• School_Lunch@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    5 days ago

    I’ve often wondered if a religion could ever be devised solely for the purpose of getting people to treat each other better. All the religions I’m aware of put most of their emphasis on worshiping some diety and/or accepting some unverified story of historical events. Those things are meaningless when it come to how we treat each other and often encourages tribalism.

    I think a religious belief similar to Hindu reincarnation could work. A belief of reincarnation that doesn’t involve punishment or reward, but instead, when you die, you simply are reborn as someone else. And not in a linear time line either. You could become someone that lived in the past or distant future. Only thing that could be “known” (believed) is that we are all the same “spirit”, and we will eventually live every life that has ever existed. If you believe that you will eventually be the person you are interacting with, then you will probably treat them better than if you didn’t believe that.

    • Maeve@kbin.earthM
      3·
      4 days ago

      Karma isn’t a punishment, but school, teaching us to evolve, and exists in Judaism. That’s why people thought John the Baptist and Jesus were Moses and Elijah.

      My memory is rusty, but I think it was dropped from cannon during one of the Nicean Councils, which politicized everything to make the Roman Empire the Holy Roman Empire, Constantine its leader, “ordained by God,” and the Church became the Roman Catholic (universal) Church, as sects disagreed on the teachings of Jesus and what they meant. Some books got dropped, but are available online (even YouTube) as the Ethiopian Bible (in English, even) and the first and second books of Adam and Eve. We don’t yet know if any more existed and are still in existence, today. I’m not sure, but it seems like the books of Adam and Eve were so disintegrated, they were x-rayed to be read and translated. I’m not sure if those books were written in Aramaic or Ge’ez.

      • School_Lunch@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        4 days ago

        Doesn’t karma use punishments and rewards as teaching tools? Bad behavior will get you reincarnated as some lowly creature (punishment), and the ultimate goal is to reach nirvana (reward).

        • Maeve@kbin.earthM
          3·
          4 days ago

          Getting held back at school or enrolled in a remedial or special ed program isn’t punishment. The lessons haven’t been learned, or objectives not achieved, so intervention is required, as I understand it. Also some schools of thought are that we choose our lessons before we are born, but I’m hazy on which sects or if that’s universal.