November 14, 2021

What are we?

by Interfaith

Starting a new thread so as not to completely derail the original one.

The following got me thinking. What, according to our diverse world-views, are we, really?

Ella S. said: ↑

I don’t believe that God created this world. I believe he created our souls, and that they have been imprisoned in the bodies of material animals.

So the Gnostic view as I understand it, we really are souls of divine origin, “wearing” a body which is not really part of us?

Theravada Buddhists, as I understand their teachings, have the doctrine of the “five khandhas” (body, feelings, perceptions, cognitions, awareness) which interact in a process to form a human being, but there is no “core being” that is apart form this temporal process. In any case, there is a belief in rebirth, which implies some sort of continuity of this process across bodies. @seattlegal how about Vajrayana, I expect they have more intricate teachings?

As I understand @Thomas, Catholic Christians believe the body and soul to belong together to form the human being, hence the teaching on bodily resurrection?

How about Islam? @muhammad_isa ?

What is the Jewish view, @RabbiO ?

Hinduism, @Aupmanyav ?

What is the Baha’i view, @Tone Bristow-Stagg?

Theosophy, @Nicholas Weeks ?

whom did I miss? Please tag them

Please correct me where I’m not correctly characterizing your faith’s understanding of what is a human being.

 

 

(Discussion in ‘Belief and Spirituality‘ started by Cino 11/11/2021)

Follow thread:

https://www.interfaith.org/community/threads/19910/

 

 

 

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