Religions are like road signs in the sense that they can't actually get you to your final destination, they can only point the way or gauge your progress. I've been thinking about this analogy and submit the following road sign religions for the edification of the saints:

Mormon Road Sign: Blocked off by a wall so it can't be seen from the road. You have to pull over into a dirt parking lot which has a pretty expensive entrance fee. Once you park you have to pay an admission fee to get past the gate. Once you're in the gate you find that you must first agree to work at the sign post for at least a year before seeing the sign itself. This includes cleaning the parking lot, collecting admission fees, and whatever else may be asked. Everybody's super excited to see the sign, but nobody talks about what it says. When you finally see the sign, it makes no sense whatsoever. It doesn't yield any information on how far your destination might be or where you're at, but everybody else seems to get it while you don't. Then you find out that part of the agreement you made is to keep paying admission fees so you can keep seeing the sign even though it never gives any more info, in fact it seems like they keep taking letters off every few years.

Jehova's Witness: Instead of the road sign being off the side of the road, it's been moved about a mile down a side road you can't get onto without express written permission. When you offer to pay an entrance fee they say no and act very snooty about it. They question your motives and say only true seekers of the destination should be able to see the sign, and maybe come back in a few years if you still want to see it. When you come back they grill you about your life, your driving habits, and why you want to see the sign. When you finally see it, it just says "You should already know where the destination is."

Fundamentalist Christianity: They have a bunch of road signs all up and down the highway telling you you're not worthy to get to the destination since you're trying to get there on your own. They keep telling you to pull over and beg forgiveness for daring to drive your own car and say that with enough faith a true bus will come along and deliver you up to the destination. They say no other car can get there. You have to take the special bus. The bus will come to you if you're sorry enough for having driven in the first place.

Mainstream Christianity: These folks are all climbing on the sign exclaiming they're already at their destination because the name of the destination is on the sign. If you try to point out that it's only a sign you'll be laughed at and ridiculed. They can't figure out why you don't want to join them on the sign and they pity you when you keep driving down the road.

Scientology: The desire to arrive at your destination is an implant from trillions of years ago by alien invaders bent on controlling you for their evil purposes. The road signs are meant to confuse you so you won't realize that aliens are inhabiting your body. The road is a prison for your mind.

Buddhism: There is no road. There are no signs. You are the destination.

LOL, this is great!!! So very very true too.

Atheism: Roads? Where we are going we need no roads.

LOL! Nice...

Atheism is off-roading in a moon buggy, with a fun partner that likes to take detours into the bushes.

+1

Hinduism: lots of bright, colorful signs line the road, many with flashing lights. You crash your car into one and die, then start the trip again.

Darkfem Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hinduism: lots of bright, colorful signs line the
> road, many with flashing lights. You crash your
> car into one and die, then start the trip again.


Actually, there are versions of Hinduism in which you ARE
the destination. Or, better put -- the destination and you
are already the same thing. Re-birth is just one more
delusion in a never-ending series of Maya misinterpretations.


This is a bit different from what I've learned in Buddhism --
that there is no "you" and there is no "destination." The
signs are just put up at intersection corners, to help
everybody get through this mess of life a little easier.

UD

Thanks for clarifying, Uncle Dale.

I have spent some time in India for my job and am always fascinated with the incredible diversity among Hindus in the way the express their relationship to their religion, which seems contingent on caste, community, region, etc. For some, particularly those who orient around Shiva, Hinduism seems to be experienced more like a traditional revealed religion. For others who coalesce around Ganesh and his mythology, it feels, at least to me, more pantheistic. Those are just my impressions.

I spent most of my time with Brahmins and Chetries -- also a
few Newaris and various types of Buddhists.

The variation in beliefs and practices is mind-blowing, even
within families where all the members profess to be the same.

Where I lived Kali was especially important. My female students
were mostly devotees of Sarasvati.

Now and then I'd stumble upon a Hindu who looked upon the whole
panoply of Vedic religion as a kind of overspreading drama --
mythical stories and symbolism that occluded the essence of
the religion.

I've come to look at the Abrahamic religions in much the same
way that a Hindu Vedantist views the religions of South Asia:
they struggle to communicate deep truths, but mostly fail.

UD

Scientific method:

Someone sees the destination with a telescope. This individual documents where he was standing, what type of telescope he was using, and what he saw of the destination. Other people repeat the experiment to confirm the results. As results accumulate, information accumulates. Using the observations, people formulate theories as to the destination and the route. These theories are tested by others. When a theory passes the tests, tentative road signs are erected. When the destination is reached, they get out the telescopes again and look for further destinations. When someone finds a better (more useful) route new road signs are erected along that route. All routes, road signs, and destinations are subject to tests, observations, and analysis. These lead to even better routes and destinations.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.





I find that when I don't know what the destination is I would rather not be directed to someone else's path. I prefer to take the road with no sign, or to just start walking in the direction of something interesting, with or without road.

Agnosticism: I'm not sure whether that sign was meant for me, and there's no way of knowing that....

my 2nd husband was an ex-member of a pentacostal church. His parents got roped into that cult in the 1970's and they forced him to go to a pentacostal school that was on church grounds from grade three until high school graduation. They all left that church as a family when he was about 19. It was pretty amazing to see how similar we were as far as indoctrination. He could have easily fit in here on this board. My point is that there are many religions that are guilty of posting road signs :)

I love your Mormon analogy because what I heard was a lot of talk about how angelically the sign was painted, how spiritually it was constructed, how holy the font of the lettering was, and what an inspired choice for how tall to make it.

What I never heard was what I thought when I finally had paid enough tithing and self denial to be allow to see it:

"Is that all there is to the sign?" Cue Peggy Lee.

<<"Is that all there is to the sign?" Cue Peggy Lee.>>

Pretty much exactly the first words I uttered when I got into the celestial room the first time: "That's it?"

To which my mom & bishop replied: "oh, each time you'll learn more blah blah blah personal revelation yadda yadda, etc."

Yeah right..

Where ever you go, there you are.