Religion general

@Hali the Emoji girl  

 
Dude, I grew up with religion. You think I didn’t?

@Scrabbleman
 
[Laughs in Ruinous Powers]

@Zincy  
Did a quick wiki. Having powers directly proportional to people’s negative emotion cam be a reason why they do what they do. I guess the writer do need to justify their power source and a way to even the odds for their opponents.

@Zincy  
Warhammer 40K’s Gods make me mad because I can’t understand why they’re evil and I think that’s the point.

In Malaysia, the Kuala Lumpur High Court has ruled that non-Muslims can use “Allah” and three other Islamic terms for educational purposes. The Home Ministry still needs a meeting to decide.
 
Also, my country is selected as the first in line for a Saudi programme facilitating pre-clearance process for pilgrims going on the haj or the umrah.
 
@Scrabbleman
 
Perhaps because they represent destruction. Chaos is considered the opposite of order, and therefore it considered “destructive” by nature.

@HorsesandMuchMOAR  
Coming from Malaysia, that’s honestly surprising to hear. I didn’t even realize it was an issue.

@Scrabbleman
 
Perhaps it is, like in other Muslim countries, because from what I had read on the news, Muslims consider unbelievers using “Allah” to be a serious issue because it would lead to blasphemy.

@HorsesandMuchMOAR  
I wonder why they’d feel that way.
 
Weird they would find it blasphemous, considering Allah is both his Name and a word meaning “The God”, where the Al- in Allah is a definite article.
 
Arabic christians in the gulf uses “Allah” to refer to God, and indonesian muslims regularly DON’T use Allah, they use Tuhan instead.
 
I’m guessing this is more identity politics than anything.

@tehwatever  
In Malaysia, Tuhan means “God” in general while Allah is specifically the Islamic God. So I’m guessing non-Muslims used Tuhan most of the time, though I’ve never heard it myself from other non-Muslims. Not like talking about God is a common thing outside of mosques and devout Muslim communities.

@Scrabbleman
 
 
I was just saying that it didn’t make sense that’s all.

Yesterday was the day of Isra’ Mi’raj.
 
The day when prophet Muhammad rode the Buraaq from Mecca to Jerussalem, and from Jerussalem he went on a quick tour around Heaven and Hell, guided by Jibril.
 
This is an important night for muslims because this was the night the commandment for five daily prayers was revealed.
 
It also, may have been one of the many inspirations for Dante’s Divine Comedy, as argued in this book: La Escatologia Musulmana en La Divina Comedia, by a spanish roman catholic author, published in early 20th century.

@tehwatever
 
Similarly, I don’t understand why over 90% of Bibles don’t have the name of their own God in them in most of the passages that the name belongs in. Yes, seriously; in most if not each place where it says “the LORD,” the name is supposed to be there. This occurs in most Bibles over 6,500 times, so it’s not something I can just pretend is a small thing. Names always meant something in Ancient Israel; they spoke of an individual’s character, they had function beyond just being a call sign.
 
The name omission partly started in Israel, some time from roughly 585 BC to 100 AD (during the Babylonian Exile.) Jews were afraid of pronouncing the name incorrectly, so they opted to just place “the LORD” beneath the name as a footnote; they would say that, instead of risking pronouncing the name wrong (and in their mind, breaking the 3rd commandment. ) The Jews didn’t get rid of the name in those texts, though; it was present, but not pronounced. But now, instead of most Christian Bibles copying that practice, the book just says “the LORD” with no mention of the name. This practice goes back to the 1500s, and I’m not sure of the exact reasons behind it. I saw only one Bible Translation that has the name in it; the “World English Bible.” There’s also Jeff Benner’s “Mechanical Translation,” though it’s only the first so many books + some of the Psalms.
 
I haven’t yet mentioned what the name is. In Judaism, there are people (I’m not necessarily saying everyone) who believe the name should never be destroyed if it’s written, so they take measures against that. They don’t say “God,” they say “G-d,” not that the word “God” is the name. Doesn’t that make the name obscure, or is that just the Modern Christian side of things which I’m thinking of? With all that said, here’s the name, read Right to Left. I linked images of Ancient Hebrew (Top) and Modern Hebrew (Bottom.)
 

 

 
The pictograph letters in ancient form are: Arm and Hand (Yud,) Man with Arms Wide Open* (Hey,) Tent Peg (Waw or Vav,) Man with Arms Wide Open (Hey.) English equivalent: YHWH, or YHVH.
 

@Barry Tone  
Wow. That is some juicy info right there. I didnt know about the idea that the Jews sort of rename “God” for fear of saying his name wrong, and thus breaking the commandment of not taking His name in vain. The YHWH name sounding like breathing also is also something I only heard today. Interesting stuff! Thanks bro!
 
Got me researching how many times does the word Allah appear in the Quran and if the word actually is the unique Name of islamic monotheist God or was already a pre-islamic word used by the people of 7th century arabia to refer to an abstract idea of The God.

This may sound crazy….but I want to be a Buddhist.

@Flutter_Lover  
Why would that be crazy?

@tehwatever  

 
I honestly didn’t even notice since it was already a weekend.

@Flutter_Lover  
Go ask Ciaran for a primer, I think he be the most knowledgable on Buddhism.
 
IMO Buddhism is a good choice in 2021.
 
It has a good PR, it’s inclusive, it’s friendly, it’s decidedly non-violent, it loves philosophy, loves art, it promotes science and the pursuit of truth AND, it’s very compatible with secular modern and postmodern attitude.
 
Also: Anime and Pop Culture in general seem to LOVE making references to Buddhism. You can’t go wrong being a Buddhist in 2021.
 
If there is a religion tier in 2021, in terms of whether or not it’d make your life happier, I’d put Buddhism in the very top, while my religion is at very bottom garbage tier.
 
At least, that’s my opinyon.

@tehwatever
 
You’re welcome. About the name sounding like breath; I found that at The Calling / YHWH.com. The site also had an earlier version with some pages that didn’t get re-posted to the new version: Old Version of the Site. I found the site after a web search; I thought that a verse in Genesis 11, specifically Genesis 11:6-7, was strange; God says “Let us go down…” in it. I then web searched “God is not God’s name” and I found an article titled God is not God’s Name at YHWH.com. The page linked is to the old site.
 
I later became curious of Ancient Hebrew, and I did another web search, when I found Jeff Benner’s Ancient Hebrew Research Center (AHRC.) I don’t want to take quite everything he posts seriously, without researching it, though. Else, I have to say “it may be this way, or that way.”
 
I have to wonder just how far the 3rd commandment, “Taking the name of YHWH in vain” goes. Does “Taking the name in vain” (making it of no effect, if I understand properly) include making the name obscure? Not that the Jews seem to do that; they do have the name in their texts and synagogues, but they don’t try to say it, and they don’t want it to be destroyed. This might be beneficial in the long run, though, because there’s a possibility that the “Dead Sea Scrolls” only exist now because they were in a burial place for old scrolls. Documentaries don’t often seem to say that, (they think the scrolls were buried in a hurry due to attacking invaders,) but it’s still a possibliity.
 
If the name is obscure in the minds of people, I’d think that can be more sinful than the name being obliterated on a piece of paper. However, that’s more a Modern Christian problem than a Jewish one, since the Jews do see the name and know it in their carefully preserved texts (though they don’t pronounce it.) But for Christianity, I can’t imagine that the name being obscured over 6,500 times in the majority of millions of Bibles helps matters for people. I only found the name because of what I already explained earlier, due to thinking of Genesis 11:6-7.
 
There’s still more that I’d like to say in detail, but I’ll stop there for the time being. The next reply should be more about God being more than one person, while being one person; more than one individual, but all united. It’ll also talk about the “Angels,” which is a Greek word for “Messenger.” Not “Winged Angel of God,” but just “Messenger.”

@Dex Stewart  
Well, for one, I’m in America.

@Flutter_Lover  
Amrikiyyans LOVE Buddhism!

@Flutter_Lover  
I met a Buddhist monk at the bookstore.

I’d rather believe in myself than some dogmatic fictional character.

@Flutter_Lover  
Good on you, mate! Every successful endeavor does start from a firm belief in one’s own ability to see it through, after all.

@Flutter_Lover  
It’s fine to believe in yourself. Just don’t undermine other people’s beliefs. That’s is what, in my culture, called “a dick move”.

I don’t know what my religion is.