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humorist-workshop
I was looking through a few questions on religion (Not a darn clue why, I just was) and I was reading a question about a girl who wanted to become Buddist.
An answer she recieved made me a little upset. This person that answered kept saying how she was choosing the wrong religion and that being Buddist is wrong.
I've noticed things like this before, strong Christians (yes, it is mostly Christians) criticizing other religions. They will rant on and on about how it's the wrong religion.
What is so wrong with believing in Buddah? Why do you have to criticize people who do not believe in God? We have the right to choose our religion and the right to choose no religion at all.
Why do you believe that your religion is the only "right" religion? This has been bothering me for a while.
I really don't want any Christians on this site to feel that I am directing this ONLY at you. But what I've seen on this site about 90% of the people criticizing people for their religion are strong Christians. So, I'm just basing my question on the majority.
I'm sorry if this question has offended anyone.
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It's unfair of you to say that it's mostly Christians. Perhaps in your experiences it's mostly Christians, but people can be close-minded regardless of their religion.
As for the rest, I don't understand why people do that. I don't like the concept of religion overall because it teaches people to be close-minded, but perhaps my Atheist beliefs have led me to feel that way. It's confusing for religious people, because in church & in anything associated with church, it's shoved down their throats that they're right & everyone is wrong. I imagine that it would be hard to hear that from your beliefs & then still remain open-minded.
I went off a bit there, but I think the problem isn't people, but religion in itself. If more religions educated people in religion while also informing them that there is nothing wrong with opposing beliefs, the world would be a better place. But that would make the foundation of that religion seem rocky, so really, there's no way to win here.
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I have seen this numerous other places and it bugs me as well. It really bugs me that people would actually judge someone who was just trying to get advice.
This happens for so many reasons and it honestly shouldn't. There are too many people out there who feel as if they are the only right ones out there and that they must bring the truth to others, even if it is unwanted!
I believe that is completely wrong and inappropriate to judge others and their beliefs. If you are a real strict christian you should know that no one but God can judge a person and that by judging someone you are, in a way, attempting to play God.
I think that everyone should learn to respect the beliefs of others and maybe they will get that respect back. Many of these people don't even take the time to study and know the beliefs of these other religions/ beliefs structures, and that is what makes them all iggnorant.
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There is no one "right" religion. Most people, and there will always be people like this, think that their religion is the only right religion and if you aren't their religion their god(s) will come down from heaven and smite you. I, myself am Christo-Wiccan which means I believe that there is only one God but I also believe in magic. Sure, it's changed people's views of me, but it's what I believe. People should know that if it's what you believe you shouldn't care what others think of you and you shouldn't let it stop you from doing what you want to do. There is nothing wrong with Atheism, being Agnostic, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, etc. Religious tolerance is just as important as racial tolerance. That's almost like saying "you're wrong because you're black/white/indian/asian/european/etc" and we all know that's wrong. You can't help what you believe.
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Okay. I am a christian myself. I believe christianity is the only right religion. But I personally dont look down on other religions. And Like I said its my BELEIF. Im not saying everyone has to believe this, but its true to me. Christians are taught that There is one ticket to heaven, and thats accepting jesus christ into your heart as your lord and savior. Just because other religions dont believe in heaven and hell doesnt make it any less true. (this is from my point of view) And yes you can say some christians are hypocrites. Actually we all are in one way or another, because we are taught not to sin and to be like jesus, and No one is perfect, so please dont condemn us for that. But christians are not the only hypocrites. While I understand where you are coming from, and I am embarassed of the other christians that you say are being like this, but dont think all christians are like this. Not all buddists, hindus, jewish people, or wiccans are perfect either. I have been harrassed more than a few times for my religion by some of the other religions, but I dont look down on people because of their ignorance, but it does break my heart.
And I would like to point out to you that these days, christians are so, so discriminated against by the rest of the world and the government. We get sued for telling someone "merry christmas and god bless" because it offended them to hear it. They wont put the salvation army bell ringers (a great charity) in front of the target stores anymore because it has the word salvation in it. They have banned prayer in schools because anyone else who hears it is "offended" yet a lot of other religions are allowed to do what ever because if anyone says anything they holler "discrimination" even though they just did the same thing to the christians. I just read a story about a high school who had a rally for the gay people in the school that everyone had to attend to teach that its okay to be gay. The supporters in the school wore tshirts that said gay pride and such and expressed their beleifs. The next day, 4 christian boys wore tshirts that said "it was adam and eve, not adam and steve."
and said some bible verse on it to express their own belief. They were sent home and given a suspention for a number of days as punishment. To me thats not fair on 2 levels. I dont think that as a christian I would want to attend a gay rally because I dont believe that and I dont support it. Plus they were sent home for their own beleifs, which is discrimination. Not to mention the senator being questioned for haveing the 10 commandments in his office, but I wont go there. I could go on and on about how its getting worse for us. and I just wanted you to see it from some of our points of view. Im not trying to get on you at all, just giving a different sight.
Sorry its so long, but I tried to answer as best as I can, and I hope you can see it from everywhere, because I do also see where you are coming from.
Good luck with everything and God Bless (hehe)
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I would like to ask you what you know about Buddhism, other religions, and then Christianity. I'll just point out one thing about the faults of Buddhism and how it is a load of paradoxical, poetic piece of garbage.
One of the fundamental ideas of Buddhism is the idea that desire is the root of all suffering, so in order to eliminate suffering in the world you must eliminate desire. So to achieve enlightment in the first place, you must DESIRE to eliminate desire the desire to desire to desire and you get the picture. It doesn't work!
You know what people turn to Buddhism? Because it's nice and easy. There is no right or wrong. There's this one story I heard of a Buddhist who is questioned about his beliefs and how to achieve enlightment, and then the man turns to a dog and cuts the dog in half and justifies it saying that he thought it would lead him to enlightment. Since it lead to enlightment, there is no wrong or right, only the path. The idea of Nirvana is completely subjective. If you believe you've achieved it, then you have. There is no definite being to it.
I was debating with a Buddhist about this several months ago, and he also came across the idea of religion being completely subjective. That Christianity was formed by the thoughts of a man, like Buddhism was, but that is not the case.
Haha, I'm going off on so many random tangents here, but instead of ragging on other religions, I will explain why I support Christianity so much. There was man named Hugh Ross, (www.reasons.org) who was a boy genius who lived in Canada. Back in the old days, Christians were kept in a seperate community from the rest of society, so many Canadians had never met a Christian in their lives.
This boy, Hugh Ross, by the age of 8, had read every single book on astrophysics in the public library. The local university took notice of this boy, and opened up their private library to this kid. By the age of 10, this kid had read every single book in the local university's library about private library about astrophysics.
Anyways, as he grows up, he begins to notice how the universe has so many intricies, but the universe contains 20 variables that are completely consistent, and that if any of these variables was altered in the slightest bit, the universe would cease to exist. So this "boy genius" deducts a theory saying that if their was a Creator, the Creator would leave a book that would be left unchanged by the ages and consistent in the same way.
So by this time, the guy is in college and he starts studying into all the Holy books. He goes through each one finding inconsitencies in them. And then he comes upon Christianity and then he begins to notice things. Things that possibly couldn't have been known thousands of years ago because these people simply didn't have the technology to know such things. Such as, the world was round, and that airplanes would one day roam the skies transporting people.
So this man also begins to find prophecies. Do you know how to figure out the probability of things? What are the chances of a six sided dice rolling a 3? A 1/6 chance. That said, what are the chances of rolling a 3, twice? 1/6x1/6=1/36. A 1/36 chance. So that being clarified, these prophecies in the Holy Bible, the Christian Holy Book, happen to either contain a name, a date, a place, or all 3 of them. So Hugh Ross counts up to 200 of these prophecies coming true within the Bible, and he figured out the probability of all of these things coming true, BY CHANCE and without any form of divine intervention. The probability came out to be 1/1x10^300. Since I am online, I will write that for you. 1/1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000. I doubt that you've ever seen a number that large.
Haha, anyways, so Hugh Ross was like, whatever, forget this, and threw his Bible down. He then proceeded to his next class where the professor gave them a problem. In the very air around you, there are air molecules that are at 0 degrees Celsius, but you don't freeze to death because you feel the accumlative mass of all the millions and billions of air molecules around you, but nevertheless, there are millions of 0 degree molecules in the air. So the professors asks his students to figure out the probability of all of those millions of molecules bouncing around in the air, and then all of the sudden hitting one person simulatenously and freezing that person to death. The probability came up to be 1/1x10^80. That's 1 over 1 followed by 80 zeros. 1/10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.
That number is scientifically impossible. It is impossible for that to happen. If you can rely on the number 1/10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 being completely unreliable and impossible to happen, then I'm sure you can also believe that 1/1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000. is pretty darn unlikely to happen also. So if you can rely on the fact that you won't freeze to death this very moment, I'm sure you can rely on the fact that those very prophecies in the Bible couldn't have possibly have come true without a Heavenly Father in it.
So, I'm tired of apologetics right now, but I'd just liek to stress the fact that if the Bible is validated now, then the Bible strongly stresses that there is only one religion, and that all other religions are simply idols, and the fact that so many Christians in here are conforming to this world and saying whatever to this whole thing is fairly discouraging.
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Mmm... I just noticed how random this reply is, but there is some content within it. I'm not much a forum answer person, so if you'd like to discuss more about it, my AIM screenname: thekimchu.
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i'm catholic and i think its stupid to criticize other religions. if someone wants to believe in something, fine, worship whatever that may be. some christians are taught that if they convert more and more people, the better they are in the faith. some people have problems and really havent seen beyond theyre little faith community. i grew up in pretty open minded household so that might be part of the reason i accept it but anyone with a brain should get over themselves and accpet that no one is perfect and no matter what they think, they all have a right to believe what they want to believe. ok i think i've ranted enough. i could go on forever because that bugs me to no end. <3
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What you believe is what you think is right no matter what religion you are. You may not have any problems with other religions, but you stick to your own and even though you feel other religions are wrong, people are free to believe what they want. Part of being a Christan is helping people understand Christianity in the hopes that they become Christians. Christians feel that they are helping people by letting them know about God and their religion. They're not doing it to force other people to believe what they believe. Christians want other people to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior because they want them to be saved and able to go to heaven...accepting Jesus is the only way to get to heaven. Sometimes young, inexperienced, or fanatical Christians will go about this in a seemingly foreful way. Usually they're not being forceful about it, they just don't know exactly how to say things as to not appear to be forceful. It's likely they don't understand Christianity well enough to be able to explain it well enough, but they know it's their duty to try to bring others to God. They have good intentions, they just don't have enough knowlege on the subject or just have a really hard time putting their knowledge into words that non-Christians can understand. If I knew someone that was overweight I may tell them something like "being heavy like you are isn't healthy for you, you should try losing some weight". A doctor may tell this same person exactly why it's unhealthy and exactly what they should do in a more professional way. The person would feel awful about themselves from what I had said and would be more likely to believe and follow what the doctor told them because the information was presented to them in a better way.
I am a Christian, but I don't try to convert people that don't want to be converted. When the subject comes up I will always explain my beliefs, and when I feel the subject should be brought up I explain my beliefs then too. I explain them as being right because I believe they are. I'm not foreful about it. I feel that people looking at me and seeing my life, my happiness, my strong beliefs, and my devotion to Christianity may become interested in it and make an effort to learn more themselves. My job is only to introduce, advertize, and encourage. It's always the other person's choice. It's just like giving advice. I can say all I want, but it's your choice in the end no matter what. Christans are obligated by their religion to advise other people to become a part of it.
I know a lot of times it really comes out the wrong way, but just try to understand it from a Christian's point of view. If you moved to a new school and the first week you were there you had to show a new student around, you'd have a very hard time. I hope that some of what I said made sense and I hope that it's correct, because I will admit that even though I've been a Christian all my life (almost 20 years), I am still rather inexperienced.
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There is nothing wrong with believing in Buddha. We each have the right to choose the religion, or absence of religion, that we feel is best for us.
Religion tends to be a touchy subject. There are some that believe their religion is the only one and attempt to convert everyone else. While
I do believe in teaching others about my religion if they're interested, I don't think it does a lot of good if it is pushed on someone. To me, a person isn't going to learn unless they're open to the idea to begin with.
I have a friend who I adore except for the fact that she feels her religion is superior. For the sake of our friendship, we simply agreed that we were each entitled to our own opinion and unless the other asked specifically, the subject wouldn't be brought up.
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Nothing is wrong at all with beliving in Budah. I do belive that some catholics do do what you are saying think ther religion is the only one. But I think that only about 30 or 40 percent do that. Anyways I do not know why they do that. If they are true catholics then they should be a good catolics to other. They should just say that is neet that you are trying a new religion bu I prefer catholic. I guess just some people think that they are number one and then that there religion is just number one like that. This is my advice:)
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That's a great point. It does seem that it's mostly strong christians who critizise other religions. I'm an athiest and I get people coming to me and debating stuff with me and it's really annoying.
There's this one kid in my English class who is especially annoying about it. I'll ask him tomorrow and maybe if I remember I'll get back to you about it. It's stubbornness if you ask me.
!~*becca*~!
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You are absolutely right. I'm Catholic, but there's a lot about my faith I disagree with.. so I don't go around trying to force it onto others. Nobody has the right to do that. I don't feel it is the "right" religion. I don't feel any religion is 'right' I feel faith is far more imporant than religion (yes, there's a different between believing in God and practicing religion) but I still won't push that onto others. A lot of my friends are atheists and they're good people. I don't hold people's beliefs against them.
It annoys me how a lot of Christians are intolerant to other people's religions and beliefs, yet the bible teaches tolerance. Many Christians don't embody true biblical values, which in essence, makes them hypocritical. I'm not saying this is the case for ALL, but a lot that I've come across. A lot of them aren't really in touch with their faith, which is sad. I guess when you've been raised with religion you blindly follow it and think it is the right one, and reject any others. Most religious people came from religious families, so they don't know much else. Still not an excuse though.
I find buddhism a very interesting religion. It concentrates mostly on "how to be a good person" rather than "what you can/can't do" which most religions concentrate on. So I have absolutely no problems with it.
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People do that because they aren't open minded and only know their religion, which to them is the right one. It's prejadist (or however you spell that) just like racism but with religion. Those people should be more open minded and less opinionated..but what can you do?? It annoys me too..to see people offend someone they're suppose to be helping. I hope that answers your question! ♥ caitie
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I try to be a Christian myself. I have noticed this too and it breaks my heart. Christians are also very, very hypocritical and that really bugs me. I am a very open-minded person and I hang out with all kinds of people. I totally agree that Christians doing this is very, very wrong. But they are taught that there way is the only right way to go. But I like to keep an open mind. If they don't agree with someone they shouldn't even have answered their question. There is nothing wrong with believing in Buddha. C'mon all you Christians just let people live their lives! Hope I consoled you in some way by replying, lol. :)
<3 ems
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*Smiles sadly*
I am a sixteen year old Wiccan, and so many people in my faith ask the same question that you just did. I want to thank you for not actually putting down any religions here. So many people who claim to be open-minded ask this question and slate another religion at the same time, so I honestly respect you for being so TRULY open-minded!!
The thing is, wouldn't it be rather hypocritical if you belonged to a religion that said all people from other religions go to hell, this is the only true religion, etc, and then fully accepted and condoned other religions?
I do think, however, that people who believe that should keep it to themselves - it's fine to say 'I have full faith in my religion and I believe it's the only true one', because chances are so does the person you're talking to. It's just that when people start saying that other religions are WRONG...
I think you've placed the wrong word when you say 'strong'. Any strong believers will understand how beautiful, magical, strong and powerful faith is, and they will never underestimate that, or a person's right to faith, even when the person they are talking to/about puts their faith in a different deity.
So many young Christians are misguided. So many of them think that preaching is a part of faith. It's the same in any religion - in Wiccanism we call people like this 'fluffy bunny Wiccas'. There is a LOT of discrimination against them, something I'm really not happy about, because many wonderful Wiccans start out as fluffies, just as, I'm sure, many Christians who start out preaching will eventually become wonderful members of their religion.
Don't judge all Christians on what is actually the minority. On here it may be the majority, but very few Christians you encounter in the 'real' world will act like that. Even someone who believes their faith is the only one understands that everyone has the right to believe what they want.
May I ask what religion you are, if you have one?
Blessed Be xxx
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i myself go to a christian church and i understand what your saying. Most strong christians believe that their religion is the right religion and if you dont believe in what they do your stupid or retarded.
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You can't really get mad about this. That just what the people were taught.It's really not their fault.
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