Well, actually, I was rather pished when I posted that I was pished to begin with.
Except today I've got to run out and do some shopping and some legal-document-copying, so I can't appear to be a derelict.
***time passes, apparently I didn't post this before I left. Now I'm moderatedly...let's go with relaxed***
As I said, it's rather difficult to really sum up without sounding trite. I've always been fascinated with history, even when I was a little kid, and a god with a jackal-head or a god that rides in a chariot with fire-horses is pretty cool to a kid. My family always encouraged reading, so I always had books on different things, and my parents had some very cool National Geographic books (as well as an
archive going back to 1962 when my mum first started subscribing).
Now, I was raised as an Anglican; we went to Sunday School for a number of years, went to church fairly frequently though my mum isn't much of a church-goer now (mostly holidays). However, I was already about seven when we moved and actually started doing that, and since I'd already read (or been read to) about several different religions, I didn't really think that one way was the "right" way. As I grew older, I researched more into those particular topics that would help give me a deeper understanding: history (with a focus on the history of peoples), comparative religion, and comparative civilizations.
So, while that is rather irrelevant, it's how the whole thing began.
I found that if one pares down most major religions, there are quite a few striking similarities. This is most obvious between Judiasm, Islam, and Christianity, as those religions developed in the same region at the same time. However, similarities exist between religions throughout place and time, even in their stories.
Unfortunately, the best (and closest) description I've used before is paraphrased from a fantasy authour, but I suppose that's why he gets the mega-buck contracts.
Imagine a many-facted diamond to represent the divine. Imagine that diamond is so large that everyone can only see one facet, and no one really knows it's a diamond because it's so large, but they know it's something special. What one person sees is different from what another person sees, but if several people are looking at the same general area, they would have a similiar image of the diamond. Someone looking at the bottom would have a much different view than someone looking at the side or the top.
So that's the best way I have of explaining it.
Everyone's trying to comprehend the divine, but no one has the entire view, so we cope with those unknowns differently.
I'm not sure if you wanted specific examples, like what happens when we die?
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