Re: climbing of sacred hills | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

moss Jul 10, 2013 10:37:11

Replying to Mustard

Mustard wrote:

moss wrote:

....us white Europeans that have no respect for other peoples strongly held religious views!

Hmmmm. "Religious views" are a funny old thing though. What's the difference between deeply held religious views that deserve respect, and unscientific and outdated superstitious rubbish? Serious question, by the way. I'm of no clear opinion on the subject. I find it odd that we respect certain "religious" positions, while (rightly) disparaging others.

In a way you answer your own question, we take very subjective viewpoints one way or the other.....

Tjukurpa = dreaming in the Aborigine culture, it is a philosophical level of understanding the natural world around them and relating to what we call Creation, so it is a million miles from our concept of a god, and that is what struck me something totally different. If you read about the interaction between Australian indigenous people and the white settlers, the slow understanding that the Aborigine culture needs respect for the land, i.e. sacredness, took a very long time. So perhaps that was what I was thinking of, I do not want to go into the new religious wave that takes hold within the old stones, so many cults/beliefs have been formed over the centuries, what I do know however is that we should respect the individual and his/her belief even if we find it irrational and illogical.

This morning I said Buddhism is a religion and LS corrects me by saying no it is a philosophy because there are no gods, so I am beginning to believe that the fine division between religion and philosophy needs some more thought. ;)

Littlestone Jul 10, 2013 12:00:13

Replying to moss

To be precise there is no godhead, though there is a plethora of deities and demons derived from native religions (Hinduism in India, Bon in Tibet, Shintoism in Japan, Taoism in China, etc etc) all of which have sacred sites – natural or otherwise.

Mt Fuji is a sacred mountain (not the only one in Japan) but that doesn’t stop people crawling all over it and treating it like a rubbish dump. The first non-Japanese woman (allowed) to climb Fuji was an Englishwoman – the wife of Harry Smith Parkes. It was downhill all the way after that ;-)

Mustard Jul 11, 2013 14:04:41

Replying to moss

moss wrote:

what I do know however is that we should respect the individual and his/her belief even if we find it irrational and illogical.

This is the bit I struggle with. We don't respect such points of view unless they're labelled "religious". If someone insisted the world was flat in the face of all evidence to the contrary, I don't think it'd turn many heads if I labelled them an idiot. Whereas it isn't considered acceptable to label someone an idiot for believing that JC rose again on the 3rd day etc.

Which might seem a little off topic, but given the notion of some places as being somehow "sacred" or belonging to a specific group of people, it does seem kind of relevant.