Why do people act like all religions are the same?

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~SpacelanderRyo Dec 21, 2012 Student General Artist

Not all religions believe in a nice, fuzzy, personal, omnipotent sky daddy. Not all religions believe in Jesus or Zeus or Thor. Not all religions have a god of evil or really an important concept of evil at all. I see the biggest problem in religious debates as a semantics problem, because there are all these undefined terms like god and benevolence, similar to undefined terms in mathematics that you just have to know intuitively, but unlike mathematics tend to be warped through interaction and reflection, as if them being intangible and invisible was not bad enough already. Religion is too often used as a synonym for Christianity and Greek mythology. In Buddhism there is no god (although you can still have one), in Judaism the afterlife is generally not a concern as is proselytizing people, and in most religions besides Christianity, the favor of god(s) is about your virtues and not about kowtowing in the typical interpersonal manner. Christianity is generally a very interpersonal religion, because it's all about having a relationship with Jesus who is nice to irredeemable scum like you (that's why he had to die for you), although there are apparent exceptions with recluses and stuff. Relgion is not a crutch for the weak, even if some are, because what if there is an omnipotent malevolent entity? That's not much to relax on, but many people do believe that, and it's still a religion.

Yawn, I'll stop now and log off. If you have any questions ask me because I've logically though out everything I could think of and if you want to start arguing my personal beliefs or something you can. I've already used all the standard atheist arguments myself and that's how I got to my current conclusions.

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~i-am-a-retro-lass Dec 31, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

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~OmicronWanderer Dec 30, 2012 Student Digital Artist

From a scientific perspective

Religion stems from at its most basic, a fear of the unknown. people (I hate to say create but it's really the only word that seems to fit) religions and myths to attempt to explain the questions science is either unable to answer at the time.

most religions have a strong tie to the idea of an afterlife or a life after death. this tends to be a primary thread between them.

However the most common tie between religions is the belief that the world came into being as a result of a being or beings or occured spontaniously alongside said beings.

An interesting thing to look at would also be flood myths. take a look: [link]

`saintartaud Dec 30, 2012 Professional General Artist

I think it's a lazy way of saying that all religion seems to be driven by more or less the same impulses.

~mystichuntress Dec 29, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

Not all religions are exactly the same, but they have similar concepts. Which suggests that all religions were derived from a single one which had eventually split off and changed.

~staple-salad Dec 29, 2012

IMO all religions are the same.

There is one deity. That omnipotence can be described as a single corporeal being, multiple corporeal beings, male, female, genderless, all genders, conceptual, a grouping of emotions, a person, or really any other way that a deity may be conceptualized. The names are changed, multiples are rolled into one, one is broken into multiples, etc.

Then the religion uses that deity to describe a general moral and social code that more or less creates a social structure motivating followers to be mindful of others and generally not be selfish pricks that would lead to the downfall of society, along with some localized rules regarding specific cultural and environmental traits (shellfish, beef, pork taboos, etc).

The rest is merely explanation for things that science cannot yet explain and elude most other forms of philosophy.

But more or less the message is the same, the deity is the same, but the names and stories are changed to fit a local culture.

!destroyedeggo Dec 28, 2012 Hobbyist Artist

Because they all have the one thing in common. Us and our destiny.

~carusmm Dec 27, 2012 Student Writer

There's mud and then there's clay. All religions dish them out equally.

=Svataben Dec 26, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

If you think Zeus and Thor fall into the "nice, fuzzy, personal, omnipotent sky daddy" category, you're badly misinformed.

"Christianity is generally a very interpersonal religion, because it's all about having a relationship with Jesus"
No, that's not what Christianity is. That's what one branch of Christianity is. One aspect.
The very extreme Jesus fixation that happens in some branches simply isn't practised in others.
For instance, when I got my confirmation according with the tradition of Danish protestants, the priest did talk about Jesus but much more about God directly.

I don't think most people act like all religions are the same.

I do think lots of ignorant people spout off about religion in badly created OPs like this one.

*BlueWingedCoyote Dec 26, 2012

Because to an atheist you are ALL delusional... the shape and colour of your hallucinations don't matter to the outsider's diagnosis of looniness.

~Sabby1300 Dec 26, 2012

All religions might be different in some way or another, but they're still inherently the same. According to the ancient Romans, what made a religion an actual religion was the worship of a deity. Didn't have to be polytheistic, either, you just had to have a deity to worship. That's what made it a religion and not a sect or form of philosophy. And a lot of people still define religion in the same way today. When I think of all the different religions I've learned about over the years, they all share one thing in common in my opinion and that is the worship of a deity or deities. The means of worship vary from culture to culture, but it's still worship. That's why I personally act as if all religions are inherently the same. Now if you want to talk about philosophy, that's a whole different ballgame.

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