Cosmic Religions

Jon Rowe

Jon Rowe is a full Professor of Business at Mercer County Community College, where he teaches business, law, and legal issues relating to politics. Of course, his views do not necessarily represent those of his employer.

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14 Responses

  1. krogerfoot says:

    Jon Rowe ponders the cosmic implications of Islam and Moronism, and their cosmic relationship to Christianity.

    The Moronic influence on American Christianity has arguably not been that much overlooked.Report

  2. Jaybird says:

    Do Mormons worship the same God as the Southern Babtists?

    The Mormons will tell you yes and the Southern Babtists will tell you no.

    (Granted, the Southern Babtists will say that about Northern Baptists as well.)

    Do Mormons worship the same God as the post-Protestant non-denominational Evangelicals? There’s, seriously, an argument over this.

    Do Protestants worship the same God as the Catholics? Well…

    Do Christians worship the same God as the Jews? The Christians will tell you, enthusiastically, yes. The Jews tend to change the subject when this comes up.

    Now, from here, it seems that it’s like arguing over whether this and that group of people believe in the same non-existent thing.

    I don’t know how that could be measured.

    How much of an effort does it take to make the serious argument that Thor and Zeus are the same in the essential ways that count?Report

  3. Chris says:

    Both also deny the orthodox Christian doctrine of the Trinity (something Judaism rejects too). Mormonism’s Jesus is divine but not part of “the Trinity” as articulated by the Nicene Creed. Mormonism technically isn’t polytheistic but henotheistic, something which, by the way, texts of “the Bible” arguably support.

    I don’t know if we have any Mormon regulars here, but I suspect if we do, you’d get heat for this. Because it seems to me that most Mormons to see themselves as monotheists and trinitarians, even if their concept of the trinity is different from the orthodox Christian one. The folks calling them henotheists or polytheists are, for the most part, orthodox Christians who aren’t particularly fond of Mormonism.Report

  4. Glyph says:

    One eye, you say? Maybe this so-called “Dajjal” is just Odin in disguise, trying to get out of Ragnarök again.Report

  5. Burt Likko says:

    Jon, I found this post utterly and marvelously fascinating. Thanks for it.

    It seems natural enough that early religious thinkers would look to the stars and see a place for gods and spirits and such: a place of great beauty, perceptible but obviously only partially so, far away and different than Earth.

    It also seems natural enough that they would imagine celestial or spiritual beings that were intermediate between humanity and ultimate divinity, and chains or hierarchies are natural enough thoughts from there, and the idea of succession or promotion through those ranks then seems like a natural enough step.

    Really not that different from eastern notions of reincarnation, when you think about it. If we think about Mohammed and Joseph Smith as mystics, people who had monastic experiences and who meditated deeply on the ineffable as a means of seeking their own inner peace / salvation / solace / enlightenment, perhaps we should expect that they would reach the point of announcement of things that have more than superficial resemblances to what other mystics from other times and cultures describe.Report