- They have enough inconsistency within themselves to allow the godmen to defend their immoral actions while imposing morality on rest of the populace.

Dharma

Hinduism, Taoism and Judaism as well as Shintoism have survived due to their preserving ancestral traditions -- it's our traditions and if you don't like it, TOUGH! If the Greeks had this same attitude, then they wouldn't have fallen victim to Christianity...rather have my own ancestral ridiculous beliefs than someone else's.


Now why anyone would become Christian or Muslim which demands exclusively saying that only one particular tribe is chosen and you're just a smoozer, is absolutely beyond me.

freigeister

Yeah, I love Jefferson. In my view, we are just one step away from completing the Enlightenment project. We have only to acknowledge that there exist two species of human beings: the superstitious multitude and the small community of people of the spirit. Jeffersonian democracy provides the precondition for allowing these two species to co-exist without conflict. The spirit people must not try to change the multitude, and the multitude must not try to interfere with the spirit people. Once they learn to recognize and respect each other, the two species can easily defend themselves against their mutual enemies, those who deny that humanity is so divided, and therefore try to spiritualize the mob and degrade the spirit people.