Why did the Abrahamic God favour the Middle-East?

[lepustimidus]

I'm just curious as to why the Abrahamic God of the Islamic/Christian/Jewish religions favoured the Middle-East? After all, all of his prophets came from that area, hence only the civilisations in that region were enlightened to God's word.

What about all the civilisations and peoples distant from the Middle East, such as in the New World and the British Isles? Did God just say 'Fuck em, let those assholes remain ignorant to my existence, and suffer and burn because of it?'

It seems hardly fair to blame such people for following barbaric pagan and pantheistic beliefs, when God didn't send them a prophet or two to show them the light.

[skaught]

I read in a book once that theres a belief amongst Jews that god tried to reveal himself to all other peoples before them, but they all rejected him. The jews were his last chance to reveal himself to humanity so he "held a mountain over their head (Mt. Saini)" and threatened to crush them all in one shot if they didn't believe him.

Which I have always found interesting seeing as how YHWH has a lot in common with other early deities. And many early civilizations experimented with the idea of there being only one god. But often the people who toyed with that idea faced severe criticisms, or were destroyed. Judaism has a lot in common with Zoroastrianism. And Zoroastrianism predates Judaism by a long shot.

[Arsalan]

According to Islam, Prophets were sent to various people around the world. Which is why Muslims accept other religions as being of Divine Origin and their founders as true Prophets.

[nietzschefan]

I read in a book once that theres a belief amongst Jews that god tried to reveal himself to all other peoples before them, but they all rejected him. The jews were his last chance to reveal himself to humanity so he "held a mountain over their head (Mt. Saini)" and threatened to crush them all in one shot if they didn't believe him.

Which I have always found interesting seeing as how YHWH has a lot in common with other early deities. And many early civilizations experimented with the idea of there being only one god. But often the people who toyed with that idea faced severe criticisms, or were destroyed. Judaism has a lot in common with Zoroastrianism. And Zoroastrianism predates Judaism by a long shot.

If you actually read the mythology of Sumerians/Akkadians and seperately Egyptians you can actually see how 90% of Hebrew religion is a direct ripoff.
Yes the Book of Enoch(not canon and that's a whole other can of worms) is nearly direct plagerism of Zoroastrianism.

I find it facinating people(even intelligent ones) will believe this stuff - and never actually look it up.

[S.A.M.]

According to Islam, Prophets were sent to various people around the world. Which is why Muslims accept other religions as being of Divine Origin and their founders as true Prophets.

Yeah. I find it interesting that Abraham and Sara, are similar to Brahma and Saraswati.

[orcot]

Mostly I find it interesting that any god would choose such a depressingly desolate and dry area to show himself.

[S.A.M.]

Mostly I find it interesting that any god would choose such a depressingly desolate and dry area to show himself.

You're confused between God and Prophet.

[John99]

There have been 100s or 1000s of prophets right here in U.S. That is what they claim anyway.

[spidergoat]

This is the cradle of civilization, and the one God is an artifact of such a culture.

[S.A.M.]

Not really

Out of the many verse, some other popular verses (Atharva Veda) verse 13.5.20

"He is One and One forever remaineth alone; Believe it. There is no second in God"

and the Nasadiya Sukta, dealing with a creator deity, especially verse 10.129.7:

iyám vísṛṣṭiḥ yátaḥ ābabhûva / yádi vā dadhé yádi vā ná / yáḥ asya ádhyakṣaḥ paramé vyóman / sáḥ aṅgá veda yádi vā ná véda
"He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it, / Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not." (trans. Griffith)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotheism

[Michael]

RE: Why did the Abrahamic God favour the Middle-East?

I've often wondered why the Great Xenu favored Tilden, Nebraska.

[JDawg]

The God of Abraham favored that region because that's where it was invented. The fact that this god wasn't just apparent to every person on the face of the planet should tell you that.

It's a myth. Duh.

[Myles]

He was a Jew

[cosmictraveler]

As I recall wasn't Hindu founded before Judaism? There are many dieties within the Hindu religion taking on many forms and doing many things.

[Vkothii]

Vedism didn't exactly come from India.

Judaism, Jainism, even the sun-god Ra, all have parallels. The Hebrew were a tribe from the Sinai region, supposedly.

[lepustimidus]

Originally Posted by Arsalan
According to Islam, Prophets were sent to various people around the world.


Is there any evidence of this in the history of the peoples of the British Isles or the New World? From what I am aware, there are no records of prophets emerging in these areas to enlighten the people to the existence of the Abrahamic God.


Which is why Muslims accept other religions as being of Divine Origin and their founders as true Prophets.


What do they think of the pagan and pantheistic religions that existed in Europe, the New World and Africa? They don't strike me as being very similar to Abrahamic monotheism.

jdawg:

The God of Abraham favored that region because that's where it was invented. The fact that this god wasn't just apparent to every person on the face of the planet should tell you that.

It's a myth. Duh.


Yep, it sure looks that way, doesn't it?

[cosmictraveler]

"Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as Sanātana Dharma (सनातन धर्म) by its practitioners, a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law"or "eternal way".

Historically, Hinduism in the wider sense includes Brahmanism, religions that evolved from or based on Vedism in ancient India; in a narrower sense, it encompasses the post-Buddhist religious and cultural traditions of India.[Among its roots is the historical Vedic religion of Iron Age India.

Hinduism is often presented as the "oldest religious tradition" among the world's major religious groups, or as "oldest living major tradition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism


So if this was the very first religion and it has many Gods and Godeses in it, why then did another God get created?Wasn't there enough to go around when this religion was made up?:shrug:

[lepustimidus]

Indians love to make up fiction. If you don't believe me, just read some of S.A.M's posts.

[Enmos]

According to Islam, Prophets were sent to various people around the world. Which is why Muslims accept other religions as being of Divine Origin and their founders as true Prophets.

Christianity says the same thing..

[JDawg]

And there are no records of that particular god trying to make his presence known anywhere else in the world. Abraham obviously ripped off his religious ideas from the Sumerians.

[S.A.M.]

"Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as Sanātana Dharma (सनातन धर्म) by its practitioners, a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law"or "eternal way".

Historically, Hinduism in the wider sense includes Brahmanism, religions that evolved from or based on Vedism in ancient India; in a narrower sense, it encompasses the post-Buddhist religious and cultural traditions of India.[Among its roots is the historical Vedic religion of Iron Age India.

Hinduism is often presented as the "oldest religious tradition" among the world's major religious groups, or as "oldest living major tradition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism

So if this was the very first religion and it has many Gods and Godeses in it, why then did another God get created?Wasn't there enough to go around when this religion was made up?:shrug:


Uh, Hinduism was a term coined by the British in the 1800s.

Hindu Look up Hindu at Dictionary.com
1662, from Pers. Hindu (adj. & noun) "Indian," from Hind "India," from Skt. sindhu "river," specifically the Indus; hence "region of the Indus," gradually extended across northern India. Hinduism, blanket term for "polytheism of India," is from 1829.

And this:

The words "Hindu" and "Hinduism" are described in different ways by different people. The origins and usages of the terms are not universally agreed upon. As you'll see in the references below, "Hindu" and "Hinduism" have been variously used to describe one or another of culture, geography, or religion. Some say that the terms were not used by the indigenous people until fairly recently in history, brought on by foreign peoples and governments, not their own evolution. Many say that the original collective term used for the diverse teachings of the region is "Dharma" or "Sanatana Dharma." There is some impetus in the world today to advocate these terms, either along side of, or instead of the terms "Hindu" and "Hinduism."

"The word 'Hindu' occurs nowhere in the classical scriptures of Hinduism. The ancestors of the present day Hindus did not identify themselves as Hindus."

"When Western scholars and Christian missionaries arrived on the scene, the Hindus found their faith tradition 'ism'-ized and its name became 'Hinduism'."

"That even an atheist may be called a Hindu is an example of the fact that Hinduism is far beyond a simple religious system, but actually an extremely diverse and complicated river of evolving philosophies and ancient traditions."

"The word Hindu is not a religious word. It is secular in origin. It is derived from the word Sindhu, which is the name of a major river that flows in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. The ancient Greeks and Armenians used to refer the people living beyond the river Sindhu as Hindus and gradually the name stuck. When the Muslims came to the sub continent they called the people living in the region as Hindustanis to distinguish them from the foreign Muslims. Subsequently when the British established their rule, they started calling the local religions collectively under the name of Hinduism."

"Only 180 years ago Raja Ram Mohan Roy coined the word 'Hindu' to describe the huge variety of faiths and sects with similar but not identical philosophies, myths and rituals."

"[There was] no such thing as Hinduism before the British invented the holdall category in the early nineteenth century, and made India seem the home of a 'world religion' as organised and theologically coherent as Christianity and Islam. The concepts of a 'world religion' and 'religion' as we know them now, emerged during the late 18th and early 19th century, as objects of academic study, at a time of widespread secularisation in western Europe. The idea, as inspired by the Enlightenment, was to study religion as a set of beliefs, and to open it up to rational enquiry."

"According to the New Encyclopedia Britannica 20:581, 'Hinduism' was a name given in English language in the Nineteenth Century by the English people to the multiplicity of the beliefs and faiths of the people of the Indus land. The British writers in 1830 gave the word 'Hinduism' to be used as the common name for all the beliefs of the people of India excluding the Muslims and converted Christians."


http://www.swamij.com/hindu-word.htm
Before that it was used as The Sindhus by the Persians for everyone on the other side of the Sindhu or the Indus river. Middle Easterners still call all Indians, irrespective of religion as "Hindis" or "Hindiyas"

And its not many gods and goddesses.
Here try this:
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=58358