Similarities of Religion

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castleking

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Edited By castleking

Do any of you wonder why so many religions sometimes have more than the simple fundamental message of love, compassion and caring but stories, allegories that are eerily similar if not downright identical to one another sometimes not just in neighboring countries but  from entirely different cultures that are too far apart to have any connection to one another sometimes crossing time itself...

Many religions are based on the concept of duality between good and evil which is a start point for various belief structures which one can accept is a logical start point even a monotheistic religion can be a simple progressive result of polytheistic origin which involve a chief god among the pantheon.

I've noticed that many ancient religions now considered myths  have savior gods which seem to mirror many other savior gods from across the ocean and other continents whose story involve self sacrifice for the benefit of humanity, why is that?

is it a simple psychological mellow trauma  for humanities need to be saved from one's own unworthiness and self loathing?

Or is there more, are these stories simply ancient events that have occurred but simply spiraled into the world of myth, legend and religion creating gods and heroes from extraordinary man who represented what we all aspire to but fail to reach?

If so does that mean that things like Giants, dragons, mythical creatures can all be explained away as mere exaggerations or did they really exist which is why many cultures speak of them even across the ocean on other continents, Are they some deep racial memory buried  deep within our psyche from some ancient horror of ancient man's past?

Many people believe that many religions came about or were based on astrology simply for people to measure, time, year and seasons while also observing and recording stellar event giving names to them and later being   anthropomorphized and put in stories and the original meaning having been lost. The stories were once a form to teach how the stars traveled where they went  how the seasons would change only for later generation to start calling them kings who traveled across the desert or some exotic lands and so on writing entire epic events out of the original teachings that were simply used to keep ppl from getting lost..... etc etc..


Do you know any religion or Myth that are similar to each other, do you thing it was completely dependent and grew on its own or was it based on earlier myths, religion or legends borrowing from them to create a new religion, myth, legend?

what savior gods are mirror images of others?

when i think about this usually these names come to mind:

Mithra
Zoroastrianism
Prometheus
Hercules
Yeshua
Quetzalcoatl
Gilgamesh
Horus...
Thor

thoughts, comments and opinions?

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velle37

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#1  Edited By velle37


Many religions are offshoots of previous religions founded around the same time.......

 

A lot of borrowing occured as well...

 

Which is why Jesus's story resembles elements of Greek, Pagan, and Egyptian mythology.......

 

Many rituals derived from these are still around today.....

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castleking

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#2  Edited By castleking

i agree..

Hercules burned alive and ascending as a full god to Mount Olympus
Prometheus chained to a wall or boulder for giving man knowledge to be tormented.

these two stand out and reminds me of Yeshua on the cross and being crucified and finally ascending.

but what about other religions, myths, legends from the other side of the world that never had contact with the Middle East or Mediterranean?
how can other similar Savior gods arisen part man, part god who is sacrificed either burned alive ascending or tied to a tree in order to save humanity?

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#3  Edited By thehummingbird

Hmmm...I believe the similarity of most religions roots from the concept that human beings have set certain standards that they believe most be full filled. In this case government and leaders came about, however, government is not always enough to enforce these standards and rules. Now before I continue on this topic I will introduce another concept, that before a certain time of science humans questioned the same things.  People's curiosity can often lead them into the same direction. This is what can bring about many religious similarities. Humans trying to answer questions they can not explain about themselves. Now back to my first statement about religion being a tool that is used to enforce certain rules, that government can not. The reason behind this remark, is that humans are capable as by what religious beliefs state capable of quite evil things, not only this, but humans are very stubborn all around and do not learn lessons easy. Gods, something greater than humans in human eyes, can make these mistakes and enforce this standards and show the flaws in our mistake because they are considered to be greater than us. Often a human telling someone that they are wrong is taken lightly because in reality they are no better than the person making the mistake. Gods can enforce these concepts though because as I said they are greater. On the subject of laws and ruling it is the same circumstances. For example a human being can only do the same things that you could do to another human being, while a God can eternally punish you, to those who hold belief their is nothing more terrifying. So overall humans in ancient times just like now had certain concepts and standards that needed to be filled, these similar ideas were filled by similar religious ideas because we all have the same needs in the end.  I hope this makes some sense I am rather tired. 

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castleking

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#4  Edited By castleking
@thehummingbird said:
" Hmmm...I believe the similarity of most religions roots from the concept that human beings have set certain standards that they believe most be full filled. In this case government and leaders came about, however, government is not always enough to enforce these standards and rules. Now before I continue on this topic I will introduce another concept, that before a certain time of science humans questioned the same things.  People's curiosity can often lead them into the same direction. This is what can bring about many religious similarities. Humans trying to answer questions they can not explain about themselves. Now back to my first statement about religion being a tool that is used to enforce certain rules, that government can not. The reason behind this remark, is that humans are capable as by what religious beliefs state capable of quite evil things, not only this, but humans are very stubborn all around and do not learn lessons easy. Gods, something greater than humans in human eyes, can make these mistakes and enforce this standards and show the flaws in our mistake because they are considered to be greater than us. Often a human telling someone that they are wrong is taken lightly because in reality they are no better than the person making the mistake. Gods can enforce these concepts though because as I said they are greater. On the subject of laws and ruling it is the same circumstances. For example a human being can only do the same things that you could do to another human being, while a God can eternally punish you, to those who hold belief their is nothing more terrifying. So overall humans in ancient times just like now had certain concepts and standards that needed to be filled, these similar ideas were filled by similar religious ideas because we all have the same needs in the end.  I hope this makes some sense I am rather tired.  "
Kind of..............

your reasoning and explanation is as good as any other.
you are saying that religion is simply to enforce rule and law that may otherwise be ignored by the masses since government cannot always enforce them and also that similarities are bound to arise.

I got ya.  ; )
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thehummingbird

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#5  Edited By thehummingbird
@castleking: 

haha yeah for the most part, I was also trying to sat that humans question their existence, as well as why the sun and the moon are here how women have kids and such lack of scientific evidence can lead to questions like this and religion used to be used to answer them, the other things though I think you got right on =) 
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castleking

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#6  Edited By castleking
@thehummingbird said:

" @castleking: 


haha yeah for the most part, I was also trying to sat that humans question their existence, as well as why the sun and the moon are here how women have kids and such lack of scientific evidence can lead to questions like this and religion used to be used to answer them, the other things though I think you got right on =) 
"
 do you believe giants, dragons, elves, dwarfs, werewolves were all made up or based on something more?  >_<
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#7  Edited By thehummingbird

Something more for the most part, people have reasons for almost everything, we just have to want to se it...O.O I may sound crazy. 

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castleking

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#8  Edited By castleking
@thehummingbird said:

" Something more for the most part, people have reasons for almost everything, we just have to want to se it...O.O I may sound crazy.  "

nah, i like a lil crazy... so long as you dont start flinging poop you're cool....

i sometimes think that there were some large reptiles or animal that were misidentified by ancient man and called dragons in certain parts of the world for instance:

 http://www.biwook.net/gallery/funny-shit/random-2009-march/dragon%20fish.jpg


could have given rise to this:
 http://www.mobilebehavior.com/wp-content/uploads/chinese-dragon-mosaic.jpg
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#9  Edited By thehummingbird
@castleking: 

I agree with this, I also this to be the case with many other mythical animals, not to mention their could have been more species and such before. 
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#10  Edited By King_Saturn
even though many religions do share a lot of similarities... most theists believe their specific religion is authentic... that it is the truth... though I think more so that God is an Alien Entity that is playing games with our Human Race...