04-11-2004, 01:12 PM
There's not much to discuss here, if you ask me. It's generally accepted that man has religion because it is in his nature to ask questions, and if he can't find answers, he'll just guess and start making them up. Some religions, such as Judaism, Christianty and Islam also have the additional function of keeping people under control with their moral codes and so on. The ten commandments, for example, were exactly the rules needed to keep what Israeli society was back then under control.
And as to the question as why some are alike and some not, there's really nothing at all to debate, because it's all facts. The first three all evolved from the same basics but parted somewhere down the line, so they're similiar but not identical. As for Buddhism (which Shinto is based on or at least closely related to) -- that was created in an entirely different part of the world where the basics of the three previously mentioned religions were mostly or completely unheard of.
And as to the question as why some are alike and some not, there's really nothing at all to debate, because it's all facts. The first three all evolved from the same basics but parted somewhere down the line, so they're similiar but not identical. As for Buddhism (which Shinto is based on or at least closely related to) -- that was created in an entirely different part of the world where the basics of the three previously mentioned religions were mostly or completely unheard of.