What religion would you have adhered to 2500 yrs ago?

[Avoice]

If you are a Christian today what would you have been 2500 years ago?
Before Jesus was born where would you have placed your faith? What would you have upheld as the truth?

[Mithrae]

I'm not a Christian today, but that's a great question. Realistically of course, the answer in almost all cases would be "whatever my parents were"; so most likely a druidic/Celtic religion, given my ethnic origins.

But assuming reasonable access to all options around the world N centuries before Jesus' birth?

Virtually no-one who is not ethnically Jewish would adhere to that extremely ethnocentric system, that's for sure... and 7+ centuries before Jesus it may have been a particularly barbaric, henotheistic array of beliefs and practices. For folk who want the most Christian-like option available before Christ, Persian Zoroastrianism might be the best bet. Personally I suspect that Buddhism or Taoism had a lot going for them, and still do, though it's important to note that they too have presumably developed and changed over the millennia.

[amortalman]

If you are a Christian today what would you have been 2500 years ago?
Before Jesus was born where would you have placed your faith? What would you have upheld as the truth?

Maybe it would help if you presented a topic for debate.

[Divine Insight]

If you are a Christian today what would you have been 2500 years ago?
Before Jesus was born where would you have placed your faith? What would you have upheld as the truth?

To begin with I was indoctrinated into Christianity as a child. It was never something I would have chosen to place place my faith in given multiple choices.

I'm also not Jewish. So 2500 years ago I wouldn't have been living in Israel as a Jew.

I actually had my DNA tested and apparently my ancestry is actually from northern Europe. I may very well had been raised as a Celt had I lived 2500 years ago. Prior to that I may have been raised as a Taoist, or possibly some other form of Buddhism.

My DNA suggests that my ancestry came from India, through China, into Northern Europe. There's no reason for me to think that I would have had anything to do with anything in the Middle East.

Why assume that most Christians are Jewish? Most probably aren't.

[Avoice]

[Replying to post 4 by Divine Insight]

Why do you assume most Christians are Jewish?

Perhaps I didn't phrase my question correctly. I should have asked WHAT RELIGION WOULD YOU HAVE CHOSEN? Not what your parents chose for you.

What would you have been by choice?

[Zzyzx]

.

Why do you assume most Christians are Jewish?

Christianity is a splinter group from Judaism just as Protestantism is a splinter group from Catholicism. Islam is also a stepchild of Judaism. The upstarts just added some characters, told some new stories, and declared themselves separate.

Likewise, Judaism developed from pre-existing religions and beliefs. Humans evidently have a propensity to attribute the unknown to invisible, undetectable ‘gods’.

Perhaps I didn't phrase my question correctly. I should have asked WHAT RELIGION WOULD YOU HAVE CHOSEN? Not what your parents chose for you.

What would you have been by choice?

If transported back in time but retaining my basic attributes, I would have chosen NONE since I am not inclined to ‘follow the leader’ or to believe tall tales.

[Divine Insight]

[Replying to post 4 by Divine Insight]

Why do you assume most Christians are Jewish?

Perhaps I didn't phrase my question correctly. I should have asked WHAT RELIGION WOULD YOU HAVE CHOSEN? Not what your parents chose for you.

What would you have been by choice?

To begin with, once I reached adulthood to where I can make my own informed choices I don't see any religions that are compelling. So I would have no reason to chose any religion. By the way, this wouldn't necessarily mean that I see no reason to believe in the potential existence of a higher entity, or whatever. It simply means that I don't see any religions that are compelling.

If I was pressured to chose a religion I would most likely choose them in the following order.

Possible First Choice: Taoism

Only because it basically doesn't have anything to say about any God in anthropomorphic terms. It's simply a view that reality is mystical in some way and that everything is connected. That sounds reasonable to me.

Possible Second Choice: Buddhism

Again, because in its purest form it doesn't make any claims about any imagine anthropomorphic God character. Also, it's my understanding that the Buddha actually taught people not to accept anything just because someone else says that it's true (including him). And to only go with what feels right and true for ourselves. That sounds reasonable to me.

Possible Third Choice: The Sun and Moon Goddess paradigm

In modern day terms this might be thought of as a form of abstract Wicca. I only chose this because it's ascetically attractive to me. I like the idea of using the Sun as a symbol to represent a Father God, and the Moon as a symbol to represent a Mother Goddess. Although this religion associates a God and Goddess as a Mother and Father it doesn't dictate what their personalities are like and therefore you are free to imagine the God and Goddess to be however you would like to imagine them to be. I actually do play out rituals associated with this type of religion. Although I consider it to be more of a hobby than a religion.

It doesn't matter to me because I know that I'm a good person who only wants the best for everyone. Therefore if there is a God, or Goddess, or any higher entities, they would already know that I am a good person anyway. So what religion I might believe in is irrelevant. The religion isn't going to change who I am.

What I would not chose is any of the Abrahamic religions. I don't find the God portrayed in those religions to be attractive in any way. The dogma of those religions appears to be aimed at ignorant and even nasty people. Since I don't consider myself to be either ignorant or nasty why should I think that religion would have any merit?

The only way I would believe in that religion is if I had absolutely no other choice. And if that were the case that would even be quite disappointing for me. If the Bible describes what our creator is like, then I can honestly say that I'm not thrilled with our creator. That would be quite depressing if true IMHO.

So I'm certainly not going to choose to place my faith in a religion that has a God who would be an extreme disappointment to me. That would be quite stupid on my part wouldn't it?

Just as an added note: I see no real difference between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Sure, they claim to have differences, but they are all based on the original fables of Yahweh, or Allah, or YHVH, or whatever other name you want to give him. And that's the God that is a huge disappointment and total embarrassment to me.

Christians, try to claim that Jesus is so much better than Yahweh. But that's kind of ridiculous since Jesus is far too little too late. Not only this, but in Christianity Jesus has no feet of his own to stand on. If Jesus isn't the Son of Yahweh, then he's nothing. So they can't replace Yahweh with Jesus even though they desperately wish that they could.

So it's the entire Abrahamic mess that's disgusting, and even the Christian Jesus can't change that.

Keep in mind Avoice, that it's the God of the OT that ruins Christianity for me. If there was a way to make Jesus the God of Christianity without having him sit on the shoulders of Yahweh, they might have something. But there's no way to do that. So that's not an option.

[Mithrae]

Christians, try to claim that Jesus is so much better than Yahweh. But that's kind of ridiculous since Jesus is far too little too late. Not only this, but in Christianity Jesus has no feet of his own to stand on. If Jesus isn't the Son of Yahweh, then he's nothing. So they can't replace Yahweh with Jesus even though they desperately wish that they could.

So it's the entire Abrahamic mess that's disgusting, and even the Christian Jesus can't change that.

Keep in mind Avoice, that it's the God of the OT that ruins Christianity for me. If there was a way to make Jesus the God of Christianity without having him sit on the shoulders of Yahweh, they might have something. But there's no way to do that. So that's not an option.

Personally (as I've noted before) I don't find the purist/fundamentalist 'all or nothing' approach to religion at all compelling. I reckon that anything humans do - any social construct, any political or economic system, any ideology or worldview, and even any method of inquiry and learning - is going to have plenty of warts, shortcomings, failures and ugly bits. As far as I can see there's no reason to suppose that our efforts to understand goodness, death, 'justice' and god/ultimate reality should be any different. It also seems highly dubious to imagine that any wise deity would hand humanity everything on a silver platter, either; at least, all of our own experience of bringing infants into maturity suggests that while support and a helping hand are important, it's at least as important to give them plenty of opportunity to learn on their own, challenges to overcome and even chances for error and failure.

The argument that there's a lot of bad stuff in the main anthologies of Hebrew and early Christian literature and therefore those cultural traditions aren't worthy of attention, simply doesn't follow as far as I can tell. Odds are there's as much value and truth in there as in any other major religious tradition, for those inclined to seek it out - perhaps even moreso than some. For all its ethnocentrism, bronze age brutality and circumstantial limitations, even the Torah has its occasional gems; like its apparent message (in some select passages) that any human attempt at imaging or even naming god is futile at best, misguided idolatry at worst. Alas 'Yahweh' (I am what I am) itself instead came to be taken as the 'name' of the Jewish God, which other passages very much anthropomorphized as a finnicky, jealous kind of celestial patriarch.

[brunumb]

[Replying to post 5 by Avoice]

Perhaps I didn't phrase my question correctly. I should have asked WHAT RELIGION WOULD YOU HAVE CHOSEN? Not what your parents chose for you.
What would you have been by choice?

For me that is a difficult question because I don't believe that choice actually comes into it. I am convinced that the vast majority of people are raised to believe in the religion of their parents and wider community. Just as new born animals raised by human parents can have their brains irreversibly wired to consider the humans as their parents, children inculcated with specific religious beliefs will generally adopt them as truth. If, somewhere down the line, they change or even shed those initial beliefs, in my opinion it is not by choice but by being presented with some alternative that is much more intellectually compelling.

[marco]

If you are a Christian today what would you have been 2500 years ago?
Before Jesus was born where would you have placed your faith? What would you have upheld as the truth?

Rome has just expelled her kings and is settling down to a consular government. Jupiter Maximus is in place and I am impressed by the magnificence of his statue. In fact I am impressed by Jupiter, a likeably naughty god who is ahead of his time in non-binary matters.

I suspect that supporting Jupiter rather than Yahweh will see Rome rule the world in future years. Jupiter has a sense of humour which I think is an essential in a god.
Jupiter is for celebration, Yahweh is for lamentation.