Why is my religion wrong?

also, how do you know that jesus is alive?

please don't let this thread die, it's given birth to a multitude of intellectual exchanges. come on, you know you want to argue!

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
buddha, aka siddhartha gautama, achieved enlightenment. he didn't die, and he is freed from the limitations of both the physical form and the self.

also, the only sources on the teachings and statements of jesus are the bible. what if jesus never claimed divinity? what if his followers deified him posthumously?

1. What does "acheived enlightenment" mean?

2. For this to have happened would be as fantastic as for someone in our own time to write a biography of the late John F. Kennedy and in it say he claimed to be God, to forgive people's sins, and to have risen from the dead. Such a story is so wild it would never get off the ground because there are still too many people around who knew Kennedy. The legend theory does not hold water in the light of the early date of the Gospel manuscripts.

3. I know He is alive because I have felt His Presence.

One morning, as I was driving to work, I was listening to SPIRIT 105.3 on the radio, and the song “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me came on. If you’re not familiar with the song, it’s about what you will see, feel and do when you meet Jesus for the first time. As I was listening to it, I started to imagine how I would feel when I see Him.
In my mind, I was standing in an open field alone, and someone came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to see who it was, and it was Jesus! I gasped with my hands over my mouth.

All of a sudden, my mind was instantly transported back to my car and I felt His presence sitting right there in the passenger seat. Then, I reached my hand over to touch my Bible, and I felt like I was holding His hand. As my thumb caressed the embossment where the words “Holy Bible,” were inscribed, instead of feeling the gold indented letters, I felt the scar on His hand from the nail! Tears were pouring down my face.

Originally posted by just me 2
1. What does "acheived enlightenment" mean?

It means become aware that your personality is an illusion, and that your true Identity is that of God, or the Cosmos (actually in Buddhism all deities are considered part of the Great Illusion, albeit sometimes helpful parts). It means shedding all desires and returning to that true Identity.

2. For this to have happened would be as fantastic as for someone in our own time to write a biography of the late John F. Kennedy and in it say he claimed to be God, to forgive people's sins, and to have risen from the dead.

So you're acknowledging an equivalence between Buddhist and Christian mythos, it seems, in that one is no more or less true than the other. That was exactly what the OP wanted you to do.

3. I know He [Jesus] is alive because I have felt His Presence.

Ah. So have I. And I have also felt the presence of the Buddha. In deep meditation, working very hard on myself years ago, I found myself in his presence, and he touched my heart. I gained a lot of benefit from the experience.

I have also felt the presence of the great Mother Goddess, of various gods and goddesses from various mythologies, and of deities of my own design. All such presences are masks of the All, including Jesus.

The problem with many Christians is that they confuse the mask with the Reality underlying it. Jesus is indeed a way, but to say that he is the only Way is simply wrong, and provably so. (Unless, of course, you conveniently put the test off until after death, making the proposition untestable.)

wow 2 steps, so well put. confusing the mask for meaning.
perfect so perfect.

i think it has to deal with insecurity. when you have a manifestation that is less abstract than the meaning, you can attach to it without grappling the bigger issues.

such a good post there.

i guess i'll be using that last way above vote now.