random thoughts on religion

I have talked about my belief in the former blog post, but I think I could also record some thoughts about religion.

Generally there are two types of belief system, theistic belief and atheistic belief. Christianity, Judaism and Islam are the most influential religion belief system in the world. Actually these religions share the same origin. They believe in one God, share the same prophet Abraham(Ibrahim) and Judgment Day caused by original sin of human beings. Arabians and Jews all claimed that Abraham are their ancestor. However, there are some distinctions between them. In regard to prophets, Christianity regard Jesus as the Savior sent by God, but Jews don't think so and they are still waiting for the advent of the real Savior, Muslin just think Jesus as one of the prophets and also regard Muhammad as the last prophet sent by God(Allah). As for holy books, Jews accept that Old Testament is their only revelation from God, but Christians also read New Testament. Islam accept some parts of the Bible but think it is not original or authentic, also Islam regard Koran as the most complete and authentic holy scripture.

On the other hand, Buddhism is the most influential atheistic belief. Buddhism don't believe there is a God because it don't think anyone else can help except ourselves. There is nothing permanent in this ever-changing world, so pursuing a lasting spiritual existence is impossible. All suffering comes from our craving and clinging to wrong things, and there are a lot of causes and effects(Karma) in our life. Human life is continuing living and death before attaining liberation from Karma. However, we can avoid suffering by arduous self-promotion such as meditation，morality and wisdom and finally reach Enlightenment(a mental state beyond suffering).

Also there are some other types of atheistic belief such as humanism, rationalism and postmodernism. I can't elaborate them in this post. Maybe I can do it sometime later.

Personally speaking, I can't tell which is better or worse. Each one has some merits and flaws. But I would prefer a atheistic type of belief because it is more reasonable for me.