Saint René Descartes University

 Cogito ergo sum

Why Cesidianism is different

Cesidianism is not fundamentally different from either Christianity or Buddhism, and in fact the religious-philosophy contains elements of both religions.

This was not a deliberate attempt at religious syncretism either. The new religion honours both the Christ and the Buddha, since it believes that these two historical figures were the same soul in two different places and times, and treasures the ideas that both Jesus of Nazareth (1) and Siddhartha Gautama brought to the world.

Cesidianism also shares characteristics with other religions. Cesidians have 14 Cesidian Commandments, while the Jews (and Christians) revere only the 10 Mosaic Commandments. Cesidians also celebrate Hanukkah like the Jews, although in a different way, and at a different time. Cesidians also have eight basic elements called bathetic elements, while traditional Pagans mention five. Through experience, you could probably find other traits Cesidianism shares with one or more religions.

It is analytic theology — a new field of human endeavour with promising applications in many fields: Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry, Communication, Economics, Ethics, Geography, History, Law, Linguistics, Management, Medicine, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Religion, Sociology, and Theology — which shows why Cesidianism is different, and in fact it is radically different from any religion.

The Catholic form of Christianity, while holding on to the traditional words of Jesus, Paul (or Saul) of Tarsus, the saints, and the biblical prophets, is essentially based on papal or human authority, otherwise papal encyclicals would be of minor value in Catholic dogma. The Pope is in fact declared infallible through Vatican I.

The Protestant form of Christianity, on the other hand, rejects papal infallibility but has its own infallibility case in the sola scriptura dogma, and thus the Protestant biblical canon is seen as infallible.

Mahayana Buddhists hold that the potential Buddhist should take refuge in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Taking refuge in the Three Jewels is as known as the Refuge Vows.

The Buddha is, of course, Buddha Shakyamuni. He created the path which all Buddhists follow in order to achieve the end of suffering and enlightenment. In taking this vow, one is taking refuge also in the qualities of the Buddha, which one already has inside of them.

The Dharma is the teaching of Buddha. These teachings are separated into the Sutra teachings and the Tantra teachings. Reading and following these teachings help one to reach enlightenment.

The Sangha is the body of ordained members of the group where one practices. In most cases, the Sangha, or ordained monks and nuns, are constantly working to improve their knowledge and understanding of the dharma, and therefore more often have a deeper knowledge than a lay practitioner.

While Mahayana Buddhists do not take a living person as infallible as Catholic Christians, or have confidence in some static canon of scripture as Protestant Christians, they do have confidence that the Buddha, his Dharma, and the living community of the Sangha can help them. Their approach is characterized by reverence of the Buddha and his empirical approach to religion, and a greater distribution of human authority than under the major forms of Christianity, especially with the doctrine of the "bodhisattva" or "helpers", yet it still depends on the Buddha and what he taught. Figure 1 below shows these relations in the analytic theology Cartesian plane:
 

Cesidians hold neither papal nor scriptural authority sacred, and do not believe Buddha reached the height of enlightenment in his lifetime, so Buddha's spiritual "infallibility" must be taken with a grain of salt as much as papal or biblical "infallibility".

Cesidianism is different, and in fact it is radically different from any other religion because its authority is actually mathematically or rationally-based. Here Cesidianism shares a trait more in common with science than with religion, especially with theoretical or non-experimental science. For a Cesidian, mathematics and geometry are infallible. No, not even experimental evidence is infallible, but theoretical or math-based evidence is.


References and Notes

1. Also known as Jesus Christ to Christians, Yeshu HaNotzri to the non-Christian Jews (the Hebrew term 'Yeshu' may or may not refer to Jesus), and Yeshua HaNotzri, Yeshua HaMeshiach, or Yeshua Ben Yosef to Messianic Jews and Hebrew Christians.

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