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Some people sing, some people dance ...

Abdul Alhazred

Philosopher
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Sep 4, 2003
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All the world's people at worship.

Some people sing, some people dance, some people sit in drafty halls and listen to droning lectures, some people suicide bomb.

But it's all the same God. :)

Suicide Bombing as Worship
Denis MacEoin in The Middle East Quarterly (this is Daniel Pipes' outfit)
This is a scholarly article with proper footnotes.
Sample:
...

Both the Hadith—the vast corpus of "eyewitness" statements about what Muhammad did or said, second in holiness only to the Qur'an—and the earliest writings featuring the biography of Muhammad and his companions display a significant concern with fighting. The Hadith compilations invariably have a section entitled "The Book of Jihad," in which snippets from actual combat with non-Muslims jostle with instructions on how to wage war. The books of biography are originally called Kitab al-Maghazi,[19] the Book of Raids, meaning the raids and battles in which Muhammad was personally involved or which he ordered carried out. In other words, we are in a realm far less abstract than that of the Qur'an, on a landscape in which real men fought in real encounters with real enemies.

...
Click to expand...
 
Abdul Alhazred said:
All the world's people at worship.

Some people sing, some people dance, some people sit in drafty halls and listen to droning lectures, some people suicide bomb.

But it's all the same God. :)
Click to expand...


Reminds me of a poem by Rumi I heard recently.

Move beyond any attachment to
names. Every war and every conflict between
human beings has happened because of some
disagreement about names.

It’s such an unnecessary foolishness,
because just beyond the arguing
there’s a long table of companionship,
set and waiting for us to sit down.
What is praised is one, so the praise is
one too, many jugs being poured into a huge
basin.

All religions, all this singing, one song.
The differences are just illusion and
vanity. Sunlight looks slightly different on this
wall than it does on that wall.
and a lot different on this other one,
but it is still one light.

We have borrowed these clothes,
these time-and-space personalities,
from a light, and when we praise,
we pour them back in.
 
Limbo said:
Reminds me of a poem by Rumi I heard recently.

Move beyond any attachment to
names. Every war and every conflict between
human beings has happened because of some
disagreement about names.

It’s such an unnecessary foolishness,
because just beyond the arguing
there’s a long table of companionship,
set and waiting for us to sit down.
What is praised is one, so the praise is
one too, many jugs being poured into a huge
basin.

All religions, all this singing, one song.
The differences are just illusion and
vanity. Sunlight looks slightly different on this
wall than it does on that wall.
and a lot different on this other one,
but it is still one light.

We have borrowed these clothes,
these time-and-space personalities,
from a light, and when we praise,
we pour them back in.
Click to expand...

I absolutely adore Rumi.
 
The movie The Beast of War centers around an Afgan - Islamic religious obligation called Badal, where revenge isn't simply a personal emotion-driven goal, it's actually an obligation to God! It was somewhat of a shock to learn that personal desire for revenge isn't enough for these people; they actually justify it further as a demand made of them by their supreme being.
 
The same God? How is that? You mean that they all claim it's the creator? Right?
 
Radrook said:
The same God? How is that? You mean that they all claim it's the creator? Right?
Click to expand...


Looks like you're addressing the OP but if it's all the same to you I would like to answer as well.

The fields of comparative religion, comparative mythology, and comparative mysticism show us that underneath the surface, all religions are closer to each other than they might appear. It's almost like there are two religions in each religion. One is close to all the other religions, and one is far apart.

It's like there are two layers to a religion. An outer (exoteric) layer, and an inner (esoteric) layer. The outer exoteric layer is the layer of the layman, the fundamentalist, the literal minded, the zealot, the man-on-the-street. The esoteric layer is the layer of the mystic.

The more esoteric shades of a religion will be very close to the inner shades of other religions. And the outer shades will be far apart.

It can be hard to understand all this at first but if you are interested in comparative religion, mythology then have you seen The Power of Myth series on PBS? I dug up episode one for you:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTUyMDA5MzM2.html
 
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Radrook said:
The same God? How is that? You mean that they all claim it's the creator? Right?
Click to expand...
Do the members of different monotheistic religions believe in different gods, or do they believe different things about the same god?

It's not an easy question but perhaps not an important one either, especially if you're an atheist.
 
Limbo said:
Looks like you're addressing the OP but if it's all the same to you I would like to answer as well.

The fields of comparative religion, comparative mythology, and comparative mysticism show us that underneath the surface, all religions are closer to each other than they might appear. It's almost like there are two religions in each religion. One is close to all the other religions, and one is far apart.
Click to expand...
Um, sure, NO.

That is just apologism of different scholars.
Tlaloc is not interested in 'peace, harmony and understanding'.

Nor was Zeuz or Maloc.

They present no resaerch do they Limbo, what data is there?
 
Many monotheists say it's all the same God, usually based on some shared mythology. It's a statement that only makes sense if God really exists.

My own position is that it's different figments of different imaginations.

Clear now?
 
Abdul Alhazred said:
All the world's people at worship.

Some people sing, some people dance, some people sit in drafty halls and listen to droning lectures, some people suicide bomb

But it's all the same God. :)
Click to expand...
Yep... where 'god worship' is (as always) merely a thinly veiled excuse for people (pack animals) to unite and assert their collective strength

Singing, dancing, listening to lectures, 'chanting' at sports events - all of these activities are practiced by groups, comprised of individuals that are united primarily by being identified with 'the group'

Few fans (of any activity) need let alone want to emulate their 'star players' who often live hard and either die young or fade into obscurity
 
Sorry Dancing David - just spotted yours - I just immediately thought of the MTM show and the Chuckles the Clown ep. I assume you did too!!!.
 
Limbo said:
The fields of comparative religion, comparative mythology, and comparative mysticism show us that underneath the surface, all religions are closer to each other than they might appear.
Click to expand...
Yep... they're ALL based on AND perpetuate MYTHS

Limbo said:
It's like there are two layers to a religion. An outer (exoteric) layer, and an inner (esoteric) layer. The outer exoteric layer is the layer of the layman, the fundamentalist, the literal minded, the zealot, the man-on-the-street. The esoteric layer is the layer of the mystic.

The more esoteric shades of a religion will be very close to the inner shades of other religions. And the outer shades will be far apart.
Click to expand...
Yet neither layer has any more substance than the chocolate-scented farts of wisdom emanating from the IPU in my garage

Curious, huh?
 
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