[Dean's World] Dean: Syncretism

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Posted by Dean:
Syncretism
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1176073546.shtml


   [1]Judaism: Holds that the One God gave a special message to the
   Jewish people to carry to the rest of the world. Does not hold that
   most people should become Jews or live by Jewish laws, but does hold
   that everybody should abide by certain guidelines that God has
   established for all humanity. The Jews have a special commission to
   give that message to everybody else, according to them.

   [2]Christianity: Holds that the Jews are fundamentally correct, but
   that the Jews missed the big news of the coming of the Messiah. Holds
   that the Jewish religion is correct on many points but has missed The
   Good News. The world's #1 religion, with a bullet.

   [3]Islam: The world's #2 religion. Holds that Christianity and Judaism
   are fundamentally correct but have erred on some major points due to
   corruption by men. Their book, the Koran, clarifies and corrects the
   mistakes of earlier generations, according to them.

   [4]Hinduism: the world's #3 religion, holds that the monotheists are
   wrong but holds that the monotheist religions are nevertheless correct
   on many points. Basically, there are lots of Gods, and the Jews and
   the Christians and the Muslims are just worshiping one of many Gods,
   probably the same one. Many even name Jesus and Muhammed as Gods.

   [5]Sikhism: Holds that Hinduism and Islam are both equally valid, but
   that Sikhism itself is the ultimate expression of both. (How they do
   that I'm not quite clear, but they do.)

   [6]Bahá'Ã: Holds that Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Zoroastrianism,
   and others are all equally valid, but that Bahai is the true
   expression of all of them.

   [7]Zoroastrianism: Holds that there is one God. Possibly older than
   Judaism, depending on which source you look to, but in any case exists
   outside of the Abrahamic tradition. Accepts the possibility that other
   religious faiths may be correct on some points so long as they are
   monotheistic.

   [8]Druze: Consider themselves to be both Christian and Muslim and also
   think both mainstream Islam and mainstream Christianity are incorrect
   on some important points.

   In short, [9]Syncretism is not a new, modernist idea. It's been going
   on for a long, looooong time. All ancient religions do not hold
   themselves to be the only holders of the truth. Some do.

References

   1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism
   2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity
   3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam
   4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism
   5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhism
   6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahai
   7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrian
   8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze
   9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncreticism