Did Abraham kill Isaac and other tales of infanticide in religion

A religion can't deny and not deny a thing at the same time. And Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself.

So a holy book can't have contradictions?




Ah... so you were one of the eye witnesses (i.e. one of the guards). Good to know.

It would be helpful to relate to the traditions of the Jews and the Muslims in relation to their writings. The tradition here is to analyze and reanalyze those writings.
Discrepancies and contradictions are not necessarily an invalidation of their faiths. Discrepancies draw attention to and encourage discussion about relevant topics. For example back at the Adam and Eve story; if you went out to the corner grocery and told your kids not to look in the closet because you didn't want them to find their Christmas presents that you had labeled "from Santa." you would be an idiot. Because that's the first place they are going to look.

God is not an idiot. So when he told Adam and Eve not to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge what did he already know they were going to do?
Eat the fruit! Further, he was leading them to do so and at the same time leading them to question Him.

The concept of reincarnation as presented by eastern religions does not presume infinite reincarnation, and certainly does not presume reincarnation both infinitely back in time as well as infinitely into the future.

The idea is that a sentient being comes to life. That sentient being has then entered into the cycle of birth-life-death-birth-life-death....

But not infinitely.

The cycle continues until the sentient being finally becomes enlightened, at which point the cycle for that sentient being is broken >>> reincarnation for that sentient being ends.

So...

> There is a beginning of sorts: a sentient being is "born".

> There is the cycle saṃsāra (described as suffering... or the "cycle of aimless drifting, wandering or mundane existence" )

> Then there is, ultimately and eventually, enlightenment and the end of the cycle.

Thus... "we" do not need sentient beings to come from some other place (planet, solar system, galaxy, universe, dimension). This doesn't mean the sentient beings could not have come from somewhere else. It is just atet that issue is irrelevant and ultimately neither adds nor subtracts from the system.

Earth has had more than enough sentient beings to account for all the humans on planet earth. Even if one wants to limit time to the short scale that some Christians choose to believe, that short time (6000+ years) has seen the living-dying-birth-living-dying...etc of more than enough sentient beings to account for all the humans presently on planet earth.

And if one takes longer time line, i.e. the millions of years that life has actually been on earth... again there have been more than enough sentient beings to account for the present number of humans (and other sentient beings) presently on earth.

etc.

The snake talks Eve into trying it and then she gets Adam to try it. So who's at fault here? Everyone in the story.

Conclusion, God wants you to think for yourself. But, don't lie and that's why Adam and Eve will destroy the Garden of Eden by overpopulating it with their progeny.

God's fault.

He is all powerful, all knowing, etc...

He knew exactly what was gong to happen from the beginning.

The snake was created with a purpose... Eve was created with a purpose... Adam was created with a purpose... everyone in the story did exactly what they were created to do.

Any and all fault is with the creator.

The end.

Chaski that's true, but Hinduism is not the only Eastern religion that teaches evolution. Hinduism has introduced dogma into their system. Buddhism and Jainism are philosophical revolutions against Hinduism and their views on reincarnation.
One prominent point of contention is that reincarnation has to do with Karma. The idea is if you were and evil person in your past life you will be born poor or an untouchable in their society. The reality is the untouchables are a different race. They are darker skinned. They are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the Indus Valley who were conquered by the Aryans who have lighter skin. The untouchables are not in a caste, they may not own land, they may not vote and have virtually no rights. They are undocumented. People who abuse them are rarely if ever punished. They do the dirty work of their society and many of them have no work and no homes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8iNlbNcAe0

Explain the difference as you see it.


With each there is ultimately a way out of the cycle... pick whatever word you like, but ultimately it is "enlightenment" that breaks the cycle in each of these religions.



You might be born as an untouchable... or you might be born as some lesser creature... or perhaps a hell being.

Even Mahatma Ghandi was opposed to this systemic repression. He was himself from the caste of basket weavers but was kicked out for attending university in Europe. He then became a Jain. Hindus hate it when I say that and will tell you this is incorrect. What a position he was in and how he must have felt. Trying to liberate his people from a puppet government propped up by a colonial power. The colonial power divided their realm into India and Pakistan, granted them independence and let them become members of the Commonwealth at the end of World War II.

The Buddha basically came to the conclusion that there is no escape from the cycle of birth and rebirth and just being yourself is ok. He also applied a more nonsensical methodology. The thing to understand is that you aren't reborn poor because you were evil. It's science that our scientists will deny and step around till the bitter end. Basically this is our existence and no one escapes dead.
There is no supreme righteous being or force determining who you reincarnate as.

Incorrect.

The 4th truth of the 4 noble truths is that this reincarnation can be stopped through nirvana (aka enlightenment).

All of the eastern religions essentially have path out of the cycle of rebirth and suffering.

Zen is sort of an exception... but that is its own topic.

Jainism is a belief in a non violent and puritanical lifestyle in order that ( these are my words here ) they cannot be blamed for anything evil, and therefore cannot be punished. To do this they are to remain detached from all worldly affairs. They are to remain chaste. They believe that after many reincarnations they will simply overcome the evil in the world.

The idea of a supreme righteous being deciding who and where one is reincarnated as and the situations one will encounter in their next lifetime must be abandoned. It is not true; I submit the opposite is true.