If religions like Buddhism and Hinduism came before Judaism and Christianity, then why is Christianity the one true religion?

[Lokabrenna]

As someone who adheres to a modern faith which nonetheless has pre-Christian roots, I would just like to say: Who gives a fig how old something is, as long as it’s meaningful?

I know people who currently practice a tradition that’s (at best) around 60 years old (Wicca). This tradition takes ideas from many different places, but even so, it’s a modern religion, and it’s a baby religion compared to some of the traditions we still have, but that doesn’t change the fact that that religion helps people find meaning and purpose in their llves.

Trust me, Pagans of all kinds like to point out how old the stuff we’re doing is (with varying degrees of accuracy), and how much better we are than those people who have only been doing things for a couple thousand years, but the thing is, a belief can be as old as humanity, but if it doesn’t speak to people, they aren’t going to buy it.

 

[netineti]

What makes them think that Hinduism and Buddhism are true simply because they came before Judaism and Christianity?

I think that’s a silly argument.

Christianity is the true religion not because it came first, but because it* came from God*. And the evidence, to me, is convincing enough to believe it to be true. The Old Testament prophets, the accuracies of the biblical accounts (eyewitness accounts), extra-biblical corroboration, and also a confirmation of faith from God. It is this that makes Christianity true to me. What do I care if it didn’t come first?

Hinduism and Buddhism are also not the first religions. Animism is generally considered first. But they are not false because they were not first.

I’ve just been cruising around to see what’s up in here, and see what piques my curiosity as to how people think. I’m kind of a radical in this department. My allegiance to the structure of how things are in the brains department adheres closely to the idea put forth by RA Heinlein in a story called Gulf, wherein the question arises as to what makes a man superior in terms of capacity. Simplistically put, that human is superior whose thinking most closely approximates reality in its functions.

Of course, we could write a book about that, as many have. I’ve read a lot of them, and have even spoken with or corresponded with their authors. Religion and faith have been a source of interest and action for me since I can remember, even as a small child, as I wanted to be as close to God as possible. As I grew up, I found out that religion, or at least professing one, often had little if anything to do with either good or with God, in many cases even in my birth religion, which is Roman Catholic.

So long story short, I started having problems with the structure of my faith in proportion to some mystical experiences that came into my life as I grew up. I started to become more interested in what is real, I mean really real, as distinct from what I thought was real. Certainly we have all had the experiencing the discovery that what we thought about someone or something was at the very least inaccurate, if not downright backwards.

But the point of all this rambling is that I have to ask, FM, what is there that is not from God? There most certainly are perceptions that are not aligned with the highest possible good, or God, and actions that proceed from them, which may be called wrong, evil, or sinful by our standard of morality, but there is nothing that is not as God intends it, if I read doctrine correctly.

We may not like things, or suffer because of some circumstance, or be the object of something we perceive as evil, but always we are dealing with our less than God status perceptions, no? I mean, we very well maybe doing the best we can, if we are so inclined, but we are still vastly limited, no?And I do mean *vastly./U]If anyone thinks about it, I’m sure there will be some agreement here.

Some might even agree that God made things in such a way that as humans we experience some things before others. And we might say that as He told Moses, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” So in human terms God, and God’s Truth, have been around a bit longer than even the appearance of Our Lord in a tiny bit of real estate whose backwardsness we cannot even imagine from our keyboard and screen oriented take on existence.

But then wasn’t God’s Truth around before the various forms of the Church came into being? And were not all men before Jesus each and every one the Child of God in reality? And if they were, would the God we love and who loves us, not give them some insight as to who and what they were, independent of a historic event which for some was probably 100,000 years down the line?

Whatever we might think of the Church as relatively true or not compared to other religions, God is omnipresent and we are children equally regardless of what might have been put in our tiny little skulls about who came first and had what rights or privileges. I think Jesus spoke a parable about laborers in the field, no? Did He say about what faith they were or when the story took place? As far as I can read, He abstracted a dynamic which is good to this day. That means it was good before He got here as well.

And if we look at some of the stories of those faiths, should we happen to be curious that way, we might find that many stories He told existed in some form beforehand. So rather than wonder whose religion is “true,” how about if we look in someone for what is good and timelessly so as distinct from getting into arguments about whose stream of teaching is from God. Want to make God laugh? make plans. Or claim something as both “yours” and “the only truth.” It’s all in your mind because you let it be there, eh?*

 

[Contarini]

Considering that the thread title is totally false in truth, I find it hilarious that you people are arguing over something such as this.

Buddhism was started around 460BC. Hinduism goes back to around 1700BC-1100BC, depending on what you considering the starting, and even that is just based on certain texts from which they pull modern Hindu understanding; it doesn’t mean that’s the official “founding” as it is nothing more than indus Valley animism and paganism with a possible mix of interaction with the nephilim/rephaim post-Flood (which still existed after due to an impure bloodline in one of Noah’s daughter in law).

Evidence for this rather startling claim?

Jacob was born in around 2000 BC.

That sounds way too early–but more to the point, do you have any evidence for the existence of Jacob that doesn’t presuppose the divine inspiration of Scripture?

By normal, secular methods of analysis, Genesis appears to be legend written down in its present form centuries later (many would say during or after the exile, though “traditional” historical criticism puts some parts of it close to the beginning of the first millennium B.C. and recognizes that the stories probably had been handed down orally for a long time before that, which would basically be my own view).

Also, the religion of the “patriarchs” was every bit as different from later Judaism as Vedic religion was from later Hinduism.

Edwin

 

[jerry_joseph]

I’ve always wanted to know this.

I can never give a good answer to my non-christians friends about this.

Due to the sins of human beings (Adam and Eve), relation between man and God was broken… When time passed and mankind flourished over different regions of earth , they became ignorant about their creator…They feared the forces that governs the nature such as Sun, Rain, Moon, Thunder, Lightening, Rivers…They considered them as Gods. They tried to please these natural forces through their offerings and worships.

“The natural helplessness of men is seen in their ignorance of God. The experience of good things did not lead them to the knowledge of Him who is. They were interested in his works, but they did not recognize the author of them.Fire, wind, air, the sphere of the stars, rushing water and the lights in the sky were held as the rulers of the world.” ( Wisdom 13: 1-2).

"If, charmed by such beauty, they took them for gods, let them know how far superior is their sovereign.And if they were impressed by their power and activity, let them understand from this how much mightier is he who formed them. For the grandeur and beauty of creatures lead us to ponder on their Author, greater and more magnificent. No doubt these men are not to be blamed severely, for possibly they strayed though they searched for God and desired to find him.They pondered over the created things that surrounded them and were captivated by the sight of such beauty. Even so they are not to be excused, for if they were able to explore the world, why did they not discover first the world’s Sovereign?( Wisdom 13: 3-9).

They failed to identify the creator God of these and failed to understand that if these creations are these much powerful, they how much powerful is its creator?.

Later again time passed , human beings started worshiping them as personified God, they created idols in their imaginations to them…They wrote Epics and Myth about these Gods. Here in this stage paganism originated…

" But unhappy, indeed, are those people who give to man-made artifacts the title of gods! Cursed is their hope in dead things, objects worked in gold and silver, likenesses of animals, and even useless stones carved long ago!" (Wisdom 13:10).

"But cursed be the idol and its maker, the idol made by human hands, this corruptible thing that is called a god, and the craftsman for having fashioned it.They are hateful to God, both the godless and the fruit of his godlessness;the maker will be punished together with his work. Therefore the idols of the nations will also be judged. They have come to be the most abominable among the creatures of God. They are a stumbling block to the spirit of man, and the feet of the foolish are caught in the snare.The invention of idols was the origin of licentiousness; when they were invented, life became corrupt.For in the beginning they did not exist and they will not exist forever.Human vanity introduced them into the world, and God has set a term for them.

Some persons rejected these beliefs and from their thoughts and human wisdom they created philosophies and ideologies…In these stage philosophical religions originated (Eg: Buddhism, Jainism, Platonism , Greek Philosophical religions etc)…

While in whole world matters are going on like this, creator God decided to reveal himself to mankind. First he want to broke the distance that mankind created through their sins. He called Abraham from the pagans and made a covenant with him. He made a race (israelies) from him who adores this creator God. He gave his guidance to this race through the prophets he send to them. At the fullness of time he send his son (Jesus) to save the entire mankind and bringing them back to him…Through the death on the cross and Resurrection he broke the bindings of sin from the mankind. He established a new covenant with mankind…Here Christianity originated. As a witness to this creator God and showing this God to the mankind…

You can see in all other religions people searching for God…In Christianity you can see a God coming to mankind for saving them…