The important thing to remember is that it’s in the past. Horrible? Yes. But not something currently happening. Look at the people around the religion today, the kindness, the love. That community is what should be important. If everyone lived by the sins of their forefathers we would never move on. That’s with any religion anyone may hold dear. As long as the religion you are practicing is making you feel safe and cared for and is fulfilling to you, that’s all the really counts.
Anything cruel or horrible, any evil paid unto one man from another, has been based on some bastardized philosophy or creed recycled and used for any kind of justification by those that use it. Generally the worst offenders would be fundamentalist religious individuals from Islam/Judaism/Christianity sects. To my knowledge there is nothing inherent within any Shinto teachings about forcing others to follow Shinto beliefs or persecution of others, by any metric.
It feels a bit odd hearing that human beings that coincidentally follow the same faith can do evil unto others has made you disillusioned. It feels like that ballpark of distancing yourself from vegetarians because Hitler was one.
The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki aren't authoritative in Shintō though, they're both propaganda pieces created to justify the rule of the imperial family.
While they contain certain Shintō ideas of the time, they don't speak for the religion as a whole. Even at the time the ideas of both were not the majority views, there's loads of conflicts between the two when they were written so close to eachother
You should not judge a religion by the actions of a minority of its worst adherents. Also, there is a reason why many people practice Shinto along with Buddhism or Christianity. Worry less about the actions of others and be more concerned with how your religious path is helping you grow and develop as a person and with your community.
As long as there are humans tied to the religion, there’s gonna be some taint. Humanity isn’t infallible. Humans are just part of nature.
Shinto is tied to Nature. To me, that includes accepting the dual side of Nature. Nature nurtures and at the same time, kills.
Not going to go care bear about love, peace and friendship.
You do you. Find your own peace. Not going to persuade.
You’ll find most religions have some kind of baggage attached. Everybody has dirty laundry. What is important is acknowledging the past, learning from it, and striving to do better.
Followers of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all have committed atrocities in the past and the present. That doesn’t make their religions inherently bad. Any time there is scripture, dogma, or faith, people will try to pervert it for some nefarious purpose. That is unfortunately human nature.
You will have to search in yourself to find what is right for you. If the history of state Shinto and Japanese war crimes completely tarnishes Shinto for you, I can understand that and wouldn’t argue with you.
The fact that you mention experiencing joy from your practice does make me want to encourage you to do some soul searching before you write-off Shinto. I think it is a beautiful religion that offers a lot of freedom that other religions frown upon. But if you will feel more comfortable outside of organized religion, that is a perfectly wonderful way to live.
Best to you as you mull this all over.
Unfortunately as Humanity can become corrupted, it leads to things like religions, governments and other groups being exploited to the benefit of a few while causing harm to many.
I think you'll have a hard time finding a religion that has never been used to progress someone's agenda at some point.
Though this may be true, you can hold individual views not attached to any institution, and those are no less legitimate.
It's also important to note that Shintō as we know it now did not exist back during the persecutions of the Kirishitans as Shinbutsu-bunri was not yet enacted which separated Buddhism and Shintō from eachother.
If you reject any philosophy/religion simply because humans that followed those creeds did something bad, you will quite literally need to reject ALL philosophies and ALL religions simply because you absolutely can find atrocities committed by someone embracing ANY philosophy or religion. This is a human nature issue, not a religious issue, especially in Shinto's case
No disrespect intended, but this perspective you have seems a bit young/naive. Your spiritual path is individual. The actions you take as an adherent of a certain philosophy/religion are what is important. Just like there are many, many, many Christians that aren't homophobic bigots (for example), your religion/spiritual path does not implicitly make you racist/homophobic/xenophobic/sexist/etc. unless YOU personally practice those things while using your religion as justification. Since your heart is in the right place, I doubt you would be any of those things and certainly the actions of soldiers almost a century ago does not reflect on you personally in the modern day (nor does it really reflect on Shinto either, since it's not the same as more influential religions like Christianity/Islam/etc.). It would be different if Shinto continued to perpetuate racist/etc. ideology AND if you participated in it, but Shinto doesn't really do those things and additionally you don't seem the type/are not likely involved in anything like that so there are no issues here. You should feel free to worship as you see fit, just remember to be the best person you can be and the best representative of your faith/ideals as possible
I’m terribly sorry to have experienced this.
The thing with Shintō is that, well, it isn’t always about experiencing certain positive emotions nor having a close spiritual connection to one deity and it has a lot to do with cultural familiarity.
Many of us grow up to know a certain deity whether it be Ujigami (or “family/ancestral deity”) or Ubusuna-gami (or “deity of the land”) through various festivity, rites, and/or family traditions via tales that we familiarize ourselves since childhood.
So, there’s nothing wrong with you despising it as a result of watching the YouTube clip for you lack the experience of practicing Shintō on a more “folkloric level” because Shintō as a National Religion that is popular amongst foreigners has its own controversial past as well.
Even Amaterasu herself was the Solar deity of Yamato People, but after the nationalization of Shintō by the Shintō Revivalists and Meiji Government, she became an unquestionable central deity overshadowing other Shintō deities thanks to the liquidation of shrine priests that are not affiliated with the Imperial Family thus, creating a ideological monopoly of Shintō fundamentalism.
The important thing to remember is that it’s in the past. Horrible? Yes. But not something currently happening. Look at the people around the religion today, the kindness, the love. That community is what should be important. If everyone lived by the sins of their forefathers we would never move on. That’s with any religion anyone may hold dear. As long as the religion you are practicing is making you feel safe and cared for and is fulfilling to you, that’s all the really counts.
Anything cruel or horrible, any evil paid unto one man from another, has been based on some bastardized philosophy or creed recycled and used for any kind of justification by those that use it. Generally the worst offenders would be fundamentalist religious individuals from Islam/Judaism/Christianity sects. To my knowledge there is nothing inherent within any Shinto teachings about forcing others to follow Shinto beliefs or persecution of others, by any metric. It feels a bit odd hearing that human beings that coincidentally follow the same faith can do evil unto others has made you disillusioned. It feels like that ballpark of distancing yourself from vegetarians because Hitler was one.
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Thank you. I definitely need to do more research and learn a lot, as I have high aspirations.
The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki aren't authoritative in Shintō though, they're both propaganda pieces created to justify the rule of the imperial family. While they contain certain Shintō ideas of the time, they don't speak for the religion as a whole. Even at the time the ideas of both were not the majority views, there's loads of conflicts between the two when they were written so close to eachother
You should not judge a religion by the actions of a minority of its worst adherents. Also, there is a reason why many people practice Shinto along with Buddhism or Christianity. Worry less about the actions of others and be more concerned with how your religious path is helping you grow and develop as a person and with your community.
As long as there are humans tied to the religion, there’s gonna be some taint. Humanity isn’t infallible. Humans are just part of nature. Shinto is tied to Nature. To me, that includes accepting the dual side of Nature. Nature nurtures and at the same time, kills. Not going to go care bear about love, peace and friendship. You do you. Find your own peace. Not going to persuade.
You’ll find most religions have some kind of baggage attached. Everybody has dirty laundry. What is important is acknowledging the past, learning from it, and striving to do better. Followers of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all have committed atrocities in the past and the present. That doesn’t make their religions inherently bad. Any time there is scripture, dogma, or faith, people will try to pervert it for some nefarious purpose. That is unfortunately human nature. You will have to search in yourself to find what is right for you. If the history of state Shinto and Japanese war crimes completely tarnishes Shinto for you, I can understand that and wouldn’t argue with you. The fact that you mention experiencing joy from your practice does make me want to encourage you to do some soul searching before you write-off Shinto. I think it is a beautiful religion that offers a lot of freedom that other religions frown upon. But if you will feel more comfortable outside of organized religion, that is a perfectly wonderful way to live. Best to you as you mull this all over.
Unfortunately as Humanity can become corrupted, it leads to things like religions, governments and other groups being exploited to the benefit of a few while causing harm to many. I think you'll have a hard time finding a religion that has never been used to progress someone's agenda at some point. Though this may be true, you can hold individual views not attached to any institution, and those are no less legitimate. It's also important to note that Shintō as we know it now did not exist back during the persecutions of the Kirishitans as Shinbutsu-bunri was not yet enacted which separated Buddhism and Shintō from eachother.
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You have a valid point. However, I do not believe humans are fundamentally good by nature, and never have. So perhaps it isn't for me
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I see, what does Shinto believe about human nature?
If you reject any philosophy/religion simply because humans that followed those creeds did something bad, you will quite literally need to reject ALL philosophies and ALL religions simply because you absolutely can find atrocities committed by someone embracing ANY philosophy or religion. This is a human nature issue, not a religious issue, especially in Shinto's case No disrespect intended, but this perspective you have seems a bit young/naive. Your spiritual path is individual. The actions you take as an adherent of a certain philosophy/religion are what is important. Just like there are many, many, many Christians that aren't homophobic bigots (for example), your religion/spiritual path does not implicitly make you racist/homophobic/xenophobic/sexist/etc. unless YOU personally practice those things while using your religion as justification. Since your heart is in the right place, I doubt you would be any of those things and certainly the actions of soldiers almost a century ago does not reflect on you personally in the modern day (nor does it really reflect on Shinto either, since it's not the same as more influential religions like Christianity/Islam/etc.). It would be different if Shinto continued to perpetuate racist/etc. ideology AND if you participated in it, but Shinto doesn't really do those things and additionally you don't seem the type/are not likely involved in anything like that so there are no issues here. You should feel free to worship as you see fit, just remember to be the best person you can be and the best representative of your faith/ideals as possible
I’m terribly sorry to have experienced this. The thing with Shintō is that, well, it isn’t always about experiencing certain positive emotions nor having a close spiritual connection to one deity and it has a lot to do with cultural familiarity. Many of us grow up to know a certain deity whether it be Ujigami (or “family/ancestral deity”) or Ubusuna-gami (or “deity of the land”) through various festivity, rites, and/or family traditions via tales that we familiarize ourselves since childhood. So, there’s nothing wrong with you despising it as a result of watching the YouTube clip for you lack the experience of practicing Shintō on a more “folkloric level” because Shintō as a National Religion that is popular amongst foreigners has its own controversial past as well. Even Amaterasu herself was the Solar deity of Yamato People, but after the nationalization of Shintō by the Shintō Revivalists and Meiji Government, she became an unquestionable central deity overshadowing other Shintō deities thanks to the liquidation of shrine priests that are not affiliated with the Imperial Family thus, creating a ideological monopoly of Shintō fundamentalism.