Prismatic does not seem to understand that the subatomic particles do not determine whether something is good or bad for life. Water molecules sustain life and cyanide molecules end it - both are made of protons, neutrons and electrons.
He has lost the essential features of the various religions by reducing to an abstract root.
You are off tangent again and you are totally ignorant of my main point of contention.
The subatomic particles example was an analogy to highlight the principle of unity within diversity.
I used another analogical example, i.e. the unity of humans in terms of DNA within its diverse forms.
My main point was to justify there was unity of the same root of ‘Abraham’ within the diversity of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, which collective are often termed ‘Abrahamic Religions’.
The story of Abraham indicate that the essence of the Abrahamic religions that follow the same root focus more on the animal or ‘lowest’ part of the brain. In addition, the Abrahamic religions also exploited the inherent primal “us versus them” impulse malignantly. The resultant is the existence of SOME evil laden verses in their holy texts being abused by SOME evil prone believers committing terrible evils upon humanity in the past and present with a greater threat in the future.
In contrast, the Eastern Religions [as listed in the OP] focused away and progressively on the ‘higher’ cortical brain. These religions do not rely on the common “us versus them” malignantly. There are no ‘significant’ evil laden verses in their religious texts which focus more on personal development to deal with the existential dilemma.
Based on the above central criteria as qualified, the Abrahamic Religions are Relatively inferior to these main Eastern Religions [as listed].
Your point has no relevance to the above at all.
Btw, I do not deny the Abrahamic Religions may be relatively superior if we use other criteria[s].
For example, the Abrahamic Religions are very effective [almost immediately] in relieving the angst of the existential dilemma [its a pseudo solution and a placebo]. This sort of quickie however results in SOME committing terrible religious-based evils.
For the Abrahamic believers all they need is just believe and viola! the passport to heaven and eternal life is given to them.
In contrast, the believers of Eastern Religions has to work at it by developing their brain or the lay believers has to do sufficient merits and other necessaries.
“Us vs Them” - as in;
“Us Atheists vs Them Religious”
“Us Socialists vs Them Masses”
“Us Communists vs Them Constitutionalists”
What I really doubt is anyone’s ability to go beyond their subjective prejudices and make an objective decision about the OP proposition.
One good start towards objectivity is the resultants, e.g.
The figures [24,705] above are sort of a first draft and thus need some polishings and refinements.
The above statistics is since 911, we should consider statistics since the Abrahamic Religion emerged.
Note, just in case, you think the following are obvious.
There are evils committed by Buddhists in recent times (e.g. Sri Lanka, Tibet, Myanmar) and in the past, but these evils are not motivated by any evil laden verses from their religious texts.
I think that there is no point in engaging with you any longer. Take care. 
That seems like an arbitrary statistic for judging world religions that have existed for centuries?
What were those evils motivated by and why are those evils better than those is that motivated by “evil laden verses”?
The above statistic is sort of a first draft and it can be refined if need to. The evidences and facts are readily available for various media and government authorities.
Note this;
One can refine the above to Jihadists who claimed to commit the above based on their religion or to specific verses in their holy texts.
Here is one example where evil in committed in direct association with Islam;
The above claims by Islamists killing under compulsion of their holy texts is very common. Thus is it not difficult to collate statistics for such religious-based evils.
These evils are motivated by the believers own human nature and not catalyzed by evil laden verses. No, they are not better than the ones motivated by ‘evil laden verses.’ They are merely a different category of evil which must be dealt with seriously and separately.
In general there are no stringent policies to restrict anyone from becoming a Buddhist monk or a believer within the Eastern religious community.
Therefore when a Buddhist monk or a common Buddhist who had just watched porn, then it so happened his lust got the better of him and ended up raping or/and murdering someone, we cannot blame Buddhism per se for that. We cannot blame the religion if there are no evil laden verses that condone evils upon non-believers.
In contrast, a Danish cartoonist drew some cartoons of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Some Muslims perceived such act as an insult and a threat to Islam, therefrom they rioted and killed non-believers because the holy texts condone the killing of non-believers if they insult the religion.
thereligionofpeace.com/Quran … -islam.htm
This should be moved to the politics forum.
The truly arbitrary bit is that he’s using that statistic to condemn ‘Abrahamic Religions’. Why not just Islam? Why not all religion? Why not all patriarchal religions? Why not all non-eco-centric religions? He’s taking a completely arbitrary slice of the pie because he’s desperate to prove East > West.
Right. Lately not even Muslims in the US and around the world want to be associated with the brutality of the Muslim extremists. During the past year Muslim groups have stood up to condemn these actions. Maybe there isn’t a single monolithic Muslim religion let alone a single Abrahamic one. And maybe the same its true of the Eastern religions as well. To lump the religions together like this is to oversimplify a highly complex sociological problem.
Personally, I have a really hard time looking at religion objectively because of my own experience relative to it. I suspect that other people have the same problem because we’re all situated somewhere existentially relative to it. If people claim objectivity without acknowledging the difficulty of overcoming their own subjective prejudices, I tend to doubt them. It isn’t that this isn’t an interesting and perplexing problem. But, I might be more impressed if difficulties were explicated instead of offering a single statistic as if it sheds any light on the question.
IMO, your views are very bias and unbalanced.
I had used that statistic because it is the most easily available as a first draft. i.e. 24,732.
It was 24,705 on Tue Dec 30, 2014 5:05 am -see my post earlier.
Note on the Sources of the above stats:
Even in the absence of the full facts, one can readily gather a sense of truth [intuitively and hypothetically] in those numbers from the daily news of terrible evils oozing from the Islamist community as committed by SOME Muslims.
If you have other readily available statistic which are reasonably reliable, I will readily accept them for reference.
The following are the main religions in the world at present;
If I were to estimate the number of deadly attacks as influenced by their holy texts by each of the following religion since 911, it will be as follows;
The above refer to number of incidents not number of fatalities.
Can you prove me wrong with the above estimates, the number re Islam from the statistic linked and the rest estimated to the best of my knowledge.
Prove me wrong on the above estimates, anyone?
If not at least give me a clue where I could be wrong.
East > West??
That is very narrow and distorted thinking.
The Abraham Religions are spread all over the world and the largest Muslims population is in Indonesia. There is a large number of Christians in the Philippines. Besides the Abrahamic Religions originated from the East, i.e. Middle East not from the ‘West.’
I have a very strong interest in the subject of ‘Religion and Spirituality’ and thus has done exhaustive research and continual monitoring on this topic.
Being human, subjectivity is inevitable but I do make it a point to be as objective as possible.
I approach to the problem is as if I am an alien assign to Earth to resolve all the terrible evils on Earth and my specialty is religious-based evils.
My first task is to collate all evidence of evils from all sources, i.e. secular, religious related, religious-via-holy-texts, and various categories.
Since my specialty is religious-via-holy-text-evils, I will focus on that specialized aspect and leave it to my fellow aliens to deal with the other categories.
I note the first draft of the estimated number of deadly attacks as influenced by their holy texts by each of the following religion since 911, is as follows;
If from the above, the numbers in No. 2 re Islam do not ring alarms bells, then, there is something morally wrong with the person (human, aliens or any morally rational entities).
From the first draft of the above, we can do more detailed research, verifications and analysis to refine its objectivity.
Seems like you are now arguing against the OP thesis that lumps Judaism and Christianity and Islam together as inferior. By your reckoning it appears as if Judaism and Christianity are no more evil than most eastern religions. Your claim that you can somehow look at all this as if you were an alien is doubtful. How do you know you are not simply be deceiving yourself as to your own objectivity?
By the way I not presenting my views as if I am God. It is open for discussion and opposing views.
If you reread the OP you will note I am comparing the differences of the main neural and psychological paths are directed at. The Abrahamic religions as a group is directed and focus more on the ‘lower’ brain whereas the Eastern religions focus on the ‘higher’ faculties of the brain. In addition, there is the malignant use of the primal “us versus them” impulse.
The statistic of evils re fatal terror attacks [where Judaism and Christianity at present in contrast to the past are insignificant] is just one example of the resultant of the above differences.
The inferiority of the Abrahamic Religions contribute to other negativities beside the very obvious evils of violence and terror.
The other evils from the Abrahamic Religions [including Judaism, Christianity] which I had not highlighted are intolerances, cruelty, hindering of Science, social issues, cultural, political and others.
Another critical difference is the personal spiritual development of the followers, the Abrahamic Religions exacerbate the primal impulses, instincts and emotions while the Eastern Religions take the trouble to modulate these impulses to leave the person to potential for peak actualization of self.
Prism has already stated that his opinion concerning inferiority and evil are merely his personal preference. There is nothing objective about his “study as an alien”. It’s just an opinionated, not sufficiently involved and thus ignorant yet emphatic, self-justifying alien/foreigner/outsider/novice.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam have mystical traditions that probably involve similar neural pathways to the mystical traditions of eastern religion. There are also us vs them practices in eastern religions. There has been a recent resurgence of Hindu fundamentalism for example. So, most of these aspects seem to be present in all the religions and it is a matter of more or less which is difficult to measure.
Right and it illustrates how value judgments are unavoidable when evaluating goodness or evil. There’s no value free “alien” objective way to do that.
But, you wouldn’t argue that Eastern societies are less evil than Western ones would you? Because if they aren’t then it may be that eastern religions are just more passive and tolerant toward social evils that exist whereas Abrahamic religions are more engaged and therefore end up being more complicit in them. For example, Taoism teaches inaction with respect to the state whereas Islam doesn’t recognize separation of religion and state. The net result could be that the society in question is no more or less evil but that the respective religion is responsible in a different way. In the example Taoism would be passively complicit in the evil of the state and Islam would be actively involved. But, the net amount of evil may be no more or less. [Of course, evil is not the religious intent in either case.]
I already addressed that above. They all have traditions of spiritual development. Who can say which is the top unless they have scaled to the top of all of them? The inner traditions of the Eastern and Western religions are more similar then the outer aspects.
Nothing involving human beings has ever been monolithic so far as I am aware, and I don't know how it possibly could be. We are chaos. However, that doesn't mean that certain organizations and ideologies can't be our enemies. I have a dark view of ethics and philosophy lately, and I don't think 'they aren't all bad' is sufficient to justify inaction. So in the end, "Is Muslim evil?" isn't a question with an answer because it is composed of individual humans with individual wills. However, it may be necessary to [i]act as though[/i] it is as a matter of national or cultural security. Or not. Each nation and people will have to look at the data and the trends and decide that for themselves.
I think it’s easier to be objective with regards to an end than it is to be objective about the existential nature about something. A group of people could disagree forever about the fundamental nature of Islam, or theism, or religion, and agree to certain actions to prevent the next terrorist attack, or to ensure peaceful relations with a Muslim nation, or whatever.
So long as they aren’t incorrect, I have no problem with that. I find that people who strive for balanced, unbiased views above all else just become very eloquent liars.
I have no interest in proving those numbers wrong because they have nothing to do with my point. My point is that using a critique of Islam to condemn "Abrahamic Religions" is arbitrary. To blame "Abrahamic Religion" for this violence amounts to blaming Christians for violence against Christians and Jews for violence against Jews. There are a million possible configurations you could lump in if you want to blame more than just Muslims for Muslim violence- you could blame people of Middle Eastern descent, or men, or patriarchy, or theism, or lots of things. Why do you blame what you do? Because you want to promote eastern religion at the expense of western religion, or so it seems from your posting history.
Narrow and distorted as it may be, you are the one that opened this thread comparing Abrahamic faiths to what you consider to be the Superior Eastern Religions, not me. Presumably if it was good enough for you then to say "Eastern Religion" and expect people to understand you don't mean Muslims in the Philippines or Orthodox Christians in Russia, it is good enough for me now.
I agree the Abrahamic Religions have their mystical traditions but they are not the core practices in line with the ethos of those religions. In some cases, the Sufis of Islam are treated as infidels and subjected to genocidal killings and persecutions.
The existence of their mystic tradition will not get rid to the evil laden verses in their holy texts which will be exploited by a natural occurrence of small percentile of evil prone believers.
The primal “us versus them” impulse is inherent in all humans. However, it is presented malignantly in the holy texts of the Abrahamic religions as in other evil secular ideologies. There is no such malignant abuse in the ‘Eastern Religions’ [note as specifically listed in the OP].
Note I specifically excluded general Hinduism in the list as Hinduism comprised 100s of religions and cults and some do have evil laden verses which could be directly or indirectly abused. Example, the Nazi abused some verses in the Gita for their selfish interest. The Gita also verses that apparently promote the Caste system.
There are no evil laden verses in the Buddhist texts except for a few very controversial ones in one or two the Mahayana sutras.
There is no absolute objective evilness, but we can have some sort of objectivity by consensus. If we grade all evils and evilness within a rating of 1 -100, those above 80 can readily be accepted by almost all as objectively evil, e.g. genocide, mass-rapes, serial killing, senseless beheadings, and the likes.
I argued on the following point why Abrahamic Religions (btw, not societies nor Western] are inferior relative to the Eastern religions [listed];
Btw, Taoism do not promote inaction but rather the maxim is ‘Action in Inaction’, Fight without Fighthing, and the likes. It is merely the concept of engagement without mental attachment to it.
The primary ethos of the Abraham Religion is reflected in the story of Abraham who was willing to kill his own son for his own selfish salvation. This is all about triggering the primal emotion of fear, as in;
This is why most of the Abrahamic believers will feel very uneasy and disturbed and some will not hesitate the kill those who critique their beliefs. And worst of all, the Quran and their God condone the killing of those who insult Islam [as sensitive as drawing cartoons of Muhammad!].