Well, what a coincidence. Just when I start talking about Pure Land Buddhism and how it sounds (more or less) consistent with a Many Worlds multiverse (inspired, as I was, by Everything Everywhere All at Once), up on my Youtube recommendations pops up this:
Just in case you can't see it - the title is "Pure Land Buddhism: The Mahayana Multiverse". And it was only published this week, too.
In fact, the whole channel that this comes from (Religion for Breakfast) is new to me - but it's very good. The guy who runs it is has a doctorate (I presume in religious studies) and is currently in (of all places) Cairo, but he's very listen-able and crams a lot of information in a short space of time. I recommend, for example, his video on the development of the idea of the Anti-Christ.
Thank you, almighty Google for guiding me to it.
Anyway, I mentioned this "co-incidence" to my son, and mused again (I'm sure I've raised it before) the theory that Google is already so all knowing, and will continue to grow in knowledge, that it is likely the beginning of the God that will be fully formed by the end of the Universe (the Tipler-ian God). In fact, it might already be alive and at least God-like: how would we know?
He responded with something like "Geez, it's only cookies".
Oh yea of little Google faith.
Anyway, I also asked him if there already was a Church of Google - something I've probably Googled before, but I don't recall the results.
So I checked again today, and note that a site now called The Reformed Church of Google has been around for a long time, although it's just an inactive re-creation of a parody religion "Googlism" set up in 2009 by one Matt MacPherson but which he let lapse in 2016. Most of the content is pretty dated, but still gives me some amusement:
Oh, and someone made a short Youtube about it in 2016. (It's OK, although it's more like an art project.)
Anyhow, while we are on the topic of religion, another Youtube recommendation which amused me somewhat is this one, about the once (and by once, I mean around the time of Buddha) relatively popular (although it's hard to see why) Indian sect known as the Ajivikas:
Here's a brief description of the key part of their philosophy:
The problems of time and change was one of the main interests of the Ajivikas. Their views on this subject may have been influenced by Vedic sources, such as the hymn to Kala (Time) in Atharvaveda.[48] Both Jaina and Buddhist texts state that Ājīvikas believed in absolute determinism, absence of free will, and called this niyati.[8][12] Everything in human life and universe, according to Ajivikas, was pre-determined, operating out of cosmic principles, and true choice did not exist.[12][49] The Buddhist and Jaina sources describe them as strict fatalists, who did not believe in karma.[8][16] The Ajivikas philosophy held that all things are preordained, and therefore religious or ethical practice has no effect on one's future, and people do things because cosmic principles make them do so, and all that will happen or will exist in future is already predetermined to be that way. No human effort could change this niyati and the karma ethical theory was a fallacy.[16] James Lochtefeld summarizes this aspect of Ajivika belief as, "life and the universe is like a ball of pre-wrapped up string, which unrolls until it was done and then goes no further".[8]
Riepe states that the Ajivikas belief in predeterminism does not mean that they were pessimistic. Rather, just like Calvinists belief in predeterminism in Europe, the Ajivikas were optimists.[50] The Ajivikas simply did not believe in the moral force of action, or in merits or demerits, or in after-life to be affected because of what one does or does not do. Actions had immediate effects in one's current life but without any moral traces, and both the action and the effect was predetermined, according to the Ajivikas.[50]
Hmmm. Superdeterminism, anyone?
How this extreme fatalism ties in with their extreme asceticism is hard to understand:
Like Jains, Ajiviks wore no clothes, and lived as ascetic monks in organised groups. They were known to practice extremely severe austerities, such as lying on nails, going through fire, exposing themselves to extreme weather, and even spending time in large earthen pots for penance! There was no caste discrimination and people from all walks of life joined them.
Another Youtube video did explain, though, that they still believed that there was a soul that had to sort of evolve upwards before being released from the life and death cycle. So I guess that has something to do with their idea that there was a point in extreme asceticism?
Or maybe, just maybe, it's a religion that disappeared because as a philosophy it made no sense?
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