Religous views

[Whispers]

There needs to be more options or at least an "other".??Some people are not sure, some are polytheistic (more than one deity).??I, myself, am Buddhist.

In Buddhism there are six realms of existence; three lower and three higher.??The three lower realms of existence, in order from lowest to highest, are the hell beings (those who are in hell), hungry ghosts (spirits, ghosts, etc.), and animals.??The three higher realms, from lowest to highest, are humans, demi-gods (angels, demons, "lesser" gods, etc.), and gods.??I should note that although the god realms are the highest form of existence they are not ones aim in Buddhism.

The cyclic existence in which we are born, we age, and we die only to be reborn is called samsara.??Samsara is replete with suffering.??Three types of suffering are seen as tying us to samsara - ignorance, anger, and desire.??Our ignorance of what actually is causes us to desire things which are, in their true nature, undesirable.??When we do not obtain these things or they do not fulfill our needs we become angry.??Anger causes us to engage in acts which have negative karma.??Karma (negative, positive, and neutral) ripens according to the manner in which is was obtained--that is to say that if you shoot someone then somewhere along the line (this life, the next, or eons from now) you yourself will suffer a similar fate.

We have lived in samsara since beginningless time and it has obviously brought us to naught.??Henceforth it can be seen that one thing and one thing only should be sought - freedom from samsara.

All beings from all realms in samsara are subject to comparable fates.??Just as the chicken in your fryer may now be a deity; so, too, can a deity die and be reborn in one of the 16 hell realms (eight hot and eight cold).??Knowing this we see gods as being just as transitory as are we--albeit with much longer lifespans (up to 3,000 years)--we do not put our faith in them.??One might as well pray to the chicken in his paper bucket.??

In that the realms of the gods and demi-gods (in some lineages these two are one in the same giving us five realms of existence) are another form of existence the population is about as comparable to the other respective realms.??

So, you see I don't have a god; however, I do not believe that there is no such thing as a god.

It is in my belief that most religions are true, actually.??Although I do not feel that what the deities promise can be validated I do believe that the gods and goddesses exist/ed.??I feel that Christianity is seeing such an unfortunate decline because the Christian god is over two thousand years old.??We believe that gods have an average lifespan of around three thousand years so Yahweh (The Judeo-Christian God) may be dying or dead which is quite sad.??Of all the past theistic faiths Christianity has been the kindest and gentlest.??Now it stands before us broken, misread, profited, and shunned.??Were we extant a thousand years ago we would be in the heyday of miracles--when God was young.??Now one can stand in the most horrific thunderstorm and take His name in vain without consequence.??We do believe gods have godly powers although they do not have the power to intervene after our death - to enter the bardo.??Only the dead and those free of samsara's illusions may pass freely from state to state--that is, to say, the Buddhas.
This is not a Buddhist belief, don't misread me.??Nowhere in the Sutras (Buddhist teachings--we don't have a single bible but thousands of years of teachings and commentaries on previous teachings) does it say that the Christian god exists and is close to death.??This is merely my own observation.??

[EDIT]

If there was ever a better time for my emote, it is now.??Feel free to copy its link and use it.??=p