Scientific Study of Belief Systems

I have an interest to know/understand each belief system (including religious systems and belief systems that dont necessarily subscribe to a super-human force/energy). I think this would be more based on questions such as: What and Why do people believe in something; What were the consequences on their societies due to that belief; Why is some system more prevelant etc.,. It is more like "Religious Anthropology".

I have my own belief system too. I think it is easier for everyone to know more about other people's belief systems so that they can respect each other's beliefs. I had planed to create a chart of the commonalities in differnet systems based on my personal intrepretation. I had planned for this page 9 months back. I got tooo interested in this subject that i decided not to have this interfere with my work and stuff. I have now postponed all activities regarding this and added this project as a "after-retriement" project in my list. For now you can browse through these links. Googling around you will find a lot of information on this topics.

• A very good start would be Religious Studies from Wikipedia . Note that even though this topic sounds like making peace with everyone - its a very sensitive topic. Even people who do all these studies have their own bias or opinion or "belief" on what other people "believe". Its better to look at the good things and leave the bad things.
• This is a geneology chart from Adam to Jesus. One of my collegues has a one of the largest personal geneology collection. He helped in the creation of this chart. This chart was made when I took a class at UCSD on European or Abrahamic Religious Systems. Geneology Chart for Abrahamic Religions
• I have decided to use this list as a blog - A blog of things i learn or interesting on this topic. Could also use this as a list of study, when i formally study this topic.
• 4/18/06: Gandhi and Religion: Even though Mahatma Gandhi had such good ideas and is a great soul, Some of the messages from him were not pragmatic and could also be considered ethnocentric. He favored the eastern civilization and considered modern (Western) civilization to be "evil and darkness". He says "Modern civilization occupies itself in the investigation of the laws of matter and employs the human ingenuity in inventing or discovering means of production and weapons of destruction, ours (Indian Civilization) is chiefly occupied in exploring spiritual laws" - This might be ethnocentric for some readers. However, his ideas on religion seem to be very good, especially those on the "Perennial Philosophy". Some of the articles on Gandhi and Religion from Googling around:
  • Gandhi and Religion (Perennial Philosophy) - A good article.
  • The religion of humanity.
• I was reading some ZEN stuff. Got really fascinated. Some of my thoughts or the way i interpreted them from my perspective (This is very funny or fuzzy or weird and philosophical - you been warned :) :
  • One is also Infinity
  • Infinity is also One
  • But, One is one, Infinity is Infinity
  Above might sound very different or not logical (weird??), but if we understand Quantum Physics or "theory of every thing" it is kind of easy to digest (or atleast you got fascinated with the PBS show on String Theory like me - a little knowledege is a dangerous thing and can start all these activities in our brain relating multiple different worlds). Anyways its very abstract and far away from this world - but very close for us to reach in our mind. Many religions have the above as their core concept.
• 4/18/06: New text will come here: (finally added some stuff)
• I started attending some spiritual study group. I will add some quotes from our study group herer. Again, these are my interpretations of these concepts as we discussed them in our group - These are based on my current knowledge and perspective.
  • Happiness is a state of mind. It could could be temporal if there is an emotional attachment to a particular state. Happiness from a spiritual perspective is a state of mind without any emotional attachment.
  • Mind is the flow of thoughts. A comparision is the flow of traffic in the highway.
• 4/27/07: New text will come here: (finally added some stuff)

Hopefully you are on a broadband connection. Click play button below: