Religion

[aznkangaroo3]

Although everyone says that religion is what separates us for each other, I find all lot of benefit from religion. In most religions, there is always a higher being (a God, Buddha, etc). Whether these beings are real or fake is entirely up to judgment. I find that these beings play in important role in society whether real or fake. Either way, it gives us all something we need... HOPE and FAITH. It gives every a spark of hope/faith that every will strive to create a fire of happiness, I guess, in their life (whether awful or good). The created place that every seeks to go to after death gives everyone a reason to live happily with what they have and to do good deeds. Therefore, I support the role of religion. It doesn't matter which religion is right or wrong, it gives as general system of hope.

Please post any comments, objections, or questions you may have :).
I am sorry if I may have offended anyone with these comments :(.

[Satralis]

Well i would also support such a religion...but in most cases it requires sacrifices (financial, or habits and the worst case is suicide) that makes them a bit unjust. Although its true that human nature itself suggests that you only may gain something if you sacrifice something in return, so basically if the believer for egs: donates money than he feels that hes done something good. Well the hope giving part is truly admireable...

[aznkangaroo3]

That is the only thing I hate about religion, the amount of sacrifices everyone must make. My mom being a very superstitious person feels forced or obligated to donate to the temple every Sunday (Buddhist temple). When ever my mom feels guilty or feels sinned, she would sometimes punish herself by starving. According to http://www.dictionary.com , religion sets the life or condition of a person in a religious order :( Because they are expected to follow such order, they feel obliged to follow. I just find it wrong for religions to make a person feel guilty or constained.

[meanlilkitty]

Religions not about sacrifice, money, or any of that other crap.

religion |riˈlijən|
noun
the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods ? details of belief as taught or discussed ? a particular system of faith and worship ? a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance

Pulled straight out of the dictionary, and it says nothing about those things. I do agree though that most organized religions have corrupted something that is meant to be this beautiful thing that is suppose to benefit mankind. It's not suppose to be what it's become. Why would any god/God want money or any of that other bologna? He/she's freakin' God! No, it's man who's perverse the concept, whether it be for greed or some other stupid thing.

I consider myself a religious person, but refuse to practice organized religion for these reasons. And also because my beliefs don't fit into one category. I think all religions tie in together, well, at some of the older ones. If I were God I wouldn't send just one person down the preach to an entire world. Jesus, Buddha, etc...I think they're all kinda like brothers sent time with the same mission. It just came off a little differently from each.

Like I stated, and you've mentioned, religions a great concept. It gives us a reason to behave, and I think that without the possibility of some kind of consequence for wrong doing they world be a lot worse off. It'd be complete chaos. Of course there's also law, but that concept really didn't come around until ancient Greece. With any ancient cultures, from some of the earliest known, there's always some form of religion or worship. Plus, law can only reach so far. A good moral code goes a lot farther than any law could. And you don't have to be religious to have good morals, but it does seem that that's where the idea comes from. That's my opinion anyway...

It's one of those topics I'll go on and on about. :D

[aznkangaroo3]

I agree with you entirely, the problem is that most people do not look into their religion as much as you do, so they become so ignorant on the true purpose and value of their religion. Sometimes when I go to the temple to pray and perform religious ceremonies, I sometimes ask myself is all of this really necessary? If I want to obtain faith from Buddha (or any other higher being), why must I share my prayers with others and why do I have to participate in ceremonies. I find that if there are Buddhas (Buddhism is polytheism), it is not necessary to conduct these tedious and painful ceremonies to call for help or to ask for forgiveness. I find as long as these beings understand our feelings and our beliefs it is unnecessary to do such actions. This statement is based on my ceremonies, it may be different with other temples AND OTHER RELIGIONS.

[Hyuver]

I agree with you entirely, the problem is that most people do not look into their religion as much as you do, so they become so ignorant on the true purpose and value of their religion. Sometimes when I go to the temple to pray and perform religious ceremonies, I sometimes ask myself is all of this really necessary? If I want to obtain faith from Buddha (or any other higher being), why must I share my prayers with others and why do I have to participate in ceremonies. I find that if there are Buddhas (Buddhism is polytheism), it is not necessary to conduct these tedious and painful ceremonies to call for help or to ask for forgiveness. I find as long as these beings understand our feelings and our beliefs it is unnecessary to do such actions. This statement is based on my ceremonies, it may be different with other temples AND OTHER RELIGIONS.

well my friend actually you are wrong, I'm also a buddhism that's kind of ceremony and the other story is a kong fu cu(I don't know what it called in english but we called it like that here) it's a buddhism mixed with taoism and other chinese old custom.

The actual Buddhism is about how you improve yourself, it's teach nothing about god, or something mystic like that ceremony. In Buddhism we are learning about how we improve ourselves to be a better person.

In Buddhism you just need to know one thing which is "Ehipassiko" means that you must witness/try it first before you believe in it...
It means that you should not believe what you can't believe, because people view on a opinion is different on the other, so even if it's a god like allah/buddha/jesus or someone you regard very highly you don't have to believe in it if you find it's not logic.. people have different perspective so it's impossible for us to agree on the whole thing.. you should just believe in what you find it's logic, it's ok as long as what you believe doesn't harm yourself and the others...

for example I never really believe in what they say in afterlife, about 13 stage of Hell and all the punishment in there and blablablabla, I find it not logic because there are no person who have been comeback from dead so there is no exact thing about what would happen on the afterlife and I find it's just too painful to imagining whether I would go to heaven or hell and just make me pessimistic about life so I decide to not to believe in thing such as afterlife, I believe in karma but the problem is me on the next reincarnation is not the "me" right now....

Anyway religion for me it's about our own self with god. Don't care about the opinion of the other's but respect what the other believe, there is nothing such as absolute truth in this world..

anyway sorry if you find my post confusing, since english is not my first language

[playsafe]

I agree with Hyuver. The bible also tells you to love yourself then God... (read it. Although one can decipher it in many ways)

Belief is a very weird thing. There are many types of beliefs. Like belief out of fear, or belief out of unconscious wanting. So it is positive and negative.
Belief in seeing and just belief can change in many ways... There are certain occasion where just believing is very harmful. In science you have to be very critical. When there is a fire and you don't see it, it is better to believe that there is a fire for your safety. There are so many different occasion and different responses that we can never determine if religion is right or wrong.

[meanlilkitty]

well my friend actually you are wrong, I'm also a buddhism that's kind of ceremony and the other story is a kong fu cu(I don't know what it called in english but we called it like that here) it's a buddhism mixed with taoism and other chinese old custom.

The actual Buddhism is about how you improve yourself, it's teach nothing about god, or something mystic like that ceremony. In Buddhism we are learning about how we improve ourselves to be a better person.

In Buddhism you just need to know one thing which is "Ehipassiko" means that you must witness/try it first before you believe in it...
It means that you should not believe what you can't believe, because people view on a opinion is different on the other, so even if it's a god like allah/buddha/jesus or someone you regard very highly you don't have to believe in it if you find it's not logic.. people have different perspective so it's impossible for us to agree on the whole thing.. you should just believe in what you find it's logic, it's ok as long as what you believe doesn't harm yourself and the others...

for example I never really believe in what they say in afterlife, about 13 stage of Hell and all the punishment in there and blablablabla, I find it not logic because there are no person who have been comeback from dead so there is no exact thing about what would happen on the afterlife and I find it's just too painful to imagining whether I would go to heaven or hell and just make me pessimistic about life so I decide to not to believe in thing such as afterlife, I believe in karma but the problem is me on the next reincarnation is not the "me" right now....

Anyway religion for me it's about our own self with god. Don't care about the opinion of the other's but respect what the other believe, there is nothing such as absolute truth in this world..

anyway sorry if you find my post confusing, since english is not my first language

Very well put, broken English or not. :D I totally agree with all that, and have never studied any for of Buddhism, but it's exactly how I feel about the whole thing. No particular belief can be proven, so we simply use our own judgment to come up with our own ideas of how it should be done. It's all about finding spirituality in one's self.

[Wolf]

Religion always gives me a headache :confused:, and yet I always get drawn into discussions about it.

So as not to bore everyone to tears I'm going to express my humble observations of religions in a brief and possibly crude manner. Being a more spiritual and philosophically based believer, I always look forward to a dialogue about belief and would love to listen to everything you have to say about religion.

Organized religion although scorned by the majority of the youth population, did and does serve its purpose. The bottom line is that it is run by humans and therefore can't be perfect. jews, christians, and muslims all believe in the same dude but just can't agree on certain points. Mainly that jews beleive themselves to be the chosen people of god, the christians belvie Jesus to be both divine and human(god's son), and Muslims believe the Quran to be the final word from the big guy himself as told by the prophet. Sure we have a lot more differences thatn that but those are what I see to be the 3 major divides. So you can see great good in each of those religions even if they tend to narrow themselves into their own modes.

I love Eastern religions especially because of their focus on the betterment of one's self as a person. Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism all talk of bettering themselves but seeing as I'm not nearly as versed in those religions I'll leave the explaining to a better qualified candidate. Which I'm hoping we have because I'd be engrossed in those posts specifically.

Organized religion does help keep people in line even if non-practicing people from outside the religion believe the reasoning behind the teachings to be more or less loopy. But hey, if I whole heartedly believed that a big dude in a toga sittin on a cloud would fire a bolt of lightning up my *** if I killed somebody then I'm pretty sure I wouldn't go around killing people.

What I have seen from my newbie study of religion is that we all want to follow the Golden Rule. The only problem is that we can't seem to come across in the right way and could never come to an amalgamation. We tend to judge others sitting in our own shoes when we should be exploring that other person's perspective while we stand in their shoes. I always stress loving others as you love yourself. I guess that's just the Catholic(even though I claim no religion as my own) in me but just think about that idea for a bit. Widening one's sphere of understanding and love to an ultimately global level if practiced purely by everyone on a day to day basis would make this dirtwad a pretty nice place to live on.

Who knows I'm probably just stark, raving insane to think that romantically but I'll still stake myself in trying treat everyone compassionately as a unique and equal meatsack. Yep that's about as short as my brainfarts go. Sorry if I confused you just as much as I confuse myself. :p

[midorika]

well my friend actually you are wrong, I'm also a buddhism that's kind of ceremony and the other story is a kong fu cu(I don't know what it called in english but we called it like that here) it's a buddhism mixed with taoism and other chinese old custom.

The actual Buddhism is about how you improve yourself, it's teach nothing about god, or something mystic like that ceremony. In Buddhism we are learning about how we improve ourselves to be a better person.



Kong Fu Cu or Kong Fu Zi? Either, I think you are refering to Confucius. I'm a mix of buddhism and taoisme. Anyway, I'm still my own religion. I don't submit much into their teachings and really don't know much about it. I develop my own and yea, of course there are similarities - we're all homo sapiens.
I still light the incense sometimes, but only when my parents asked me to. I do still held on to some of the traditions, and that's because of how i was brought up. It's just some customs that has been going on for a long time since our ancestors and we're just maintaining the routine. But it doesn't stop there, the new generation improvised and did not follow any practice that is irrelevant to the current community. People improve, we don't see anymore human sacrificial ceremony here don't we.
Religion is just a belief. Whatever different people with different perspectives of it, it doesn't really matter. Yes, just respect it. Of course, if it's too extreme or inappropriate, I think we have the right to say something about it.
Humans have to live with it. If human don't believe in something - their religion or some other matter - would they be able to live on??

Though, I really liked all those Buddha's stories. They are all very touching and meaningful. Myths or legends, as long as they're purposeful and teach us to be better. Hong Kong's drama - The Journey to the West was done nicely and it's my favourite classic.

Most religions stem out from the same roots. Japanese are also in buddhism, but theirs are of the north teachings. It's basically the same, Chinese and Japanese plus Indians, just a bit of differences. Isn't that just like how Christians, Jews and Muslims are? Because of the circumstances in which the things are done, the end-results varied.

Why don't people try and understand other religions? For my case, I would like to study the bible and al-Quran when I have my time after my exams is over. And then, I want to read up some mantras.. I want to know more and really decipher its true meanings, I believe I'm a fair person and will only think about good things of either parties. Then, I want to compile all the facts that I've gather and construct something new. Maybe something that can be accepted by all, make it all the same... That leaves only the Arabian language for me to learn... That's one of my goal in life, a feat to achieve and challenge myself with. I want peace.

[renegade0]

you study quran? islam got very bad name after 9/11, y know. in my experience, people tend to not doing any ritual, no matter how easy it, if they didn't think it's easy. Ex: in my country, some people not attending shalat eventhough what you need is a clean place, and 3 minutes (sometimes 5 minutes)