contemporary_religion Sonya This is an offshoot from the blathe do_you_believe_that_god I tried to type my response for that, but I had so much to write that I decided it might be better to place it on its own. Be forewarned: If you don't want to read it or hear it, the "go" link is at the very bottom. Just click. Otherwise those of you who are curious feel free to read on. The tragedy of religion in our contemporary world greatly troubles me. A very large portion of people feel the need to distort the values and basic principles taught by various religions around the world. In reality I feel that most of them are saying the same thing, except in different tones or different ways. I like to think of it as the produce section. Instead of apples and oranges, you have the grapes. You have California table grapes, concord purple grapes, red globe grapes, and black seeded grapes. Hopefully I'm making myself clear with that analogy. They might all have different looks and slightly different flavors, but in the end they are all grapes from the same family. I was raised Theravada Buddhist but over the years I have come to believe that the teachings of Jesus Christ are very similar to those principles taught by Siddartha Gautama (Buddha). I had a friend once who said these 2 individuals (Jesus and Buddha) are actually the same "person" but portrayed differently in different cultures. Whether that is true is up to us to figure out I suppose, but given the fact that approx. 1000 years separates each religion I would not be surprised if in fact they were the same individual. What pains me is that both Jesus and Buddha strongly stressed love and compassion for our fellow man. Both of them also stressed the need to look within ourselves before we cast the first stone or judge another person harshly. "All of us in this world are suffering." "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." I hope I didn't mess those quotes up completely. I don't know how else to say this. I will probably come off as a fool, but I have known a few individuals of certain religions who believe it is right for them to judge others harshly and not look in the mirror at their own faults and mistakes. I have had members of one religion (I am not going to name them because I feel that doesn't help the problem) actually say to my face that what I practiced was evil, vile, and dark witchcraft. (I do not have anything against those associated with Wicca or any other practice, nor have I ever, but the tone in which these things were said obviously conveyed that they looked down on me.) So angry at being told this by two strangers who came to my family's front door I suggested a Buddhist reading material in the hopes that they could see it from my perspective. Their response? "Oh no we could never read that." "Why not???" "Because it's evil and it's against what we believe." At that point I shut the door in their faces. Trying to reason with people who are not open to discussion and intellectual exploration is like trying to find the old needle in the hay stack. The above incident happened when I was 14 and a freshman in high school. I think if it happened to me now I wouldn't be so quick to give up and close the door, but I don't know what could possibly be said to get these people to be more open and realize that everyone is striving for the same thing in life. We just have different ways of going about it. I also DO NOT believe God or the higher power at work in the universe (whatever you want it call it - the force, the almighty, the watcher) put us on earth so we could senselessly kill each other. God/IT does not see us in terms of American or Arab or Japanese or African. A parent doesn't say one child is worth more than the other just because they happen to have different color eyes or hair or one child is strong at mathematics while the other excels at writing. Not trying to sound arrogant, but I'm just using some simple logic here. The golden rule of treating others as we want to be treated seems to have been thrown out the window a long time ago. What does this have to do with religion? I think religion has been around for thousands upon thousands of years to guide mankind morally, ethically, and spiritually. Being raised Buddhist I was taught that above all else, one must accept personal responsibility for one's actions. I very strongly believe in karma and that what goes around comes around. However, I don't spend time telling people what they practice or believe is wrong. The only exception I make is when that belief involves hurting another person deliberately; whether physically, emotionally, or mentally. I believe "God" is out there somewhere watching us. I also believe that it (I find it hard to genderize such a powerful entity) grieves over some of the things that we have done to each other. At the end of the day, God, like our parents, has to step back and let us make our mistakes and hopefully learn from them. This means that if we fall down, God doesn't necessarily need to help us stand up... we would get up on our own with new resolve and learn our lesson. I used to be one of those people who wondered why God didn't step in to stop certain things from happening like the Holocaust or many of the wars we've fought -- each and every tragedy a direct result of man's actions OR indifference. However, I'm really starting to see the concept of God as a parental ideology. If God is responsible for us being here on earth (it's very possible God caused the "big bang" and got the ball rolling on evolution -- I know the bible says contrary, but I still believe this) then it would be logical to say that God is simply waiting in the wings and watching and even more logical that God does not interfere in mankind's actions and events, however brutal or saddening. It is so very easy to point the finger at other people. A very wise lady I used to work with gave me a greeting card on my very last day of work. (I was relocating across the country.) In it she wrote, "Sonya you have within you to do whatever you believe in. Do not allow others to change you. Lead by example: Be the better person." I do not believe she meant to be better on the outside by dressing nicer or some such nonsense. She strongly believed in leading by example by having kinder inner qualities. She wasn't just my manager for a year. She was truly a friend in the end. I think this kind of bonding is what God really intended for all of us. Unfortunately in today's world it is rare to find this. And to throw in a cheesy plug for a great movie.. see the movie "Crash". It explores just how badly people are divided by race and class instead of character. That is all I have to say. To those of you who made it this far, I apologize for having written so much. I've been told by my dad that I'm too opinionated for my own good. (I inherited his stubbornness too.) I love irony. 050629 ... APRicochetMVP wow, sonya. every time i come here, i'm drawn to your posts. it seems that we think on very similar wavelengths. keep in mind that i am writing this from the viewpoint of a christian who attended a baptist church. i have seen first hand some of the hypocricies that you spoke of. i was raised christian and still go to a baptist church occasionally. while we are fairly level headed, some fundamentalists tend to give a bad name not only to christians, but to religion in general. it's funny how some people go on killing in the name of some god of their choice. if you look at different religions, a lot of them say the same things. don't judge others without first judging yourself, coexist with other peacefully, love thy neighbor, etc. in a class i took this past spring, we studied how similar myths (call them what you will, but this course was on greek mythology) occur across different cultures, such as the myth of a great flood as a way of cleansing and starting over. in reference to your comment about intervention, i would suggest reading the book of job in the bible if you haven't already. the basic principle is that satan messes with job in an attempt to make job curse god. god lets it go on as a test, not so much as to why things happen, but more, he lets things happen. the moral is that with faith comes great rewards (another ideology that is common among many religions). it's funny that a lot of good ideas about religion can be found in the movie dogma. it makes a few really good points while keeping a calm air about it. thanks for writing such a great post and sparking something in me i didn't think that i had that much passion about religion, but i think you've started something here =) 050629 what's it to you? who go blather from