Dalai Lama: Conflicting Philosophies of World Religions

reply to post by Laokin

Dear Laokin,

I'm very grateful to you for taking the time to explain your thinking to me. Let me see if I can say anything that makes sense.

I think you are absolutely right when you say faith doesn't require belief in a deity. Where I misunderstood you was that, in my mind, religion involved some kind of god, and for you it doesn't. But you do seem to be saying that even though God isn't involved, morals are.

So in other words, Religion = Faith/Belief which is the moral rhetoric used to justify how any particular person(s) chooses to live.

To this point I understand you, then you throw me a curve.

This is inherently the reason why religion as a whole is bad.

Don't we have to have some moral rhetoric to justify how we live? Mine happens to be the Bible, with an emphasis on the New Testament, but doesn't everybody have to have something?

But then you explain yourself (sort of)

It's because people craft outlandish and ridiculous and unchallengeable rhetoric to justify their actions, instead of acting in an appropriate way because they truly know and understand without fault, why things are right and wrong.

Your position is that some people have the wrong rhetoric, and some people have the right rhetoric? If you had explained how to tell the difference, the distinction would have been more helpful.

But you do offer one clue. If a person's "rhetoric" involves being based on a deity, then it's bad rhetoric.

And you follow up your curve with a knuckle ball.

Either we are all free and not oppressed and thou shalt never murder, or we only think we are free and not oppressed but we murder on occasion to silence dissent, to continue the oppression of those unaware.

Free people don't commit murders, but slaves and the unaware murder in order to continue the oppression of the unaware, who are the murderers. Sorry, but you're going to have to help me out here, one more time. I wish I was able to follow, but there must be a word or an idea that I'm misinterpreting.

Thanks for your time.

With respect,
Charles1952

reply to post by Laokin

And diversity among one religion will cause the same outcome, fabricated war.

Not really in the long run. Are you forgetting the generally event peace within the defined realms of different centers of faith.

Diversity in argument = non-agreement. Non-Agreement = The pretense of war.

non agreement. Not disagreement. In disagreement, cooperation occurs. In non agreement, war.

Religion is nothing more than a panacea to ease the pain of our realized mortality.

For the most part we join the religion of our parents or the prevailing religion of the
region we were born into. It is very hard to believe in something other than what your
parents and peers believe, and for the sake of convenience we generally stick to
the religion we were "born" into. We find comfort and justification in the many
like-minded people that religion provides.

It is lazy, it is convenient, and it is without courage.

I'll take the innate and indescribable spirituality that I feel over the pre-packaged
dogma of any organized religion.

I do not need a sheperd...I am not a sheep

Originally posted by rival
Religion is nothing more than a panacea to ease the pain of our realized mortality.

For the most part we join the religion of our parents or the prevailing religion of the
region we were born into. It is very hard to believe in something other than what your
parents and peers believe, and for the sake of convenience we generally stick to
the religion we were "born" into. We find comfort and justification in the many
like-minded people that religion provides.

It is lazy, it is convenient, and it is without courage.

I'll take the innate and indescribable spirituality that I feel over the pre-packaged
dogma of any organized religion.



you are absolutely right. i am not part of the sheeple project, nor do i intend to be. spirituality, in my opinion, trumps any religion ever invented. i know who i am, and i know whats right morally and ethically. i do not need religion telling me this. its built in to every human. they just dont see it, lose it, or let others tell em how to use it. im my own person nobody tells me whats right or wrong. we dont need religion to do that, just integrity and morality.
I do not need a sheperd...I am not a sheep

reply to post by seedofchucky


"Seed of Chucky" Sorry ummm Where to begin? I just spat my coffee at the screen when I imagined you sitting behind your computer all tubby and content , being an internet warrior. It's evident to me by your pure sarcasm and lack of worldly knowledge that you have probably never even been out of the United States, am I right? Hey Canada doesn't count! Um Chucky or should I call you Seed, it's a bit cooler , no? Seed , why are you such a negative person when you really have not even had a full experience of life yet? If you were ever privileged enough to maybe leave your comfort zone and maybe travel India or Nepal for that matter maybe you would get a glimpse of reality and Buddhism.

It's all fine and dandy to not want to follow a religion or to have doubts about one thing or the other , but to actually form negative energy and spew negative comments based on info you find on the internet is beside me. I guess i'm replying to you because I feel that often there are those, like you "seed" who feel the have a world of knowledge and know everything about everything without even leaving their house.

If Buddhist do worship Idols of Buddha and deity's well it gives them something beautiful to appreciate and remember their teachings by. If other Buddhists worship them for real , what difference does it make. Would you feel happy if we said, Yo seed...You're right!! And then what , would that feed your ego more ? To know you won a battle on ATS .. A website?

Anyway man , what I'm saying is the problem is that people are to quick to judge and to think they know everything. The OP of this thread seems like a passive person trying to have a debate and then you're snack ass comes along after a game of warcraft or summin and tries to bat down someone who is obviously more enlightened than you.

I have an idea, save some money , sell your computer and go travelling. Trust me dude you might realise there is something else out there, than wikipedia.

BYE NOW