Because the Westboro Baptist Church is really representative of Christianity and thousands of years of western civilisation.Quote:
Originally Posted by karter
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Because the Westboro Baptist Church is really representative of Christianity and thousands of years of western civilisation.Quote:
Originally Posted by karter
Closely linked does not mean they are the same. Religion is not the same thing as culture, culture is a broader term used for all things that contribute to a society (one of which is religion), religion is a set of rules and beliefs. A monkey is an animal but not all animals are monkeys.Quote:
Originally Posted by -:Undertaker:-
That's true but it's also true that religion has had a huge effect on culture and to this day has a strangehold on the cultures of Arab countries. The doctrines of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and virtually all of the others is based fiercely on Islam where as this is not the case in the Christian western world as we've gone through the seperate of powers, the overthrow of the divine right of Kings, the split within the Church and the modern idea of national sovereignty and the nation state.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Don
Islam and Christianity in 2014 are by all accounts two very different beasts, and i'm somebody who believes the world would be worse without both.
Religion could be seen as the foundation of a culture. Italy is quite an interesting example and the take on Christianity. It's heavily embedded in the culture but the two are distinguishable - lifestyles, science, philosophy etc are all derived from their own identity rather than what the Bible or religion states. That said, many of their works of art celebrate religion and then it evolved into renaissance etc. Or, it was heavily embedded - not so much now. Islam is an interesting religion. There was a week long exhibit on it recently and some of the teachings are incredibly interesting and it can be argued it is a modern religion, but it requires you be devout and unfortunately it does let itself be open to a lot of interpretation which ultimately destroys it. Humans are terrible - they destroy or manipulate things to their advantage. Nothing new there :P
What a stupid thing to debate about. It's like debating over who likes what on their pizza, I may like pepperoni and cheese, you may like vegetable - I'm not going to force my choices on you, I'm not going to defend why I like pepperoni better than vegetable.
I am Catholic / Protestant. Although I do not go to church anymore been a few years. I still have my beliefs.
I don't think there is any 'best' religion; ironically there is only evolved religion.
I've spent 6/7 years now studying religion best I can; I'm starting to come to the end of my journey.
Steven Weinberg said 'With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion'. I think that aptly makes my opinion clear.
I should add that I now have no interest in arguing the existence of God. It's trying to disprove a negative. If you enter a debate with the religious without an audience you're wasting your own time. I now only argue against God, his word and his people. Whether he exists or not is really none of my concern. I'm an antitheist not an atheist.
- - - Updated - - -
Just quickly. Christianity and Islam both still have strangleholds over a lot of the world. The idea that the west has arguably (and I stress arguably) overcome that is not indicative of a large proportion of Christian states.Quote:
Originally Posted by -:Undertaker:-
don't link religion with theism though...buddhism is nontheistic
That's often said isn't it. That it's non-theistic. But it's sort of true and sort of untrue I think. There is no God in Buddhism who is a Creator, Omnipotent, Judge - which is the grounding of major religions certainly. Non-theistic isn't completely true because the suttas and sutras reference supernatural beings from demi-gods, ghosts, bodhisattvas, devas, and brahmas to celestial buddhas. Buddha himself, is often described as “a teacher of gods and men”. I've gone on about it at length best as I can before from someone who's openly somewhat ignorant when it comes to buddhism.Quote:
Originally Posted by karter
But I'd argue that it's certainly not monotheistic at all but completely non-theistic... I'm not so sold on. I'm not convinced our language adequately describes it.
But it's an ongoing discussion in the buddhist community I think.