> I'm inclined to think Christianity on paper is "the best" of the Abrahamic religions
Abrahamic? Maybe. I have studied comparative religion somewhat -- more than the vast majority of religious people -- and the least unpleasant "religion" by far is old-school Buddhism.
The original has been widely corrupted and turned into a forest of competing rival faiths, most of which have become religions, but the original seems to me to have been designed by someone very smart, who studied, subjected themselves to various allegedly spiritually-improving practices... and then wrote down a sort of vaccination to inculcate into people carefully designed to protect them from religion.
Religions are contagious memetic infections. Virtually nobody that calls themselves Christian actually follows what little is known of the teachings of Yeshweh. In practice, "being Christian" is not so much a recommendation as a warning.
In my 58 years, I have so far met one (1) person who was a true Yeshweh follower.
Original Buddhism was an inoculation to protect lesser minds from memetic infection.
But it itself has been corrupted by viral influences, to paraphrase Neal Stephenson, and turned into what it sought to protect people from.
Any sect of Christianity that has a name should be avoided. Ditto Islam, Judaism, all the big ones.
For a good overview of world religions, I recommend this excellent book:
> specifically what about the Bible they found resonant
A valid point.
I'm not interested, myself, but this is an interesting question.
My upbringing was very vaguely Church of England Protestant. I read very fast and read a large chunk of the bible as a child. I decided when I was 11 that religion was a fairy story, just a work of fiction and nothing more, and that I didn't believe in it.
I have read much of the Christian bible, and I was top of the class in religious studies at school. I am confident that I know much more about Christianity than 99% of Christians, and most ex-Christian atheists I know are the same.
For most intelligent adults, actually reading the bible is a leading cause of atheism. This is a meme among atheists.
I have never heard of anyone getting religion from the bible before.
During the Joseon era of Korea, Christianity was suppressed. Nevertheless, Western books made their to Korea including the Bible. Among the nobility some secretly converted just from reading the Bible. Korea’s first saint was one of grandchildren of those who converted purely from reading.
> Wow they ported Windows Millennium Edition to Linux??
Aw, come on.
WinME had the exact same UI as Win2000, and for a lot of us, that was the peak of Windows' design.
Secondly, Win11 is worse than ME in every important way. ME was all right once it got a few fixes, and worked great on very low-end kit that NT wouldn't look at.
At the time (1993, when NT came out) there was a good reason.
C-A-D was a special reserved keystroke that couldn't be intercepted or redirected. So you could use it even to interrupt a task that had frozen the entire UI.
Using it for login meant it could bypass and circumvent any malware that attempted to steal credentials, etc.
Then MS let people replace the GINA that handled it, and then they let people turn it off, and it joined the rest of the slide into junkware...
Abrahamic? Maybe. I have studied comparative religion somewhat -- more than the vast majority of religious people -- and the least unpleasant "religion" by far is old-school Buddhism.
The original has been widely corrupted and turned into a forest of competing rival faiths, most of which have become religions, but the original seems to me to have been designed by someone very smart, who studied, subjected themselves to various allegedly spiritually-improving practices... and then wrote down a sort of vaccination to inculcate into people carefully designed to protect them from religion.
Religions are contagious memetic infections. Virtually nobody that calls themselves Christian actually follows what little is known of the teachings of Yeshweh. In practice, "being Christian" is not so much a recommendation as a warning.
In my 58 years, I have so far met one (1) person who was a true Yeshweh follower.
Original Buddhism was an inoculation to protect lesser minds from memetic infection.
But it itself has been corrupted by viral influences, to paraphrase Neal Stephenson, and turned into what it sought to protect people from.
Any sect of Christianity that has a name should be avoided. Ditto Islam, Judaism, all the big ones.
For a good overview of world religions, I recommend this excellent book:
https://thebookshop.ie/moncrieff-sean-god-a-users-guide-larg...
Very accessible, funny, and gives you a great "big picture" view.
reply