Are religions based in mythology? And why do we need them?

I believe that all religions have their foundation in the sky, in nature and in all living things.....

If you wanna look into the face of the son of god... all you have to do is look into the sun (i suggest a very good pair of sunglasses though :cool.

astrotheological motifs related to light

They are hiding a very big secret...
For example, many of the world’s crucified godmen have their traditional birthdays on December 25th (“Christmas”). This date is set because the ancients recognized that, from a geocentric perspective in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun makes an annual descent southward until after midnight of December 21st, the winter solstice, when it stops moving southerly for three days and then starts to move northward again. During this time, the ancients declared that “God’s Sun” had “died” for three days and was “born again” after midnight of December 24th. Thus, these many different cultures celebrated with great joy the “Sun of God’s” birthday on December 25th.

In this document you will see alot of characteristics of the “Sun of God”.
a few exambles:

- The Sun of God is “born of a virgin,” which refers to both the new or "virgin” moon and the constellation of Virgo.
- The “followers” or “disciples” of the “Sun of God” are the 12 signs of the zodiac, through which the Sun must pass.
- The four seasons represent the four gospels of the New Testament
- The “Sun of God” “changes water into wine” by creating rain, ripening the grape on the vine and fermenting the grape juice.
read more at the original source.
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I believe that religion has taken its present form in order to control people and their beliefs, into a system of "power over people", where the few rule over the many. Where the few control the mindset of the many in order to keep people away from insight, knowledge and freedom to seek whatever way in life one wants to persue. And in order to raise men to power, where they themselfes are almost percieved as gods in the form of priests and the likes.

We need only to study a bit of history, to see how the most popular religions today: have a history of violence and murder, destruction of different cultures, removal of ancient texts of knowledge, the burning of people at the stake and the inslavement of people to work for the socalled religious people, in order to once again, keep the few in power over the many.

From a starting base of worthshipping nature, the universe and all living things on this earth, I believe religion transformed into a scenario of heaven or hell, promising to deliver the path to the heavens, but have only delivered the path towards the end of humanity, people, nature and all living things.

Religious people even have a tendense to hate people from other religions aswell, where is the love in that?

And still people refuse to open their eyes to this, refuse to start to think for themselfs, refuse to live in harmony with nature and continue to follow their religions.

There is already all the knowledge we need to do almost anything, available in todays world.
People need to ask themself theese questions and i would like to hear your answer:
- Why do I believe in this religion?
- Why do other people believe in other religions?
- Why do some people not believe in religion at all?
- Do I need a religion to live me life?
- Who benifits from the religion I believe in and how?
- What did people believe in before this religion?

This might seem as me trying to convert people into non-believers, but I am just trying to put things into perspective.

Everybody have the right to believe in what they want, aslong as they don't preach it onto other people.
They can ofcourse tell what they believe and why all they like to.
Just as I can tell that i don't follow any religion, and that I believe that all religions, have the same starting point, witch have been altered over time to fit into the scenarios i have discribed above.

So.... What do you believe?
- have religion lost its true meaning over time?
- Are the textbooks of the different religions pure written facts?
- Does religion really have its base in mythology and have been altered over time?

I'm looking forward to some well-thought answers to theese questions I have asked.

Here we go again with Zeitgeist crap.

Originally posted by Vojvoda
Here we go again with Zeitgeist crap.

YEAH!!! 4christ sake!

Put out a media project and all of the sudden people think they are filled with knowledge, when they've been brainwashed...

Monkey See Monkey Do.

If you go deep in to all religions (no exceptions) you will find mythology as you said but you will also find also historic facts which are been neglected by historians.
And also, I ask: how did ancient people came up with some of the must elaborated so called mythologies? Take the Hindus so called mythology for example.
When humans just got them self to gather from the great flood, they seems to have nothing better to do then imagined all those tails so they can make modern humans wander if it is true or false.
I don’t deny that religions are the source of many great wars and atrocities, but what we can see is that all religions must have spring out from true historical events, maybe not as reported in the old scriptures but some reel events must have regenerated all this mythologies.

Kacou.

Originally posted by kacou
If you go deep in to all religions (no exceptions) you will find mythology as you said but you will also find also historic facts

THIS IS EXACTLY RIGHT!

It isn't that mankind makes religion out of mythology, it is that mankind has a tendancy to add mythology to FACTUAL spiritual events to make them more transitionable.

You can take Gilgamesh for example. He is recognised as a historical King by historians and archaeologists.
The journey of Gilgamesh which was written on numerous Sumerian tablets with great details is considered the most studied ancient bodies or written words.
The controversy continued, where by historians will not accept Gilgamesh epic as historical facts but accept many of other ancient writings because they are less extravagant.
What make one story true and the other not?
Just because you don’t find archaeological evidences this doesn’t make them false because if they do then many so called real historical events can be calcified as false also.

Kacou

I suggest all the above posters exept kacou, read what I have written in the OP and read the article i linked too aswell, and then comes back to answer the questions i have asked in an orderly fashion instead of your childish behaviour.

and to kacou:
you say:

I don’t deny that religions are the source of many great wars and atrocities, but what we can see is that all religions must have spring out from true historical events, maybe not as reported in the old scriptures but some reel events must have regenerated all this mythologies.

Yes i believe that and I believe theese events are phenomenons seen in the sky and experiences here on earth only to be later altered into socalled "religious events" used to spawn religions of all kinds.
afterall the earth and the sun is real, but religion fail to show any of their postulates as real. Sure they call it historical facts, but we all know that only the winners get to write history in their own favour?

you say:

You can take Gilgamesh for example. He is recognised as a historical King by historians and archaeologists.

Yes.. but we do not know 100% and never will, however we do know the sun and earth is here and we do know that many old texts and drawings spoke in a very figurative way, so as to say a god was "flaming in the sky" and so forth.
Witch could literaly just mean that the socalled "god", was just refearing to the sun or another heavenly body like a comet.

But will you answer some of my Questions posted in the OP?

reply to post by Bluess


Yes.
I will try to answer your questions which you have posted.
Right now I am short of time but by tomorrow it will be done.
One more thing: my answers will be based on my very personal understanding threw reading great deals of books (religious and none), so make sure that you take it with a pinch of salt.

Kacou.

The site you provided is owned by Spirit of Ma'at LLC. Scientifical credibility of site is almost zero. I mean they sell Vibrant Vital Water Energizer, Russian Psychotronic Harmony BioResonator Cards, and etc.

[edit on 21-1-2008 by Vojvoda]

Originally posted by Vojvoda
The site you provided is owned by Spirit of Ma'at LLC. Scientifical credibility of site is almost zero. I mean they sell Vibrant Vital Water Energizer, Russian Psychotronic Harmony BioResonator Cards, and etc.

[edit on 21-1-2008 by Vojvoda]

I know the site is "religious" in its own way, and therefore i used it to show the sarcasm in it...apperently it didnt work to well...

As to the selling of Vibrant Vital Water Energizer, Russian Psychotronic Harmony BioResonator Cards, and etc. I don't see the difference in selling a bible, a goldcross or making people donate thrue Tv-preachers, etc.

However would you like to answer some of my questions?

Originally posted by Bluess


- Why do I believe in this religion?
This questions is relative to how you are been brought up.
I do not believe in religions to fallow, but I do believe that some truth can be find in religions…and I am not talking about spiritual truth but material truth.

- Why do other people believe in other religions?
Same as my first sentence above.
- Why do some people not believe in religion at all?
Mainly people reject religions because they usually contradictorily repressive.
- Do I need a religion to live me life?
No one needs religions to live a life, one only needs responsibility for one self primarily and responsibility for other secondly. In our state of evolution we now have acquire the best tools to inform our self about every things that need to be known to make your choice in life.
- Who benifits from the religion I believe in and how?
Only one group of people benefits from religions: the power greedy elite from the religious to the political spectrum.
- have religion lost its true meaning over time?
My opinion is that religions have lost nothing; religions are just some kind of ancients’ testimony which today people have a lot of difficulty to rely on as historical events but for sure not spiritual ones.
- Are the textbooks of the different religions pure written facts?
I will not put it this way as pure facts but as contaminated evidence of some kind.
- Does religion really have its base in mythology and have been altered over time?
Mythology and concept of mythology have been known to have emerged from the renaissance time. In the time frame of all religions “mythology” was embedded in to every day reality.
Ask your self this question: why do people believe in Jesus and not in any Greek gods?
For me if you dismiss one you have to dismiss all other also, if you accept one you have to accept them all.

Kacou

religion isn't based in mythology
religion IS mythology
and mythology is what we call someone else's religion, but are horribly offended when someone says the same of ours.

zeitgeist isn't the only thing that you could watch, try "the god who wasn't there" for something informative

Originally posted by Vojvoda
Here we go again with Zeitgeist crap.

Originally posted by Incarnated
YEAH!!! 4christ sake!

Put out a media project and all of the sudden people think they are filled with knowledge, when they've been brainwashed...

Monkey See Monkey Do.

Exactly! Are people really so dense to keep spouting off a rumor that was debunked over a century ago just because an internet video resurrected the concept yet again? Did anyone actually investigate the facts when this accusation rolls around? Apparently not because they would see this is absolutely untrue.

Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Zoroastrians, Muslims, etc. are all sick of it. We know it is false. But it keeps coming up in cycles thanks to the ignorant masses who don't bother researching the facts.

reply to post by AshleyD


zeitgeist might not be completely accurate, but it does have points.

a better, more accurate and better-cited documentary would be "the god who wasn't there"


and there is one thing that's quite obvious: there isn't any credible evidence to show that jesus existed.

Look, as a person who went to college to become a Minister, and was subsequently kicked out on my ass for asking questions that were not able to be answered, I'll say this.

A person would have to be dumb to look at all the religions in the world, whether it be a Christian based religion, or a spiritual based philosophy, and think that they are very different.

In actuality, most of the major religions in the world (Christianity, Islam, Buddha) all worship a Supreme Being, a monotheist view. Even the ancient religions, though they worshiped many lesser "gods" , they also had a Supreme God who oversaw everything. The Indians of the America's had many gods, but one Supreme Spirit.

In reality, every religion is based on fact and myth. As some have said, there is accurate events depicted in the Bible that were events that had happened many years before, yet were passed down as by the hands of Jehovah. WHo knows, but IMO, there is a Supreme Spirit who rules the galaxies, but I also believe there is many lesser gods (angels?) who help.

Anyways, that's my two cents on the topic. Mythology and Religion walk hand in hand, always have, and always will.

Originally posted by Incarnated

Originally posted by Vojvoda
Here we go again with Zeitgeist crap.

YEAH!!! 4christ sake!

Put out a media project and all of the sudden people think they are filled with knowledge, when they've been brainwashed...

Monkey See Monkey Do.

I guess Joseph Campbell was brainwashed too then... strange, since he made mythology his life work way before Zeitgeist came out.. but I guess we are abandoning all logic in this thread anyways, so whatever, right?

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
a better, more accurate and better-cited documentary would be "the god who wasn't there"

And that work has been more debunked than Zeitgeist as it has been around longer. Not to mention, due to the sources, it was quite easy to look them up and see they were false or taken out of context.

and there is one thing that's quite obvious: there isn't any credible evidence to show that jesus existed.

I think it is quite obvious you do not have all your facts. There is immense evidence of Jesus' existence in antiquity by secular, pagan, Jewish, and Christian sources. Not to mention Jesus' birth was recorded in the records of the Roman census now lost to us. His relatives also wrote extant manuscripts about His life and ministry. And of course the extrabiblical evidence from Polycarp, Clement, and Iraneus.

The question of the day was never "Did He exist" but "Was He the son of God." For people to come along 2,000 years later and tell me they are more knowledgeable than the people alive at the time makes my sides hurt from laughing. The arrogance!

There is more evidence about Jesus than Socrates, Alexander the Great, Apollionus, and dozens of other's whose existence is never questioned. I prefer to not be dense but to go by the records- written by those who had no vested interest in whether or not Jesus existed but still acknowledged He did or by those who gave their lives defending what they knew to be true and that Jesus existed.

To believe anything to the contrary is dense, illogical, and biased.

[edit on 1/22/2008 by AshleyD]

Originally posted by scientist


I guess Joseph Campbell was brainwashed too then... strange, since he made mythology his life work way before Zeitgeist came out.. but I guess we are abandoning all logic in this thread anyways, so whatever, right?

No, Campbell studied mythology in the truth of knowing there was something to it.

Zeitgeist uses the thought of mythology as a form of rejection of religion.

And you thought you were being smart didn't you.

That's not the same thing.

I'd really love to understand what type of BS move that was?

I wish the brainwashed fools that line up to spew out what they were programmed to think in the Zeitgeist movie would study Campbell. This would be a far better world if that were the case.

Are you a real scientist? I don't know, because I just seen you try to compair Fruit with a bag of broken glass.

[edit on 22-1-2008 by Incarnated]

Originally posted by Incarnated
Zeitgeist uses the thought of mythology as a form of rejection of religion.

that's your own defensive stance on it, but inaccurate. IN reality, zeitgeist links Christianity to pagan religions. It doesn't debunk religion, it simply debunks the common lie that Christianity is somehow an original creation. It's nothing more than creative plagiarism.

Are you a real scientist? I don't know, because I just seen you try to compair Fruit with a bag of broken glass.

Just wanted to quote that, because it made me chuckle. Here's to logic and understanding!

Some religious is based on myth, and some myth is based on fact. But not all myths are based on facts, and not all religions are based on myth. Confucius was a real person in history who just had some popular things to say about how to act in life.

Religion exists because people are too smart. We're aware of our own mortality, and therefore run up against the problems of trying to figure out why we exist, and how we are supposed to behave. Dogs and wombats don't have this problem. Religion is there to fill in the gaps for some people, and allow them to go about their lives without being paralyzed from constantly thinking about their own deaths. It even makes some people "happy."

Of course, there are some people who can get by without religion, and that's fine. What isn't fine, though, it to begrudge other people their happiness because it's somehow "wrong."