history of religions

Factual Questions
1

:cool:
Has anybody ever studied the history of world religions? I read a magazine article recently that made me want to further research some stuff. There was this thing in Mental Floss Magazine that discussed the 7 stories that shaped world religion… kind of like myths or history stories. Let me know if you have more information on any of them:

  1. the woman who fell from the sky - iroquois
  2. the Popol vuh - mayan
  3. the bhagavad gita - hindu
  4. the dhammapada - buddhist
  5. the tao te ching - taoist
  6. the tibetan book of the dead
    7)… well i don’t remember the seventh one

thanks

2

You might want to check out the book I just finished reading, Michael Shermer’s How We Believe. It discusses the history of religion in fascinating detail, including the development of early religious myths and how they relate to present day beliefs.

3

The Bhagavad Gita is a long poem inserted into the text of the epic story Mahabharat. The Mahabharat is about the struggle for supremacy between two branches of a royal family. At the cusp of the climactic battle, Arjun, the commander of the “good” forces stops and sees arrayed against him faces of many of his own cousins, uncles, and teachers. He hesitates. Arjun’s charioteer is Krishna, an avatar of the god Vishnu. It is at this point that the Bhagavad Gita begins.

The Bhagavad Gita is basically Krishna’s pep talk to Arjun in which he reveals his divine nature to Arjun and tells him that the only thing that is required of a person is for him to carry out his duty. As a noble, as a Kshatryia (warrior), it is duty to himself and to the cosmos for him to wage war against his enemies. It’s none of his concern whether his cause is just or that entering into battle will cause untold suffering. His duty is his duty and he must carry it out without question.

Well, that’s it in a nutshell.

4

Try Man And His Gods by Homer Smith. It is out of print now but a copy should be available through a good library.

Another good one is Treatise on the Gods by H.L. Menken. This one is from the Johns Hopkins University Press and I know it is still available in paperback from amazon.com.