Questions: Religion & Spirituality

It is nothing like pagan religions, where people were buried with their belongings, or polytheistic religions in which every city had its own god.

Christianity, which most of you belong to, is considered by some to have begun as a sect of Judaism. Since the Jews no longer had a sovereign state, it lacked the institutions that might have kept it within Judaism. Its revolutionary feature was its claim to universality, which separated it from Judaism and gave rise to missionary work.

Judaism centers on the revelation of the Torah to Moses, alongside later rabbinic traditions. Christianity is different: the Gospels were written decades later by people traditionally linked to the apostles. Rather than being presented as God's direct words, they mainly recount Jesus' life. One could argue that this makes Christianity easier to reinterpret and reform.

Islam, meanwhile, also claimed universality but almost immediately became the religion of a state. Within a century it had spread from al-Andalus to Khorasan. Muslim scholars developed detailed traditions in hadith, sira, aqidah, fiqh, kalam, and tafsir. In that sense, Islam combines Judaism's strong textual tradition with Christianity's missionary outlook while avoiding what many see as their weaker aspects. Its legal and theological traditions are so comprehensive that major reform is far more difficult.

Muslims also tend to place greater emphasis on the ummah and religious commitment. British Protestant schools in the Ottoman Empire initially aimed to convert Muslims, but their own reports admitted they achieved little success because Muslims were deeply attached to their faith. Many schools instead focused on converting Armenians.

Recently, a comedy portrayed Jesus as gay and drew relatively little reaction from Christians, despite Christianity being the world's largest religion. Try making a similar claim about the Prophet Muhammad to a Muslim. If your head is still attached afterward, consider yourself lucky :D

“The serpent in the garden wasn’t satanic… it was the savior. It was the voice of Earth wisdom guiding humans to awakening to the truth of who they are. In the oldest layers of symbolism, the serpent has been associated with wisdom, reincarnation, and eternity. It is the one who sheds its skin and is reborn. The one who moves between worlds. The one who represents cycles, transformation, and the eternal return of divine consciousness. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent was not introducing corruption, but interrupting illusion. The illusion of separation from divine presence. Eve stood at the threshold of shifting from the comfort of illusion into total divine awareness. What if the Garden of Eden was not heaven on Earth, but the comfort of not yet questioning it? A place where everything is given to you, but nothing is yet truly known by you. Then why did God get mad at Eve? God didn't get mad. The ego did. No God of the highest Light would curse his own creations. It is impossible for darkness to flow from light. The ego tries to convince you that you are in danger when you expand past the comfort of your current beliefs. The whole story of Eve is the story of killing the comfort of your ego identity to expand your consciousness. It wasn't temptation that she fell to. It was choosing awareness over comfort. Eve represents the initiation of humanity's awakening to their divinity. How overcoming the voice of fear and choosing expansion leads to the journey of enlightenment.” - Angela Nicholson on Facebook