The Most Interesting Philosophy of Vasily Rozanov

[کوڈانشی]

Christ…said that you shouldn't go to a place to pray in front of people, but just be private and in any place you like, it doesn't matter where as long as its not done in a showy public way.

yes, he fought against hypocrisy shown by rabbinical leaders who considered themselves superior to common people — and they asserted their superiority by praying in public, performing extra prayers, and making a big show about how piously they acted

doing so =

 

[speed]

yes the ideas are important
but if your initial thread-starting post mentions a specific author (as opposed to the homosexuality pedophilia sex ed and satanism threads) then you should post a link to some work written by the aurthor mentioned instead of just assuming that every one is going to be familiar with the author enough to know that your not severely misquoting him and putting your own totally bogus spin on his work

when a forum is operating on the idea that everyone on the forum has some kind of "common knowledge" this can become very elitist to the point that this forum could (with bad moderators) quickly de-generate into being as supremisist and elitist as the "billy milano" forum

I explained Rozanov's general philosophy in the first post as I assumed no one else had heard of him; hence, in general I agree with you, but in the case of this thread, I think you are wrong in your complaint.

 

[Dushan S]

Well put, but can I ask you do you really think God is good? Or do you think you could be better yourself? (I'm assuming you believe in God). I'm just interested because I think God has a lot of serious failings and just even the fact of insisting people believe in Him and worship Him is one of them.

When you say "God has a lot of serious failings" what this actually means is "Christian concept about God and interpretation of Christ talking about his personal experience of god have a lot of serious failings".
I mean, this is only possible thing that you could say because, concept of god in different religions can be radically different. For instance in Thaoism, god is Tao, that could be described as wholeness of existence that is at the same time one with the existence but has his own identity too. Tao is above good and evil, good and evil are dualistic concept that exist only in mind of the subject that is separated from tao by his own lack of understanding, and his Ego. So in a way there is no good and evil, but only constant change, flow. If someone is connected with the flow, and lives according to it, he is doing what is right. If someone goes against the flow, he is doing wrong and a lot of times his experineces are unwanted ones.
It is really complicated subject. I just want to point out how much more sophisticated relligiousness and spirituality can be compared to christian concept (usual Christian concept, gnostic Christianity was not that far from eastern religions) Good and evil as absolute polarities does not exist in buddhism or Thaoism. In the east, polarities are forces working together, and good or evil is relative to situation, wrong is not absolute wrong, but not working together with universe. In our usual, western sens of "good", doing for instance good things without understanding, or in a wrong time or wrong place is bad, etc.
Also, I do not live by intelectual concept of spiritual but according to my experience of spiritual. First way is usual way in west you have probably thought of when asking. Only thruth is truth I have experienced, so that means I could not describe myself as a part of any existing religion. Maybe you could call me a gnostic, but it is not religion, but more of a concept of self liberation.
As far as worshipping goes, you know that ultimate experience is to know that you and the god is one and the same? So how could I worship God in a usual sense. Or I could worship myself as a part of existence, holographic snapshot of whole existence, but then, I am not different than anyone and anything else, no more god in me than in Cow Shit, so why worshiping anything?
Finaly if god is everything, it is beyond polarities, so god is not only good and evil together, but more than that. We know darkness only because of light. Darkness is absence of light, it is in turn defined by light. So in reality there is no darkness only light, but in different form. In the same way all polarities are One on the higher level and could not exist in separation, and God is beyond good and evil.
This was a bit long answer to your question, but I wanted to give you good explanation of the matter as I see it. Hope I have succeded, at least a bit.

"thou shalt have no other deities before me"
kinda seems like "God" (misspelling of the name "Gad" that appears in Isaiah) is acknowledging of the existance of other dieties, but does not want people to worship them

Shouldn't right meaning be :Someone that was writing this words in bible, and that was powerfull enough at that time for his words to be taken as truth thinks that god is something arrogant, powerful, evil and dark in a way, that has control always on his mind. I would call that a projection, if nothing else.
Or, you could say that one of the authors knowing that there are some other religions around wants to make people scared and make them belive that his imagined deity is more powerful than other deities.
Slightly off topic:
Old testament god was taken as Demiurg, evil god by some of the Gnostics, and Jesus was actually similar to Lucipher, one that was destroyed by priests, representing evil god, god of control, power, death. According to them he died so that people could have truth (light- fire in older myths, knowledge) so they can liberate themselves from evil god - evil religion. It is so obvious that old and new testament have nothing incommon in their basic concepts of divine. So funny thing is that in a way, christian myth about lucipher that was punished from god for questioning authority is incarnated in a Christ figure, one that is punished for standing against god... From the point of view of priests. Some other myths in bible also are talking about gods punishing humans for "Hybris", - trying to have knowledge in their hands.

Again, no use for taking bible as Jesus of Nazareth or God himself have personally written this book

 

[Demiurge]

Interesting post, Dushan S.

As far as worshipping goes, you know that ultimate experience is to know that you and the god is one and the same?

This is the principal teaching of the Upanishads - Atman(the ultimate self) and Brahman(ultimate reality) are one. The question of what Brahman is could not be answered because it is ineffable. Any predicate applied to it limits it and is therefore not apt. Brahman cannot be known in a conventional way, rather it must be experienced by the transcendence of the empirical self. In the western tradition, the teachings of the Neoplatonists are somewhat similar. All things are emanations from The One. Matter occupies the lowest position of the emanations from The One to which one must return for true fulfillment. A person does this by abandoning material pursuits and looking within.