Today we'll consider Polytheism (The belief there are many Gods, all are true).
First we'll identify the two main catagories of polythieism.
1) The religions of the ancient Greeks and Romans etc. They had a God for just about everything. God's of war, gods of death, gods of fertility, etc. a few famous ones being Zeus, Venus, Hades etc. This mythical system lacks any real credibility today and no-one really takes them seriously so I will skip over them. They are great stories, but that is it. But if you want me to post on them just let me know.
2) The eastern forms which are still very much alive today in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taosim, Confuscionism to name a few. Since many people still believe in these forms of religion, I will deal with them.
The two key central and connected doctrines of Polytheism ar Karma and Reincarnation.
Karma is the principle law of the universe whereby each person will reap what they sow. The crucial distinctive - and utter failure of this teaching is that the reaping and sowing is worked out in the process of Reincarnation.
Reincarnation is the teaching that we have all lived numerous previous lives and when we die we will be born again into different circumstances. Some say we may previously have been a dog, cow or ant and in the next life we could be another species, others say reincarnation occurs only within species, so people will always come back as people, but just in different circumstance.
The circumstance you come back into depend on Karma. So Karma - this sowing and reaping means that in this life you reap what you sowed in your last life. This means that people who are rich and beautiful have lived a series of good lives, each life being better than the last as a reward for the last. The person in poor and deprived circumstances of suffering must have lived a series of bad previous lives.
On the face of it this sounds quite reasonably - but scratch beneath the surface and out come the maggots. This religious belief system is morally bankrupt.
If you go to India where people really believe this stuff (unlike many here who just think it's hip), you will find children living on rubbish tips trying to find food, you will see old men or women laying in the streets, crippled and suffering. No-one helps them. Why? Because of Karma! People think they are working out their Karma, they are reaping in this life what they sowed in the last one. They think that if they help these poor people they stop Karma which means the victims will have to work it out again in the next life. So the kindest thing to do is leave them.
Slum-dog Millionaire
This was a great movie telling the story of the plight of two brothers and a little girl. In the story is another little boy who can sing. His captors burn his eyes out with acid so that people will pity him more as he sits begging and singing. Now if that little boy believes Karma, he thinks he is suffering because of being bad in a previous life! Passers by who believe Karma will do nothing to help him because, even if they have compassion, they think he deserves it because of what he must have done in a previous life, they think he is working out his karma so the most helpful thing you can do is leave him.
This is clap-trap! Total rubbish and it is an evil deception. Imagine a little 5 year old boy, happily and quietly playing, when his parent sneaks up behind him and ... BANG! Whacks him round the head really hard and says to the little boy "that'll teach you a lesson". The boy, of he believes Karma will say, "I must deserve it or OT wouldn't have happened to me, I must have been really bad in my last life". But worse, the parent who did it will say "He must have deserved that or I wouldn't have done it to him, he must have been bad in his last life".
The problem is, the poor child doesn't know what he's done wrong so how can he learn? How can he know he is not repeating the same mistakes? Karma is evil because it is abusive and teaches nothing at all except you deserve whatever you get.
But it is self-defeating too. You are meant to be good in this life in order to have a better next life. So, going back to our poor blind boy, you would think it is good to help him. But with karma is is evil to help him because you. Know you are not really helping him, you are making Hos next life worse because you stopped karma. So if you want to be really good, you leave him to suffer, you leave him to be exploited no matter how bad. In fact the more cruel his circumstances,mthe more terrible his suffering, the more important it is to leave him in His suffering so that he can get It out of the way in this life for a better next life.
Reincarnation and Karma, the main doctrines of Polytheism go together and they are wretched, evil, wicked and cruel. But that doesn't mean Polytheism is not true. So, is it true?
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