Opinion of this meme

[they don't love you like i love you]

[John Dule]

Freedom meme. Why, I'm proud to say I respect Mormonism just as much as I respect the other Abrahamic religions.

[satsuma]

It's only good for supporting respect, I guess. The meme is abusing definitions.

"Heretical" - Protestantism (generally speaking) and Catholicism are heretical relative to one another, because while having some irreconcilable inconsistencies, they both claim the mantle of the same religion (Christianity). Mormons also claim to be a Christian faith but have mutual inconsistencies with other Christian traditions, leading them to evangelize to each other's members. Mormonism (if you're a different kind of Christian) is heresy.

"Cult" - a loaded term. It sometimes characterizes a situation where a teacher is the source of new doctrine, abuses his power over followers (sex, power, isolation from society, etc.). This characterizes the Smith & Young era, but as Mormonism congealed more around their teachings as the revealed doctrine of a faith that they would continue to practice while re-assimilating into American society, it became less cultish.

"Abrahamic" - a relevant category in terms of source material, but it's not a brotherhood. "God is more OK with you being one of the other Abrahamic faiths than being irreligious, pagan, an Eastern religion, etc." would seem to be a strange line to draw. Why not go full Universalist at that point?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Satsuma makes a good point about "Abrahamic". It is a term with anthropological value and one that I see bandied about in secular society, but when I became religious one of the things that struck me was how little value classical Christian thought assigns to someone being Jewish or Muslim, and so forth. If you were to ask me whether Christianity is more similar to Islam or Buddhism, I would answer the question based on the theology, cosmology, and phronema of these systems. That Christianity and Islam both credit Abraham as a major forebear is essentially irrelevant in the calculus.

[THG]

I have never been too keen on Mormonism, in-spite of my mother (and some of my extended family) trying to convince me otherwise.

[Kingpoleon]

   Satsuma makes a good point about "Abrahamic". It is a term with anthropological value and one that I see bandied about in secular society, but when I became religious one of the things that struck me was how little value classical Christian thought assigns to someone being Jewish or Muslim, and so forth. If you were to ask me whether Christianity is more similar to Islam or Buddhism, I would answer the question based on the theology, cosmology, and phronema of these systems. That Christianity and Islam both credit Abraham as a major forebear is essentially irrelevant in the calculus.

The Abrahamic religions not only share a common regard for the Tanakh, they also largely developed in a millennium and a half of dialogue between Aristotelianism and Platonism. They thus have not only a “genetic” commonality, but also Lamarckian adapted features.

[Associate Justice PiT]

   Satsuma makes a good point about "Abrahamic". It is a term with anthropological value and one that I see bandied about in secular society, but when I became religious one of the things that struck me was how little value classical Christian thought assigns to someone being Jewish or Muslim, and so forth. If you were to ask me whether Christianity is more similar to Islam or Buddhism, I would answer the question based on the theology, cosmology, and phronema of these systems. That Christianity and Islam both credit Abraham as a major forebear is essentially irrelevant in the calculus.

The Abrahamic religions not only share a common regard for the Tanakh, they also largely developed in a millennium and a half of dialogue between Aristotelianism and Platonism. They thus have not only a “genetic” commonality, but also Lamarckian adapted features.

     "Common regard for the Tanakh" is an interesting way to put it when Muslims frequently argue that the Tanakh has been corrupted and the Quran is the only trustworthy holy book available today. I certainly don't mean to imply that they are unrelated or entirely different, and my example was a rather weak one because I would agree that Islam is more similar to Christianity than Buddhism is. My point was rather that there is little concept of inter-religious brotherhood among adherents of the Abrahamic religions, and I did not fully realize this while I was on the outside of that.

[Figueira]

Comparing a religion with a central authority with religions that don't is a bad comparison. When people say "Mormonism is a cult" they're criticizing the Mormon Church, not saying that every individual Mormon is somehow bad or brainwashed.

As a non-Christian though, obvious HM.

Edit: in retrospect this makes it seem like I'm calling Christian memes inherently bad. I'm just saying that anything that makes Christianity look inherently better than other religions, especially if it's on top of a hierarchy of religions, I'm not going to agree with.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The core tenets of the traditional Abrahamic religions that distinguish them from other religions are that:

1. There is a singular omnibenevolent, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent deity who created the universe.
2. Said deity rules said universe and established ethical standards that humans should follow.
3. Following that deity's standards is beneficial to humans and failing to do so is baleful.

Abraham is a common part of the cultural history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but other than as an example of tenet #3, he's not particularly important.

Trinitarian Christianity puts a strain on the "singular" part of tenet #1, and it's my understanding that Mormon theology does it even more. Tho, I'm not an expert on Mormon theology as Mormonism with its flat out errors concerning pre-Columbian America never appealed to me. The Book of Mormon is clearly a fraud authored by Joseph Smith.

[they don't love you like i love you]

For the record it appears the creator of it is an ex-Mormon who converted to Episcopalism but is still fairly defensive against anti-Mormon talk.

[Хahar 🤔]

     Satsuma makes a good point about "Abrahamic". It is a term with anthropological value and one that I see bandied about in secular society, but when I became religious one of the things that struck me was how little value classical Christian thought assigns to someone being Jewish or Muslim, and so forth. If you were to ask me whether Christianity is more similar to Islam or Buddhism, I would answer the question based on the theology, cosmology, and phronema of these systems. That Christianity and Islam both credit Abraham as a major forebear is essentially irrelevant in the calculus.

I hadn't really thought about this before. The "Abrahamic" category makes obvious sense from an outside perspective, and it makes perfect sense from an Islamic perspective, being basically an Islamic concept. It does not clearly make a lot of sense from a Christian perspective. I think it does make some sense from a Jewish perspective, considering the concept of the Abrahamic covenant, but then again Christians by and large do not practice circumcision so maybe the only Abrahamic religions are Judaism and Islam.

[Kingpoleon]

I am somewhat suspicious of the liberal “Christianity” from which sentiments like this often spring, in part due to its overreaction to the exclusivist Christianity which began its own errors with Augustine. To many progressive Christians, ecumenism represents an attempt to syncretize perfectly fascinating systems like Platonism or ancient Egyptian religion with Christianity to the destruction of the church.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

I am somewhat suspicious of the liberal “Christianity” from which sentiments like this often spring, in part due to its overreaction to the exclusivist Christianity which began its own errors with Augustine. To many progressive Christians, ecumenism represents an attempt to syncretize perfectly fascinating systems like Platonism or ancient Egyptian religion with Christianity to the destruction of the church.

The exclusivist Augustine would hate progressives trying to syncretise Christianity with Platonism.

[Donerail]

I love to go to my mainline church in suburban America and worship Sobek, the great crocodile-God of ancient Egyptian legend. We often offer up mummified crocodile eggs to Him the Pointed of Teeth. Plus the donuts after the service are pretty good.

[Kingpoleon]

The exclusivist Augustine would hate progressives trying to syncretise Christianity with Platonism.

While I am glad someone grasped half the jest, it is fairly important to recognize that Augustine is in some sense responsible for treating Christianity as a system of closed propositions actively hostile to the majority’s tradition of universal reconciliation.

*(The other half is a jest about Richard Carrier.)

I love to go to my mainline church in suburban America and worship Sobek, the great crocodile-God of ancient Egyptian legend. We often offer up mummified crocodile eggs to Him the Pointed of Teeth. Plus the donuts after the service are pretty good.

I was speaking of two phenomena; the first, a bizarre sympathy to New Age religions as well as Buddhism, and the second, a denial of Christian doctrine about the Virgin Birth, the deity of Christ, the reality of hell, the resurrection, etc.

[PSOL]

The exclusivist Augustine would hate progressives trying to syncretise Christianity with Platonism.

While I am glad someone grasped half the jest, it is fairly important to recognize that Augustine is in some sense responsible for treating Christianity as a system of closed propositions actively hostile to the majority’s tradition of universal reconciliation.

*(The other half is a jest about Richard Carrier.)

I love to go to my mainline church in suburban America and worship Sobek, the great crocodile-God of ancient Egyptian legend. We often offer up mummified crocodile eggs to Him the Pointed of Teeth. Plus the donuts after the service are pretty good.

I was speaking of two phenomena; the first, a bizarre sympathy to New Age religions as well as Buddhism, and the second, a denial of Christian doctrine about the Virgin Birth, the deity of Christ, the reality of hell, the resurrection, etc.

What do New Age-y/Esoteric Christians have in common with the Ancient Egyptian religion?

[Kingpoleon]

What do New Age-y/Esoteric Christians have in common with the Ancient Egyptian religion?

Very little. That was a reference to some rather horrible NT “scholarship” I’ve begun to read by Carrier and others.

[PSOL]

What do New Age-y/Esoteric Christians have in common with the Ancient Egyptian religion?

Very little. That was a reference to some rather horrible NT “scholarship” I’ve begun to read by Carrier and others.

Has this anything to do with Atenist priests moving to Palestine?

[Mopsus]

     Satsuma makes a good point about "Abrahamic". It is a term with anthropological value and one that I see bandied about in secular society, but when I became religious one of the things that struck me was how little value classical Christian thought assigns to someone being Jewish or Muslim, and so forth. If you were to ask me whether Christianity is more similar to Islam or Buddhism, I would answer the question based on the theology, cosmology, and phronema of these systems. That Christianity and Islam both credit Abraham as a major forebear is essentially irrelevant in the calculus.

I hadn't really thought about this before. The "Abrahamic" category makes obvious sense from an outside perspective, and it makes perfect sense from an Islamic perspective, being basically an Islamic concept. It does not clearly make a lot of sense from a Christian perspective. I think it does make some sense from a Jewish perspective, considering the concept of the Abrahamic covenant, but then again Christians by and large do not practice circumcision so maybe the only Abrahamic religions are Judaism and Islam.

Abraham was too important in the writing of Paul for Christianity to not be considered an Abrahamic religion. What’s more, the history of Christianity itself follows a biblical model in that it’s an example of the younger son (Christians) usurping the elder (Jews). Though I know Muslims have a different view of the Isaac and Ishmael story than Christians and Jews do.

[Utah Neolib]

I’m not a Mormon, but Mormonism is clearly Abrahamic and a Christian religion. Probably some treat it as a cult, but that’s how every religion is

[Kamala's side hoe]

    Satsuma makes a good point about "Abrahamic". It is a term with anthropological value and one that I see bandied about in secular society, but when I became religious one of the things that struck me was how little value classical Christian thought assigns to someone being Jewish or Muslim, and so forth. If you were to ask me whether Christianity is more similar to Islam or Buddhism, I would answer the question based on the theology, cosmology, and phronema of these systems. That Christianity and Islam both credit Abraham as a major forebear is essentially irrelevant in the calculus.

I hadn't really thought about this before. The "Abrahamic" category makes obvious sense from an outside perspective, and it makes perfect sense from an Islamic perspective, being basically an Islamic concept. It does not clearly make a lot of sense from a Christian perspective. I think it does make some sense from a Jewish perspective, considering the concept of the Abrahamic covenant, but then again Christians by and large do not practice circumcision so maybe the only Abrahamic religions are Judaism and Islam.

I suspect the "Abrahamic" category makes different amounts of sense to different denominations. But I'm biased in favor of Abrahamic both as a nonbeliever and as a "cultural leftist"

It's worth noting that the East/Southeast Asian countries that are majority/plurality Christian have high male circumcision rates. Source

[Kingpoleon]

Has this anything to do with Atenist priests moving to Palestine?

He has plenty of videos online, but in some of his earlier work he suggests that Horus was born of a virgin who was visited by an angel, had twelve disciples, sent out seventy-two disciples, was crucified, and rose to life three days later, and that these stories predated Christ by a thousand years. In reality, they date some thousand and eight hundred years after Christ, to a bizarre group of historians.

[PSOL]

Has this anything to do with Atenist priests moving to Palestine?

He has plenty of videos online, but in some of his earlier work he suggests that Horus was born of a virgin who was visited by an angel, had twelve disciples, sent out seventy-two disciples, was crucified, and rose to life three days later, and that these stories predated Christ by a thousand years. In reality, they date some thousand and eight hundred years after Christ, to a bizarre group of historians.

Oh that, well I always thought that was a bit of a stretch, but there are some common motifs from Sumerian and Ancient Egyptian religion that are present in the Bible, but the Horus=Jesus theory is pretty wrong.

[Kingpoleon]

Oh that, well I always thought that was a bit of a stretch, but there are some common motifs from Sumerian and Ancient Egyptian religion that are present in the Bible, but the Horus=Jesus theory is pretty wrong.

Robert Price, otherwise a rather horrible scholar, is fairly decent at outlining the sort of Jungian comparative analysis of the New Testament and presenting why, in fact, the Gospel writers only clearly show relating the story to the OT and not, say, to mystery Greco-Roman religions or Homeric epics. He is utterly wrong about the implications of this, FTR.

[PSOL]

Oh that, well I always thought that was a bit of a stretch, but there are some common motifs from Sumerian and Ancient Egyptian religion that are present in the Bible, but the Horus=Jesus theory is pretty wrong.

Robert Price, otherwise a rather horrible scholar, is fairly decent at outlining the sort of Jungian comparative analysis of the New Testament and presenting why, in fact, the Gospel writers only clearly show relating the story to the OT and not, say, to mystery Greco-Roman religions or Homeric epics. He is utterly wrong about the implications of this, FTR.

I have no idea what he has written about in terms of Jungian archetypes nor to any attempts at linking Biblical writings to Greek stories and religious practices.

May you give us a bit more detail or perhaps give us some book titles for further review.