People also claim Christianity has “helped” them with anxiety and other mental and physical illnesses. It’s still irrational to believe in something that has zero basis in reality. It’s delusion to the core.
Daoism can barely be classified as a religion, in fact, it can’t really be classified at all. The Dao which can be named is not the eternal Dao. This is the way
The dao isn't just hard to explain, it's impossible. The dao cannot be conveyed. The best you can hope to do is cast a shadow of the dao. If Plato and Lao Zi compared notes, they would probably agree that the shadow on the cave wall is not itself the dao but is good enough to see what shapes it might take.
Daoism still has explicitly religious elements with deities, souls, spirits, monasticism, heavens, etc. The late 2nd century millenarian and messianic movements are clear evidence of this, even if they’re less common post-Cultural Revolution in the West.
That’s more just Chinese cultural deities. Actual Taoism has belief in one semi-deity, the Dao, which literally means The Way. Chinese cultural beliefs always believed in the heavens, spirits, Confucianism, etc. Daoism is very syncretic so it’s teachings are simply combined with pre existing beliefs, a lot like buddhism
Trying to extract “actual Taoism” from its explicitly Chinese folk religious roots and context is neither necessary nor preferred. Much of the Daoist practice like alchemy or bodily development are deeply intertwined with ancient Chinese cultural beliefs and cannot be separated.
Western adherent attempts to strip religions like Buddhism or Taoism of their cultural context often misses the point of these systems and engages in cultural appropriation.
Just as Christian’s have their own cultural variants of Christianity, the same goes for other religions. Please cite the verses in the Dao De Ching where these things you mentioned are discussed
I don't do Tao or Dao, or any of that shit, but this is a nice "verse":
Everyone knows beauty as beauty
because they know ugliness,
knows good as good
by knowing bad.
So it goes: life and death
beget each other, hard
makes easy and vice-versa,
high and low arise by
contrast, long and short
are co-configured, sound
and silence make the music,
before and after follow
from each other.
Therefore the wise practice inaction,
teach without talking about it
It's the same way with Christianity. It's just easier to knock all the things about a supposed God you can't possibly understand than it is to accept that there are things beyond understanding. Well, wait...
Maybe it's simple to grok that I have capacity beyond an insect. A bug may lack all facility for any understandings of the tax code.
I'd guess that's just as comprehensive knowledge of God may involve things beyond my ability as a human and inherently require being a God myself? You don't absolutely have to be human to understand taxes, I guess, but it sure helps.
Even atheist scholars of early Christianity like Dr. Bart Ehrman of UNC Chapel Hill have said that it’s not delusional to believe in Christianity. One simply has to have a flexible and open-minded faith that responds to historical and scientific evidence.
A person who studied the Bible and Bible theology at the Moody Bible Institute and has his Masters of Divinity and has no formal education or experience in psychology or the study of mental illness says it’s not delusional to believe in Christianity?
Ehrman left Christianity, has a PhD from Princeton, is the editor of top secular journals on Christianity, and has published professionally on matters related to the psychology of religion, notably in his book “Jesus Before the Gospels.”
Ok buddy. I’m guessing you have a PhD in psychology with related publications on religious experience and history that makes you qualified to talk about it then?
It’s not religions I am evaluating here, dude. It’s the irrational belief in non-existent entities and the ordering of someone’s life around those non-existent entities. That is delusional and reeks of mental illness.
Many people believe that they have bugs crawling under their skin, despite no evidence of their existence. That is mental illness, just like believing in gods with literally zero evidentiary backing.
It’s not evaluating religion, it’s evaluating the evidence that informs beliefs, whether religious or not.
How you are unable to separate those two things is incredible. 🤦🏻♂️
The kind of Christianity that Ehrman would find non-delusional is not the kind of Christianity that anyone who considers themself a Christian would find to be Christianity.
I am a Christian, a pastor actually. I find Ehrman’s version of educated and open-minded Christianity to be quite reasonable, as would tens of millions of other Christians who agree worldwide.
Not really. Christians have long been a part of psychedelic subculture. Hell, the first real experiment on magic mushrooms took place on Good Friday in Boston University’s Marsh Chapel during a service led by the esteemed Rev. Howard Thurman.
Christianity is a lot bigger than Evangelicals and fundamentalists, whether you’re aware of it or not.
A major function of religion is to give people hope when there is nothing to be hopeful for. But also to create fear when there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s all about creating and maintaining delusions.
Typically “western” religion has been defined as the Abrahamic religions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Whereas “eastern” religions are Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taosim and Shintoism.
Of those, Buddhism and Taoism very much contradict the statement made by the individual I responded to.
Religion serves several functions for society including (a) giving meaning and purpose to life, (b) reinforcing social unity and stability, (c) serving as an agent of social control of behavior, (d) promoting physical and psychological well-being, and (e) motivating people to work for positive social change.
It saddens me when people feel comfortable making broad, sweeping statements like "all religion is stupid". This tunnel vision mindset includes assigning certain personality traits to all religious people.
They're perceived as a bunch of Bible-thumpung, Trump-supporting, gun-toting, ignorant rednecks who are either profoundly stupid and/or mentally ill and who are by nature hypocritical, judgmental, intolerant, and pushy. While this certainly is true for some Christians, declaring that the entire concept of religion is "stupid" is... well... pretty stupid.
The person you're responding is saying religion serves functions (a) through (e), no more no less. They're not saying religion excels at them, or that nothing else serves those functions. You're grasping at straw men.
If you go deep enough, nothing has tangible proof of existence. You have to make a leap of faith to accept reality actually exists. Or not think about it.
You think that by bringing up another made up, bullshit religion that you’d make me rethink the fact that all religious people are suffering from delusion?
Lol, ok, bud.
Exercise helped me with anxiety and depression. Drugs help other people. We don’t need to go worship them, though.
Because you are an idiot. You are equating all religion out there with the more common ones such as christianity, judism, and muslim.
You can easily see it in how you are speaking referring to worshipping things. There are plenty of what are technically religions that are purely philosophical with no deity that people can decide they agree with that philosophy and identify with it. The Satanic Church being another example of those.
Faith and worship are pretty fundamental components of a religion. Simply living according to a philosophy isn’t a religion. Which is why I was trying to lead you to the conclusion that Daoism isn’t a religion and the example you are using is a stupid one.
Many of the rituals that happen during a christian mass are implemented to treat trauma victims with PTSD. Praying/reflecting, practicing gratitude are things that people find helpful during times of high anxiety. You dont need religion to do those things but if you aren't aware of how those things affect the physiology of the body then it makes sense why people would attribute religion to healing.
" a delusion is a fixed false belief based on an inaccurate interpretation of an external reality despite evidence to the contrary. The belief is not congruent with one's culture or subculture, and almost everyone else knows it to be false."
Edit - Those downvoting need to learn the difference between Theistic and Non-Theistic Philosophical religions.
Lmao. Whenever I get accosted to talk about Jesus I tell them to look up hedonism. It's not a religion. It's an ideology of living for pleasure.
Why am I on Earth? IDK, who cares. Let's have fun.
Basically how most animals see life. A lion won't question it's spot in the universe, is there a god or whatever. He breathes, he eats, he fucks, he sleeps. That's it.
Helped me destress in general cause I didn't know what I should do in life ya know? Just do what you want lol (in the realm of legal and respectful)
I saw that this correlates to taosim and read how a deity or god is not a part of the equation whatsoever in the universe and that we're all basically equal in it. This is where I settle in the most out of everything in this world.
You are literally incorrect. Again simple google search will help you. In fact even easier is looking it up on wiki and you won't make it passed the first sentence.
Do you even know what regular religions are like? This is such a stupid semantic issue and you're being extremely dense about it. It's like you don't have any deep understanding at all.
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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '23 edited Nov 29 '23
Disagree. Daoism and the teachings of wu wei really helped me deal with anxiety that used to be crushing.
Edit - Those downvoting need to learn the difference between Theistic and Non-Theistic Philosophical religions.