This is a post on another thread. The conversation was going off topic so I thought I'd start up a fresh thread so this can be discussed in more detail without affecting the original thread




As far as I see it (my personal belief) all religions basically do the same thing; try to explain things that the ancient peoples didn't understand. Small example off the top of my head: the creation of life and death. Since we have become more technologically advanced we have a better grasp on things, namely genetics, evolution etc, and this is why I feel in general religions are becoming less important/picked apart more. I think the one thing nowadays that religions provide is support. Ok, God/Jesus/Allah/Goddess (or whatever name you choose) isn't a physical body, but the moral support is still there in the religions. How do we know that the ancient religions (Norse mythology, Greeks, Egyptians, Pagans) aren't correct and the Bible is wrong? The Bible is a relative newcomer to the scene compared to the ancients, and was written by man. How do we know that the people who physically wrote the original version didn't add their own parts in? I feel that it is definitely the deity that is important in all religions and any written texts should be used as a guide not as a "rulebook".

What you are stating is basically occult philosophy. all gods are one, because, let us face it, how could there be more than one? There are lesser "forces" or "beings" that emanate from the One. We call them angels, and earlier cultures call them gods. Every "polytheistic" religion has what I call "God-God". Zeus is the same as Deus. Jupiter means Deus Pater, or God the Father - whoops, where did we hear that before, actually, later? Another name of Jupiter was "Jove" actually spelled "Iove" and pronounced "Yaweh"-did you get the connection to YHVH? Even in the New Testament Paul explains to the Greeks that their shrine to the unseen God is the same God as the one of the Hebrews. In Hinduism, there is the Holy Trinity - Brahma (God the Creator or Father), Vishnu the Preserver (the Holy Spirit) and Shiva the Destroyer (Jesus). But there is also "Brahman", the God-God, unseen and only felt or experienced. Another Name for Odin/Wotan is "Allfather", and the other, lesser Gods have identical adventures to Jewish and Xian angel legends. Do you really care whether Archangel Michael slew the dragon, or Mithras slit the throat of the bull? It's all semantics and terminology.

These two points don't really fit together, though. On one hand you explain away religious texts as attempts to explain things ancients didn't understand; and on the other hand, you are acknowledging that deities exist.

What is your basis for acknowledging that deities exist, if it is not a traditional religious one? You have already said that the ancients were misleading themselves. How are you any different?