/edu/ - Education

is there any writing on eastern religions that isn't poisoned by western gaze

How do you even talk about theology coming from marxism?

>>9057
I doubt OP is coming from marxism and isn't a christfag shill

>>9059
In my OP do you even see anything that could imply either political or religious background? Fucking paranoid faggot
>>9057
Why would we need to talk about theology from a Marxist perspective? If you want you can use this thread for that but it's for a discussion about theology in general, whether through Marxist lenses or not.

>>9070
This is leftypol so one expects things here to have a leftist bend somehow.
The issue here is not "Why should we talk about theology here" but "how is theology relevant to this place"

Is religion compatible with dialectical materialism?

>>9075
they're both nonsense so yes

>>9077
Where's the nonsense?

>>9074
A lot of threads in this board have nothing to do with leftism
>>8959
>>6832
>>9024
>>8125
>>5724
>>8920

Get ready for angry edgy athetists.

>>9074
This is /edu/, not /leftypol/. This is the general education board, it is not meant to be exclusively for politics.

Could some sects of Islam like Alawites or Alevis be considered an ethnoreligious group? The reason I ask this is because as far as I know from what I've read about these groups online you can't convert into their religion. Only way to be an Alawite or Alevi would be to be born into a family of that religion. I think it's interesting because no other sect of Islam (and I know a lot of other muslims don't consider Alawites to be muslim) seems to work this way.

Also, apparently Alawites and Alevis are not the same bit are quite similar in their beliefs. They're both Shia (not sure if Twelver or another branch) and seem to have similar distinct aspects to their brand of Shiism. Also, there's another group of Shias that are supposedly also very similar called Bektashis, most common in Albania. And from what I've read these ones you actually can convert into their particular brand of Islam.

>>9056
bumping this

>>9081
don't start nothing, won't be nothing
religion started this conflict a long time ago and on top of that, here you come deliberately looking to stir shit up about it, acting like you're not the one trying to start shit
there's a good reason atheists tend to be angry about religion and all the barbarism it involves
your culture is not above criticism. if you want to believe in this stuff, whatever. don't be a child about people criticising it.

>>9052
I can't speak for Buddhism, but for the more literal reincarnation concept found in Hinduism, the idea is that your 'form' is a manifested expression of latent desires & actions articulated in your prior life, with the soul's preservation persisting beyond lives, as a means through which the corporeal earthly form can then articulate itself, varying with each iterative life in terms of its permutations and its expressions.
So, to answer your question, an animal would be 'judged' (it is not judged though, this is a Christian preconception/bias that I think you seem to have which is carrying over and clouding your understanding of an unrelated paradigm. It is merely expressed in its subsequent life as an altered extension, or evolution/mutation of its previous life, beholden to no 'grand moral arbiter', only beholden to the varieties of character) according to its prior actions in its specific form, there would be no external standard which is extricated from it and applied to it, as it is only itself interacting with the universe, part of a whole which is the network of expressions found in the various forms of life/existence. For example, a Sloth is, by design of its species, a certain 'way', but the particularities of that 'way' are what grant insight into the unique character of that form, and which may influence the subsequent form the sloth will take on, but the 'way' itself, i.e. being a sloth, is also its own standard, and speaks not to some eternal quality of the soul, but as a latently manifested expression of particularly exhibited characteristics found within one's previous life. So, a sloth which is less lazy than other sloths typically would be by nature is, for example, already somewhat 'different' than the normal sloth, and so is less likely to reincarnate into something 'sloth-like' in subsequence. It is also possible, therefore, to reincarnate into the same thing repeatedly–part of the process of enlightenment consists in traveling through different forms throughout numerous lives, of apprehending a universally holistic perspective which can only ever be truly attained by having experienced all those facets of the universe piece by piece.

>>9107
In a way, this is equally in part terrifying and potentiating–we often restrict our conception of what we might reincarnate into just through the purview of earth. Problem is, the universe is incomprehensibly larger than just earth, so there's a certain cosmic horror of ambiguous grandeur to the premise of reincarnation on a universal scale.

>>9106
I mean yeah, but we know what their referring to, anyone who was on image boards/reddit during the late 00s and early 10s knows the u n b e a r a b l e smugness of atheists back then. Most atheists are chill, but shit, those guys really jack my dick.

Still, the irony is those guys influenced the 'feminist sceptic' videos which bled into the alt right and then came back round to conservative Christianity. So they kind of got what they deserved ideologically

>>9083
If you cannot convert except be born into it, I think that would be the strictest definition of an ethno-religion, even Jews accept converts generally speaking. Also alot of those obscure MENA sects are actually syncretised heavily with their pre-islamic folk beliefs either through cultural influence or to avoid suspicion.

>>9056
What do you mean? That is diluted by new-age crap or historical criticism?

>>9056
I suggest you read material from a believer and practitioner of that religion that belongs to a mainstream current within it, eastern religions tolerate a certain amount of plurality so it would be wise to read multiple perspectives.

>>9107
Thanks for the explanation

>>9110
The case of the alawites is the most interesting imo because as you say, for multiple reasons they purposefully "islamicized" some of their more folk beliefs to be more accepted societally. It's interesting thinking about what would've happened had they not done that, maybe they would be like the Druze who are very distinctly not islamic (with a few similar beliefs iirc). But for the case of the alawites they found themselves in a position where they are constantly forced to prove how they are muslims and whatnot, again despite having some very distinct non-islamic beliefs such as reincarnation. But as of now it seems their position is secured though, and at least in Syria I believe they're considered muslims by most of the population (I guess except sectarian sunnis of course).