Can religions ever exist peacefully?
Thursday, July 2, 2009
i believe that people misunderstand sometimes. all religions and manifestations are from ONE GOD, so then they all the the SAME message, but they just come at different times with different teachings. i know that one day, religions will exist peacefully, i believe that.
PEACE.
Not as long as there is judgement instead of acceptance. That is the reason I have no respect for religions as they are now. I have no problem with where you choose to worship or how, I do have problem with your judgement of me and claiming that the bible is god's word when it is really the writings of man. Your decision that I am a sinner because I am different is not very god-like. If we are all made by god, then I am no mistake and I am no threat to you. I accept that you have your belief system which may be different from mine, but do not accuse me of anything wrong when I live in peace and respect of others and of the earth.
I think people should be able to respect others' beliefs, even if they don't agree with them.
If mankind is to avoid annilation, they must.....there is only ONE Religion which unfolds in every age but followers get in an " arrested development" fixation and cannot progress to the next page....eg. whether one says "Jehoveh", "Buddha", "Mohammed", "Jesus", "Baha'u'llah" etc, they are referring the the Messengers from the ONE God as He , from our inception, has sent His Love to us in the human form of a perfect Representative. Each has expressed the essence of the Golden Rule.
No, because people kinda suck and we screw things up and get irrational about things in which we care deeply about and people don't like to agree to disagree they like to be right.
Anyone who thinks religions cannot exist peacefully has never read the Baha'i writings and the teachings of Baha'u'llah.
No they cannot, because people identify themselves as the religious ideal of their own choosing, and so see the choices of others as wrong in order to make themselves feel right. This is the basis of religious conflict.
I think the problem is the everyone thinks that they are right, and want everyone else to believe what they believe.
They can and at one point in history they did. Pre Crusades, Muslims, Jews and Christians lived amongst each other in peace in certain parts of the world. After the Crusades ( in which Europeans went to the middle east to spread their version of christianity) all that changed and has been going down hill ever sense. Unfortunately its to much ignorance in the world now that most people don't realize that they all believe that there is only one God and that different groups and cultures have a way of practicing it.
Religions have no problem coexisting. Those darn followers are the problem. Always have been.
@zamfir You may be right, but until we evolve out from underneath our genetic tendancy to believe in a higher power (a majority of the species is afflicted), it'll be a challenge to get everyone on board. We may destroy ourselves before then. My belief is that it might be more effective to unite under a common religion, since we are prone to religion anyway. (Of course, I am one of those "afflicted", so I have a bias! :) But seriously, I do believe that religion is from God, and its purpose is to unite, and that if it fails to do so, its absence would, in fact, be preferable. This concept comes right out of the Baha'i Writings.
@saralee09 I thought that Muhammed DID write the Koran, or at least was supposed to. As far as I remember it was the inspired word of God that let an illiterate prophet transcribe his word exactly. Oh, except for those couple of passages that Muslims ignore because "Muhammed was being tempted by the devil when he wrote them".
Anyway, you have nice ideas and I'd love to agree with you (I'm all for peace and harmony, I really am) but you haven't supported your position. In responding to my points you claim God was "defending his prophet and shaming the ones that don't see the light in them" and then attribute this to "fear, attachment to faith of choice, jealousy of power" ... now, are you saying those are traits God has towards his people or that the people have? Because you made it sound like God was like that, but I don't think you meant to and it certainly wouldn't support your point.
@krillinhazuki Muhammad helped people of other faiths all His life. He helped build them shelter, provided them with unconditional love. Now the issue is people don't recognize the prophet of God when He comes due to many causes, such as conformity. This is frustrating in the least bit.. God says "look at my signs" and many ignore. This does not mean one prophet is wrong and the other is right, they all confirm one another. The next one confirms the previous one, and so on. Now like I've said before, these visuals should not be taken literally. God is defending His prophet, and shaming the ones that don't see the light in them that is quite obvious due to fear, attachment to faith of choice, jealousy of power, need for power etc. Also Jesus didn't write the bible, Muhammad didn't write the Quran. Baha'u'llah is the first prophet of God to write His own works that the world ha account of, if we but recognize. And He says nothing of the sort. Where does the problem of communication begin.... hmmm... man? Just my take on it.
@braxtonrob @hittingthesingularity @TutherBrother @SoG
OoOoOoOoKkKk... So, looks like I started a fire I didn't even mean to. Sorry!
Firstly, @braxtonrob 's response is wholly ignorant, inflammatory and mistaken. I'll just say this: I didn't ever blame anything on religion. EVER. I'm not trying to argue that religion is the cause of "all the bad deeds in the world" at all (it's clearly not). You're being incredibly rude and presumptuous. I've been studying comparative religion for years, have many religious friends (of different denominations) and respect them all. You, sir, are the one who is speaking blatantly, I've said nothing controversial and have intentionally insulted no one.
Real quickly, here are a few quotes I dug up haphazardly to illustrate my point:
OLD TESTAMENT:
"When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you. And when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them." (Deuteronomy 7:1-2)
“I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.” (Exodus 23:27)
"And he should go and worship other gods and bow down to them or to the sun or the moon or all the army of the heavens, ...and you must stone such one with stones and such one must die." (Deuteronomy 17:3-5)
KORAN:
"Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'" (Bukhari 84:57)
“I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them.” (Sura 8:12)
“Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and those who are with him are ruthless to the Unbelievers, but merciful to each other.” (Sura 48:29)
[Allah's Apostle said] "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him." (Bukhari 52:256)
Alright, so all I'm trying to point out is that there is a bit of a disconnect between the "Religion is love and harmony" view and the reality of the matter. Again, I'm not saying it's all bad. Obviously, there's a ton of great morals from Jesus and the like that even an atheist can appreciate. I believe it a mistake, however, to not acknowledge these other messages often hiding in very plain view.
A note to the Christian: the most popular method of apology for Old Testament violence and hate is to say that it was simply retelling historical events that aren't relevant to the modern Christian. This is fairly reasonable but lacks perspective. Most of the historical events listed in the Bible didn't even happen. This leads one to believe that they were constructed as parable to teach a lesson (obedience/piety in Noah's Ark, faith in Job, etc.). If we take this line, however, what is the lesson to be learned? That's where you run into problems.
The Koran is a lot harder to defend... The historical context argument is difficult to mount with such passages as above. "If you see a Jew, kill him" (not a quote) seems pretty cut and dry to me. Anyone caring to mount a defense of Islam, please do so. I have Muslim friends you are perfectly reasonable, non-violence, intelligent and fun. They do the same thing Christians do when they just willfully ignore certain teachings of their prophet. Do they apologize? Nope. But they acknowledge the words are in there and that the message (at least for the people it was originally intended) wasn't wholly peaceful
I would appreciate the discontinuing of insulting remarks against my character and intellect when I'm simply providing a view w/evidence
@krillinhazuki I think what you know about (any) religion could probably fit in this small box, (and it would still be at least ½ wrong.) How convenient to blame the world's religions for all the bad deeds in the world; especially, when you know practically nothing about them.
@krillinhazuki thanks for the spell check, not my strong point.
give me a few quotes then. Things can be misinterpreted to mean things like that maybe, and that is what is wrong with clergy. Most people nowadays can read and interpret the writings of any faith themselves so they don't need to be told what to believe. corrupt clergy can misinterpret the writings purposefully so as to convince people to do something that is not truly what is meant by the manifestation.
@krillinhazuki Really, my friend, it would do you no harm to cultivate your naivete. ~<>:-}
@krillinhazuki the only time that the Koran ever advocates violence in any way is when Muhammed gave his followers permission to defend themselves with arms if ever attacked because of their faith.
Well, considering that all religions teach love and unity, I'm pretty sure it's gonna happen one of these days.
@hittingthesingularity Mmkay, it's "religion" with a "gion"....
Anyway, I'd argue the opposite, in that, if people actually read their holy text and what they say to do and thought it was 100% holy and indicative of how to live their lives, they'd probably all be extreme fundamentalists. The Bible relays the stories of God commanding the Israelites to do unspeakable evil things in his name... The Koran most definitely advocates military conquest to spread the word. etc.etc. the list goes on. I find it rather naive to assume the heart of every religious text is love and forgiveness when the real words are just sitting there waiting for you to read.
Since there is only one religeon, really, the religeon of God, then it completely makes sense that religeons should get along. In fact, i think that most people in the world don't want to kill other people just because they are a different religeon. It's only a few fanatics who are extremely misguided that want to kill for what they say is religeon. But really, it is greed that they are really motivated by, or else they are misguided by someone else who is using greed. I seriously doubt there is anyone who actually tries to follow their religeon to the best of their extent and would cause a war.
No, no, no, not ever, nunca, nil, no.
Religious groups were fundamentally formed as just that: groups. The idea that they could get along (or in some cases even accept each other's existence) without all being in the same group seems counterintuitive to the extreme.
I also apologize if anyone finds the drawing blasphemous. You can only do so much with Microsoft Paint.
@Jennifer
I agree with you - I think that diehard religious fanatics get so caught up in trying to painstakingly follow every word in Religious texts that they forget that every religion was essentially founded on the same thing.
Most religions preach love and tolerance, but people seem to be so busy condemning followers of other religions that they don't take the time to remember that. As long as people maintain that they are following the one and only true religion, coexistence will continue to be difficult.
@anandavimal wrote on SP once that a spiritual teacher might employ a strategy of down talking other teachers in order to bond his student to him or herself. Interesting. Let us assume there is some value in this, for the sake of argument. By extension, we might surmise that there is some value in being a member of some religious community, and we might expect that, for the sake of bonding, that community might down talk another community. Now, supposing that these rules of play are clearly understood, and supposing that down talk never crossed a certain line, such as killing, or even better, insulting, in that event I believe it is highly possible for religions to coexist. People just get carried away with them sassy truth seeking selves. There is more in common than not among religions.
i think Jesus, Mohamed and Budha would be able to hang with Abraham, and Shiva. But as far as the people that follow their philosophy, chances are slim to none.
Nope.
Even if not at war the conflict would be passive aggressive and far from true peace.
Maybe...it's hard to say. Like you said many believe that they are the only ones right, and anyone else needs to be converted or destroyed. So I don't see any peaceful relationships any time soon.
DISCUSSION TOOLSET
@leonferg Thinking that religions can or cannot coexist means nothing. Despite the teachings of the Baha'i - look around you (globally)... Do they coexist now?...