Are not all religions almost the same , at the beginning ?

After I have been traveling around the world for ages , I do not have any spesific religion .
I think that all religions have almost the same message , in the beginning , BUT then more and more prophets / mullahs / priests etc. come in and make their own understanding of that spesific religion THE RIGHT WAY of understanding this religion AND we get religios fightings / wars etc.
The best thing would be if all people can go to school , and after 10 or more years at school , without learning about only one religion - but learning a bit about all - they can find out themselves what to belive .
The world would have been a beter place without priests / mullahs etc - in a way they have been the cause of most religious wars - also the terrorist war at the moment .
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-sikhi-sikhism/302-not-all-religions-almost-same-beginning.html
What do you think ?

 
Do share your immediate thoughts or reactions on this issue? We value your views! Login Now! or Sign Up Today! to share your views with us.. Gurfateh!

Schools teaching students to learn as well as learn how to unlearn!

After I have been traveling around the world for ages , I do not have any spesific religion .
I think that all religions have almost the same message , in the beginning , BUT then more and more prophets / mullahs / priests etc. come in and make their own understanding of that spesific religion THE RIGHT WAY of understanding this religion AND we get religios fightings / wars etc.
The best thing would be if all people can go to school , and after 10 or more years at school , without learning about only one religion - but learning a bit about all - they can find out themselves what to belive .
The world would have been a beter place without priests / mullahs etc - in a way they have been the cause of most religious wars - also the terrorist war at the moment .
What do you think ?

Dear Coma:

What you have said is true to some extent. It may be argued that all religions wer same in the beginning, but later on someone/something mislead the people by their misinterpretations.

However we should also focus on why these misinterpretations rose in the first place.

I will try and touch briefly upon why various religions were lead astray and would just like to point out why sikhism cannot be lead astray. Let us take some of the religions one by one and analyse them.

1. Hinduism

Hindusim may be said to be the Paganism of India. Hinduism as a religion what we know today is something quite different from what it started off as. It had gone through many stages and there is no one clear philosophy which can define a hindu from a non-hindu.

Why Hindusim went this way was because it was based upon 'myth'. An important property of myth is that it changes constantly. If some concept is based upon this myth, then we can reasonably assume that this concept will also change as a result of change in the myth.

This property is not exclusive to Hinduism but is a common property of all Pagan religions which ae essentially myth based.

Myths stopped evolving as soon as printing press was invented as it had the ability to Record and solidify images, therby cutting the lifeline of evolution of myths.

Perhaps this is one of the reason why we see Hinduism solidifying after the written manuscripts and more so after the invention of the printing press. (just a thought).

The early Aryan Hinduskm bears amazing resemblance to other Pagan religions and concepts. Hence the idea that Hindusim started off as a Unique religion is somewhat hard to accept.

The early Aryan religion started off with deities like Indra, but latter Hindusim replaced them with Vishnu and the Gods of the trinity.In fact Hindusim is very diverse spread over Vedas, Smritis, Puranas, Upnashids.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=302

The Puranas are in fact one of the most vulgar literature one can come across.

The most acceptable of these literature is the Upanishads, yet the Upanishads emphasise more on the knowledge aspect for salvation rather than the Grace of God and good actions.

The point is that Hindusim never gave a single philosophy which can be said to be the starting message.

2. Christiantiy:

What Jesus actually preached no one knows. This is highlighted by the 'Gospels' retrieved at Nag Hammadi by the scholars. There has been a constant debate throughout history on the origin of Jesus as well as on what he actually preached.

If one were to take bible literally as the teachings of Jesus, they fall short of potraying Jesus as a kind person who promoted equality between sexes etc.

If one does not take the bibel as the teaching of Jesus, then the Christian faith falls flat on its face.

In fact Chritianity - the popular form as preached by missionaries and preached by missionaries is not a very kind religion.

To know more try and visit the website www.jesusneverexisted.com and visit the section under Murder by Missonaries (something similar).

You will be amazed to know that most of the concepts and stories that Christianity potrays have parallel clones in Paganism (egyptian or otherwise)

3. Islam

A religion which says a lot about it being the revelaed religion, yet fails to provide a single evidence of its uniqueness. Made up of concepts and stories from Judaism, Christianity and Paganism, it is still not known what prophet Mohammed actually preached.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=302

If we go by what popular muslims scholars believe, Prophety Mohammed does not rise to the stature of Prophet---he doesnt even come close.

If we dont go by the popular muslim belief, we are left stranded as to what Mohammed actually believed.

A common aspect of all religions is that the religious books which provide the source of teaching for these religions were not written by the original Prophets or initiators of faith. Either they were written many years afterwards by people who had limited judgement or their authors/years of being created are altogether unknown.

This poses a big question mark on the solidified concepts of all these religions. Perhaps aspects from them which survived as such from their initiators remained which we find as pleasing (this is only a theory), the rest is all chaff.

This separation may be as in some cases, yet in other cases, it may be difficult for us to decide what is true and what is not.

The Gurus of the sikhs made this very simple when they got compiled Guru Granth Sahib during their time period in their presence and sealed it so that no one could make any alteratiosn in the furture.

So Dear Coma if you want to look at a religion which has survived in its pristine form, please have a look at sikhi.

In fact Guru Granth Sahib is the guiding light for even the followers of other religion and provides them with a solid base to separate the wheat from the chaff in their own religious books.


Thats one of the reasons why the Gurus never believed in conversion, but did give pointers to Hindus and Muslims and the whole world on why they should delve into their religions spirtually and not just on the physical aspect.

I look forward to your comments

Akal Sahai

Really a nice thought provoking post dear BabbarSher !! Thanks keep them coming.

I agree to an extent. I think that many religions seem to have the similar creation stories and in many religions, there are also stories of a flood. I think this might be in part due to a time in which the world was of one continent called Pangea. As time passed and the water has divided the land, there arised changes in weather and the way nature operates. As the enviornments changed, people changed to fit into their environments. Way of life changed. With all of these chnges and the evolution of humanity came the evolution of our thought processes. At first people thought the forces of nature were ways the divine spoke to us. If it was thundering and lightning, in some places, it was believed that God (or the Gods) were angry and the people had done something wrong.

I'm having trouble describing what I think at this moment. But I beleive in the begining, things were very similar, but because of the land divides and change in lifestyles, people created myths to explain their style of living. This also included rituals and various ways of worship.

As for priests and religious leaders being the cause of wars, I totally agree. I remember when the Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson came out. I spoke to a few Christians saying how I was worried that people would be causeing some kind of religious feud/war. They loked at me like I was weird and said why. After reading newspaper and doing research, I found that many of the followers didn't take such a strong hold on the movie as did the religious leaders did. It seemed, in my viewpoint, that the poeople making a fuss over it were not the followers, but the leaders. And if it were the followers, it were usually those who beleived anything the leaders told them....the sheep.

Very enlightening stuff here. Though I doubt many Moslems would agree

Dear Khalsa Ji,

All religions are path to divinity, there end destination is same, not at the beginning. Religions are not the end by themselves, they are only the road maps suggested to reach the ultimate. Each religion is designed to suite the sociological conditions prevailing at the time of its inception; this includes the level to which the society has evolved mentally at that time.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=302

With love and respect for all.

Amarpal

The formation and Evolution of every Religion is a Divine and Spiritual Journey .

Its a story which starts with No Rituals , Simplicity , Love , Brotherhood ....

The the story moves on and on by time .... reaching towards Climax and ends up with being Ritualistic and Very Complex ...
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=302

This happens so , because the religions are the brain child of the WiseMen , but slowly slowly with the progress of time , the Religion is hijacked by the Scholars...
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=302

These Scholars keep churning out volumes of books after books after books full of rituals , religious Branding , Market Positioning , etc and thus the original theme and purpose of wisemen of unity gets deep buried inside the Debris of NonSense Books which like Doctrine of this and that , What to do and what not to do ..... and Ultimately Scholars Becomes Thekedars ...


The story ends , the Climax breaks ... and the people reach the same point where they were are in the starting of the religion.

Its a spiral process.....