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Originally posted by Jehosephat
Isn't the idea that all you have to do is believe in Christ and you will attain nirvana, better then having to work for it, but never really knowing if you ahve done it right?
Originally posted by ByzantineIcon
If you have faith, how do you show it? Most major religions tell us to help one another. You can do a lot more by organizing a food drive, picking up litter, or even feeding a neighbor's pet while they're away than just handing someone a little brochure. Faith simply isn't enough. I could have faith and sit on my couch the rest of my life. The Tale of the Talents is a good example of this. Jesus, the Lord, is our master; he gave us each a gift of faith when we were saved/baptized. However, why just take the gift of faith and just leave it at that? That is like the servant who buried his. We should strive to be like the servant who went out and multiplied the talents for his master, and good works are merely a part of that.
Always remember: Actions speak louder than words.
Originally posted by UnterMir
i will never say one religion is right or wrong. i was raised a catholic and have gone to 14 years of catholic schooling(i no longer practice) and im sure that any devout christians and anyother religious types would ultimatly say none is right or wrong... as long as a person is fair, moral, and generous to his fellow man and world.
how could a christian say all jews, hindus, buddists, wiccan, muslims will spend eternity in hell (if there is such a thing)... because the christian god says to love all others as their neighbor. no ones right or wrong... as long as they are a good person...
-UnterMir
Originally posted by Esoteric Teacher
Humans allow thier pride and selfishness to blind them.
Humans demonstrate through all their actions and all their behaviors their tendency to fight to keep their ignorance.
To bad the truth can not be supplied or given.
Anyone who is angry and/or hateful are essentially too cowardly to resolve their fears in their own mind. They manifest their fears in my reality and are too ignorant to see their fears have been masked by anger and hate.
Originally posted by whaaa
I too am a Christian but some well known members here on ATS have deemed my brand of Christianity unworthy in their eyes thus "not a real" Christian and probably doomed to hell.
My brand of Christianity embraces a loving, forgiving and merciful God, where all people are welcome in his grace.
Felice Navitad y prospero nuevo anos
Originally posted by queenannie38
Originally posted by whaaa
My brand of Christianity embraces a loving, forgiving and merciful God, where all people are welcome in his grace.
It will be a nice place to be with 'your brand of christianity!'
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
Christians, please explain to me why Christianity is right, and all other religions are wrong. State specifics, no personal attacks, and don't stereotype other religions.
from Jesus and Buddha, The Parallel Sayings; Editor Marcus Borg, copyright 1997, Ulysses Press, Berkeley California
Jesus:
Mark 7:15
There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
Buddha:
Sutta Nipata 242
Stealing, deceiving, adultery; this is defilement. Not the eating of meat.
Jesus:
Matthew 6:19-20
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Buddha:
Kuddakapatha 8.9
Let the wise man do righteousness: A treasure that others can not share, which no thief can steal; a treasure which does not pass away.
Jesus:
Mark 3:29
But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation:
Buddha:
Vinaya, Cullavagga 7.13.16
Do not there be a schism in the order, for this is a serious matter. Whoever splits an order that is united will be boiled in hell for an aeon.
Jesus:
John 8:32
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Buddha:
Dhammapada 13.2
One who acts on truth is happy in this world and beyond.
Jesus:
Luke 6:31
And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
Buddha:
Dhammapada 10.1
Consider others as yourself.
Jesus:
Luke 6:27-30
But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.
Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.
Buddha:
Dhammapada 1.5 & 17.3
Hatreds do not ever cease in this world by hating, but by love; this is an eternal truth...
Overcome anger by love, overcome evil by good.
Overcome the miser by giving, overcome the liar by truth.
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
the author of this clearly missed the whole point of Buddhism.
1) the author wanted to find meaning, though the whole point of Buddhism is the eventual realization of the lack of self
2) the author thinks of karma as a law, but it is more of a natural force. this leads the author to claim that anything that has an unknown creator is empty, a horribly unproveable claim.
3) the author brings up one of the more ignorant and regressive views of karma, the rich and impoverished newborn. this is the dogma which the Buddha wished to expose as a lie used to keep the masses in check (in the religion of the Hindus.) the true point of the system is not what standing you are born into, but how much closer the form you are in is to enlightenment.
4) the author keeps going back to WHO and then looks for a sovereign judge to rule on who gets a life of pain and who doesn't, but this goes back to the ignorant view of karma.
5) the author feels that the only way to true peace is assurance in salvation, which is the desire to know one's faith. unfortunately for many, this fear is the fuel for their faith.
overall, it seems like the author never attempted following the Buddhist path, and is merely attempting to stave off its growth in the western world. the research done seems like something any youth could do by scanning through a wikipedia entry.
no offense to your beliefs, but the article was quite subpar
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
the website you linked to has one part with a counter saying that of the over 150,000 people that died today the majority will go to hell, THIS is why many evangelicals anger me. WHY are the majority of these people going to hell????
Originally posted by just me 2
Because Jesus said it first!
Matthew 7:13
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it."
John 14:6
"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 3:16-18 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."
Originally posted by LoneGunMan
Originally posted by just me 2
Because Jesus said it first!
Matthew 7:13
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it."
When you add up all those folks who believe that salvation through JC is the only ticket to heaven, I would say that gate could not be described as narrow.
John 14:6
"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
This tells me that Jesus meant, you must live as I do, for to come to the father one must live as Jesus did. This quote has nothing to do with believing Jesus is God and the only way to heaven is through repenting and believing his death is our way into heaven.
John 3:16-18 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."
This again could mean that one must believ in living the way Jesus did, not that one must believe in salvetion through this great prophets death!
Originally posted by queenannie38
Originally posted by Esoteric Teacher
Humans allow thier pride and selfishness to blind them.
And/or insecurities and the baggage of past emotional damage (often sustained as a child--therefore it is hidden and quite firmly rooted).
Humans demonstrate through all their actions and all their behaviors their tendency to fight to keep their ignorance.
But is it not of a nature inherent to ignorance, itself, that maintains ignorance? Rather than a human tendency to fight enlightenment--that is, it is ignorance's fight for survival.
To bad the truth can not be supplied or given.
That's true--but then, to me, it seems that part of it's pricelessness is the cost of realizing it. It seems like a dear cost, at first--but in the end, seems like the bargain of the century.
Anyone who is angry and/or hateful are essentially too cowardly to resolve their fears in their own mind. They manifest their fears in my reality and are too ignorant to see their fears have been masked by anger and hate.
That's rather harsh....
to be a coward is avoiding fear that is known to be fear, right? But what I perceive, about the human condition, in general, is that the blindness is something we are blind to, in itself.
Once we see something that we didn't see before, we hasten to correct the situation.
It's the world that helps our egos maintain our blindness--obscuring truth amid the tools so readily provided to enable our dysfunctional and groping coping/defense mechanisms.
It's the world that helps our egos maintain our blindness. ... .
Anger and hate, on all levels, are not primary causes themselves, but are secondary to pain and hurt.
Someone who hates is someone who has felt, or feels, hated themselves.
Someone who is angry is shielding themselves from real or imagined past, present, or future pain.
The real victim is the hater or the angry person--part of loving our neighbor as ourself is to realize that it is not directed toward us and therefore to avoid making the negative worse by reacting to something that has nothing to do with us.
By reacting, we choose to take of their negative instead of giving of our positive. And that, also, is selfishness and 'sin.'