Hm, the major religions...pros and cons

About the major religions, Buddhism, Christianity, Hindu, Islam, etc...post what you think are the pros and cons...

This is *N*O*T* a flame thread. Trolls will be searched out and exterminated, whether they be religious or atheist! We want an intelligent discussion here.

 

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Buddhism wins. It has a reasonably logical philosophy for a religion, it starts out by examining the world and drawing conclusions from these observations. Far better than "God says..."

Also they seem to kill less people. That's important.

 

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My brief opinions...

Christianity. I post this one first because there are lotsa them here...pros would be, that they tend to move in very organized institutions. They have all this hierarchy to deal with stuff, and it seems to be more or less efficient to me, I don't know. Also, they do a lot of charity work, which is nice as well. Cons? Hm, a few things like they hate 'unbelievers' intensely from what I've read in the bible. Especially the revelation, which appears to be the product of a twistd mind.

Islam? I know very little about it, it just seems ironic that a religion advocating peace should have so many terrorists claiming its name.

Hindu? Know even less so no comment. Seems nonviolent though, which is cool.

Buddhism? Gotta agree with ya there, it's totally nonviolent (except in some isolated suicide protests...like people burning themselves to death...shudder), at least toward others, and it's not hotheaded like some seem to be. Cons? It's a tad detached, the temples are mostly in inaccessible areas like mountaintops, and they seem less zealous than Christianity in curing the sufferings of others, just that "physical life is useless break out of the wheel" advice.

Atheism is not a religion however I will discuss it. It is not based on faith so it allows for unbridled, logical and scientific thought. No stupid 'moral' barriers there to stop your mind. Cons? Hard to say, since I'm atheist myself but I'd say that atheists have little source of comfort in times of crisis. No 'superior being' or religious principle to comfort you so you're forced to draw on your own strength. That's the only con I can think of, if it can be called a con.


Any thoughts?

 

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i have recently come to undestand this. i used to think that if there is a God then he created everything, including life. To take a life would be to play God which should not be done. however. To die through a love of God and the good things he has created and destroy 'the work of the devil' is the ultimate offering to God. This is to really show him that you love him. however, how can you be sure your opinions/thoughts are right. takes a lot of courage and faith.
Also!!! Does someone have the right to destroy their own life if God made it?? isnt that playing God too?? :bugeye:

And how does this work then (whoever posted it). Like ive said before. reason could be inbuilt into us by our creator as a lesson on why we should not fully trust the human mind!

This line is reason with absolute truth on the left and absolute falsitivity on the right

truth...............................................................................falsitivity
__________________________________________
.................................................................../.................\
.....................................................................Our scope


on the far left is right and on the far right is wrong. We as humans cannot know the whole spectrum because that would mean that we could know as much as god which isnt possible (or not very likely) is it?? We can never know everything that god knows. Maybe our scope of this line is very near the right hand side. So something that seems very right to us is in fact, to god who knows the truth, still very wrong. Faith in pure reason!??

 

Christianity. All pros. No cons.
--------------------------------------------


Con for the forfeit of salvation:

Matt. 7:21-23
'I never knew you.'


Pro for obtaining salvation:

Romans 5:1-2

'Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.................'

><>

 

Actually theres a lot of buddhist social/political action though I dont think they move with the same solidarity that, say christians might. My speculation for the cause of this is that buddhism encourages individuality with sceptical thinking and christianity discourages sceptical thinking. So you have alot of buddhists "seeking their own light" (quote from the buddha) in the political/social action arena. There are more buddhist temples around than you might think. There are three that I know of in my town and many more somewhat supervised meditation groups that meet in peoples homes, churches etc.

 

If you forgive my saying so, you speak from a purely Christian standpoint, assuming that other religions come from a flawed source.

The buddhist suicide protests do go against christian doctrine but not any buddhist doctrine. Remember buddhists do not have any more obligation to christian beliefs that christians do to theirs. Buddhism believes in reincarnation and attainment of nirvana to break out of the wheel of suffering and rebirth. I believe the suicide protests are a way of sacrificing one's chance of nirvana in this life.

And how can you divide the world so simply into good and evil? Is everything either god's stuff or devil's work? I find such simplicity, coupled with some fundamentalist zeal, to be very dangerous in a religion.

Faith in pure reason? Faith is a departure from reason, because you're taking something for granted w/o reasoning if it's right or wrong if you have faith in something.

Some people argue that science is flawed because you have to take previous research for granted. But they overlook that previous people have scrutinized the work most carefully for flaws and errors; it's all been done before.

 

You must be joking! How do you feel about the darker history of Christianity and all of the horrible, bloody things that have been done in the name of your savior? Are those on the "pros" side?

There are pros for Christianity, of course. But it's just terribly difficult for me to overlook all the cons, which far outweigh that meager list of pros in my opinion.

 

When all the philosophical wrappings are removed we find that underneath, all religions are the same. The common theme is that there is a mechanism that allows a human to survive death. This can be some form of spirit or soul or a form of reincarnation where they return in a different form.

This common idea is understandable since man has had to come to terms with death from the moment he evolved sufficiently enough to think. If you have ever had the misfortune of losing a loved partner or family member then you can understand that enormous feeling of loss and disbelief that that person is no longer around. The leap to speculating that perhaps they still exist but in another form somewhere, where their essence still exists, is not difficult to imagine.

Note that nothing here is based on observation but purely on an emotional need to feel that a loved one still exists somewhere, and also that you also will be able to survive somewhere after death. This idea permeates throughout the entire history of mankind and takes on many forms depending on the imagination of the tribes and groups involved.

Once this almost universal idea of life beyond death is established then human imagination spreads further and explores what else might exist in this spirit realm. Extending the idea to gods is again not a giant leap to foresee, especially where early civilizations were highly authoritarian in their nature. The concept of an even higher power over kings is a natural extension.

These imaginative ideas arose largely independently from all corners of the world. And that essentially explains why there are so many different and diverse religions. Note again that nothing has ever been based on observation of such super beings, spirit beings, or otherwise.

The disadvantages of religions are that people are asked to believe something that is just a fantasy and is not real.

The advantages of religion is that if you want to feel happy that you will exist after you die in some form of paradise and that a super powerful father figure will look after you then go for it. It will probably reduce your stress levels by not having to be concerned about death.

The alternative to religion is to establish an objective and rational system of needs for the human race, based on real observations and independent truths. These ideas are embodied in the philosophies of secular humanism and transhumanism.

 

Actually, Buddhism is not totally nonviolent. Shintoism, for example, was part of the Japanese state religion during WW2, or look at recent events in Sri Lanka.

 

shintoism and buddhism are two completely different belief systems. Shintoism is an indigenous japanese folk religion buddhism is of indian origin.

Whats happening in sri lanka?

Thats only true of theist religions.

Theist religions are the only ones that tell their followers that they can take their ego identity with them, that in the after life theyll still like meatloaf, brown sweaters and and the 700 club for instance.

Again thats more about the semite religions, buddhism for instance asks that you take very little on faith. Just that you practice the eightfold path and that you do some kind of meditative practice.

 

I found out whats happening in sri-lanka and it seems there is a political/ethnic struggle going on there that seems to me to be only coincedentially religious:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/514577.stm
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/151/33.0.html

A view from a srilankan buddhist proffessor:
http://www.tamilcanadian.com/eelam/massacres/83/ganan1.html

 

Ummm, okay. I'm going to pretend that you exhibited some knowledge of basic punctuation and grammer there.

Now, with that illusion, you're claiming that Buddhism and Shinto are wildly different? Untrue. Shintoism is a native Japanese religion that was strongly influenced by Buddhism.

Please, please, please for the love of christ tell me you're not American!

 

You may find that Shinto people are rather miffed about Buddhist influence in Japan. In fact the last one I spoke with was very agro about it. Buddhism has been forced down their throats, and they've had to adopt certain Buddhist ideas at various times. They did it because they were ordered to, not because they wanted to.

 

Adam:
Catholicism was forced on the native Mexicans. Are they, thus, not Catholics?

When it comes to philosophy, what who wanted to do when and why is really rather irrelevent when the consequences are hundreds of years old.

 

I guess the Sri Lankan conflict has little to with religion. It has more to do with different language groups, probably cutting across religion.

 

My opinion on Hinduism

Pros:
1) An open & free religion, in spite of being the oldest. No force to follow, no dogmas. One can even remain agnostic as long as one follows some values in life.
2) Believes that God comes back in various forms at various times and hence has no problems accepting gods of other religions as probable incarnations of God.
3) The true nature of God is said to be beyond human comprehension (maya) and what we understand is just a small part of it (the whole structure of Gods). All humans are extensions of the super soul (paramatma) and constantly merge and demerge with the paramatma.
Sounds logical (at least to me!

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)
4) A consummation of a large number of related philosophies, caters to all in various forms, though on a common thread.
5) Doesn't advocate conversions. Doesn't attack those who appreciate other religions too. Many Hindus visit mosques, Churches, Dargahs, Gurudwaras- no guilt attached. No attacks on other religions in history. Mother of a lot of related religions. Hindu societies have smoothly accepted all new ideas.
6) Resilient- lived the onslaught of all other religions without any active defence.

Cons:
1) Laid back. Hindus always were mute spectators while thousands of temples were vandalized and altars of other faiths were built upon them. Most of the valuable philosophy remains unexplored.

 

Under most religious conflicts, there is often that difference in culture that is closely and emotionally tied to religious differences. This turns an otherwise somewhat not-worth-fighting-for cause into a very emotional one that can stir people to arms. The religious conflict is the cause, but it's mostly emotionally beefed by cultural differences.

At least that's the conclusion that I've drawn from my observations of the world.


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There is no god, afterlife or divine love. There is only Entropy, the mother from which we were all born. She tugs our souls with the beautiful, maternal love of chaos. Why do you keep Her waiting?

-central philosophy of Zero, Sage of Chaos

 

*Rolls eyes in disgust*

You can't fault the Catholics for the Inquisition and then turn around and say that the conflict in Sri Lanka has nothing to do with Buddhism.

If the use of Buddhism to incite violence doesn't discredit Buddhism, then the use of Christianity to incite violence doesn't discredit Christianity.

Or did I forget that Christians are automatically held to a higher standard?

Puh-fucking-lease.

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Ok, I'll admit I'd forgotten about Shintoism and its Buddhist influence. Personally I think in such cases the entire religion is responsible for inaction, the failure to stop other members of their religion from causing such atrocities.
So Shintoism can be considered a crime of Buddhism on an equal level as the Inquisition. And Islam...I won't say anything lest I get suicide bombed

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But really, so any religion's theology can be twisted and turned to create machines of death. That gives the religion a bad name.

_________________________________________
There is no god, afterlife or divine love. There is only Entropy, the mother from which we were all born. She tugs our souls with the beautiful, maternal love of chaos. Why do you keep Her waiting?

-central philosophy of Zero, Sage of Chaos