h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Christ! I've spelt Buddha wrong in all my posts
Yep I've read all about Paul and Peter and how
Christianity started. Shame that they did as Im
sure Christ would be revolving in his grave at
all the poor killed in his name...

Actually chanting is not part of
buddhism. The famous OM... chant
comes from Lamaism.(Think Tibet and
the Dali lama)
I know of the nam...chant, but don't
know where it's from.
It's OK to chant, as part of meditation.
And many buddhist sects do.
But buddha gave us NO specific chants, or
intsructions for chanting.
Remember that in India buddhas teachings
were integrated into existing religions.
Creating a new one(s). The same goes for
Japan, China, and most of the world.
So you may hear the TRUTH from one buddist,
and a different TRUTH from the next.
Not so different from other beliefs.

Sri Lanka is the only place I know of
where Hinayana is the main belief.
There is also encouregement to meditate,
and think freely. So individuals have
opinions that may not be written anywhere.
Buddha encouraged this. Other than the
basic beliefs,(8 fold path,etc.) there are
many paths to enlightenment.

To answer your 2nd question, which is related.
We, after death, judge ourselves. That is, we
review our last life, understand where we were
lacking and see what siuation we
need for our next life, the goal being to live
2 lives back to back that are perfect.
When we have become enlightened, we will
know it, and generally die and live one more life,
to help others I guess.
A "Once returner"(sakadagami) is in the 2nd stage
in the realization of Nirvana.
I'm not a monk or expert of course. This is my belief.
This is simplistic. Not enough room here for
everything. And others have written books explaining
it better than I can,

Interesting. Can you recommend some books on the subject
to read then please?

what a pity this forum has started to degenerate! Thanks to those who were informative and who had input of genuine interest. I bid you adieu.

Feh, you're just reading linerally rather than cronologically. The most recent messages are a bit further up the page.

Yes, I believe India is considered an oriental culture as it's part of the Monsoon Asia area and culturaly connected to the rest of the east. As for Bhuddism, there are gods, the man known as Bhudda was believed to be a god, he had all the major signs of divinity at birth, such as the left curl on his forehead. The Dali Lama, the Pancheon Lama, and others are considered to be reincarnations of the Gods. Different varients of Bhuddism (Mahayana [Zen], Therevada) have a different takes on the gods. Tibetan Bhuddism recognized protective gods outside of conventional Bhuddism. As for sin, they don't recognize it the same way Christians do but they have a similar concept. In Christianity, sin is breaking God's rules which separates us from him. In Bhuddism, personal vice keeps the Bhuddist from acheiving a higher state of being in this life and the next. At the root it's the same view, in both cases it keeps us from getting into the "good place."

There is a Christian aquaintance of mine that believes that the dinosaurs were on the ark. This person also believes that the earth is only 6,000 years old, and that all scientific dating techniques are flawed.

There is a Christian answer for almost everything.

--- Avatar

The dinosaurs lived on the Earth for over 140 million years. Did
God get it wrong for such a long time or perhaps he was made
up by really paranoid humans who thought they were the
centre of the universe. We humans are so ego-centric we
can't get our heads around the idea that individually we wont be
around in 100 years from now!
I heard somebody said on the radio the other day "If I die in
the future..." and the word he should have used was WHEN...very sad
isnt it! Death is part of life ironically and we all have to face
up to the truth that religion is man-made and not god made.
Please Christians the Bible is not a direct message from God
but a book written by human minds!

I've come across that very phenomenon... it makes arguing with Christians far more difficult via a slow medium (eg e-mail), as they have a lot longer to distort the truth until they fit their beliefs... I would recommend arguing religion either in person or via chat - ICQ chat is perfect, in fact; they can't 'win' the argument just by raising their voice, for one thing.

Actually, I've given up arguing religion... it gets pretty tiresome after a while. Suffice to say that the few months when I was actively participating in such philosophical discussions have contributed to my describing myself a 'devout atheist'.

Many believe Buddha was an Avatar of the Hindu god Visnu.

Absolutely! Its also ironic that athiests and agnogostic people
are far more open minded that christians who have a self
righteous ego to overcome "We're right!" they say but they havent
even come to terms with the fact that there are alot more religions that could be
nearer the mark than their own...I admire non believers because it
takes more guts and courage to believe in nothing after
death than some sort of heaven. To be honest would you want to
share heaven with Christians...I'd rather be dead with the possibilty
of reincarnation. New life new brain new character start again from scratch!

Hmmmn... I'm afraid you people are all wrong. A long time ago all major religions were created by secret societies in an attempt to "devide and conquer" the human race. And I must say they have done a brillian job of it, this is because they are very clever people and knew how to manipulate people's emotions and insecurities. After all, aren't all you people know doing exactly what they want you to do?

here are a few things you may not have known about the bible:

-Jesus was not born in a stable. This myth is derived from the fact that the bible states that Jesus was born in a Manger(used for feeding barn animals) Therefore said all the theologists:he was born in a stable. They took the Manger to the child! NOT the child to the manger.(in fact Jesus never existed but I'm merely showing the extent of the lie)

-until about 600 AC the bible contained many refrences to reincarnation, They were all taken out by the Roman emperors wife who personally didn't believe in it. She had the pope assasinated and installed a new pope in his place.

-Although there are many transcripts in and around the area where Jesus was supposed to have lived at the time that he lived, none of these mention jesus in anyway. Now if you are familiar with the bible then you would know that jesus' crucifiction was a rather major event. No mention of it anywhere? rather suspicious.

-King James(the guy who is responsible for the worlds most popular translation of the bible) was a known peadophile and occultist who regularly preformed human sacrifice.

And to all those haughty evolutionaries who claim that dinosaurs are proof that the bible is false. All you are doing is letting your mind trap itself in another way. Darwins father wrote a book almost identical to Darwin's own "theory". It was not widely accepted so they merely waited a generation and tried again. What did Darwin do on the Galapugous islands? Probably getting an even tan is all. If you scratch the surface of popular history you will discover to what a shocking degree the statement "the winners write the history books" is true.

Very cynical of you but you make the mistake
that Christians make. You believe you're right
about everything you say when there is so
much grey making up the black and white
of religious truth and history. I could never be so
conceited or arrogant to believe everything
I said was "the correct" version of events...

Yes. We all make assumptions about the supposed core "facts" that we base our lifes beliefs upon. And this is true whether we are atheists, Christians, neo pagans,buddhists, scientists. There are people whithin all these sects who will admit that uncertainty is unavoidable. As soon as you make that admission, how can you condemn another for what they believe.
Proof of uncertainty.1) Quantum and realtivistic physics cannot both be literally true. Therefore physics is broken. The idea that one day science will explain all is an act of faith.
2)Judas dies in the New Testament. But he dies in two ways. In one part he hangs himself, in another he is disembowelled. These two stories (surely?) cannot both be literally true.
Lets face it. We're all wrong.
The fool thinks he know for certain what is right.
The egotist hopes he's less wrong than the next person.
The sensible person hopes the next person can tell him something he didn't already know.

"'There are nine and sixty ways,
to sing the tribal lays'
and every single one of them is right' "
Rudyard Kipling

"I was uncertain at first,
but now I'm not so sure."
Zippy the Pinhead