exactly. people don't need a deity to justify being a jackass. a cult of personality will do....and any common cause.
here they are. (joke) if you want to me to choose one religion to practice, Buddhism is my last choice.
Actually there have been. There have in China and Tibet been times of fighting between followers of Buddhism and those who didn't. One of the heroes of Tibetan Buddhism is a monk who assasinates an anti-Buddhist king. Consider why peaceful Ch'an Monks developed Kung Fu if they weren't expecting to fight. In the past few years there have been brawls between Buddhist Monks of different temples in Korea and Taiwan. Buddhism hasn't been free of apocalyptic religious nuts such as Shoko Asahara whose followers released nerve gas in Tokyo subway stations and also tried to obtain WMD.
Just goes to show that any ideology can be usurped and used as a pretext to commit violent acts. The only solution is mass education; a war on ignorance.
I guess it's lucky for Buddhists that you don't have to pick. To be honest, this poll and thread is so stupid that I don't see it warrants a response. Wow..the BEST religion? Did someone REALLY post that question? /goes back to vacation from this fine brain trust that makes up the D&D forum
I'm not sure though if that is something that is intrinsic to Buddhism. Buddhism in only a few places became a state religion so there weren't many conflicts that were both political and religious, unlike in Christianity and Islam where the religions became very associated with the power structure. Also in recent years where Buddhist cultures have been involved in conflicts the religion hasn't been a factor or in the case of Tibet the leadership has preached non-violence. To a certain extent I think a lot of this is luck since as Aum Shinryko shows Buddhism isn't immune from those who would expound a radical and violent interpretation.
That Japanese creep isn't a Buddhist. He has his own cult where he rips off parts of other religions to brainwash his followers. There is nothing in Buddhism that could be misinterpreted to mean that sarin gas attacks would be acceptable under any circumstance.
I think what that demonstrates is that you can distort any message (some more than others), no matter how peaceful and universal to something violent and ugly
Virtually every article in existence on the internet containing the words suicide and religion/irreligion say this. In fact, here is the summary of what they all say - the correlation between irreligion and suicide is very strong in all research conducted. - the correlation between religion and homicide is weak. - the correlation between irreligion and wealth (I think they use GDP) is fairly strong, becoming very strong when you leave out the low-population oil-producing Middle Eastern countries (Saudi, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates). The evidence is definitely there. Just type religion and suicide in google for a universe of articles independently coming to this conclusion. If still in doubt, find the figures on Wiki and correlate them yourself. On a side note, I shouldn't have gone off on you in my last post. I hope you understand that it's quite frustrating to discuss something down to the bone and once a key point is reached the other side just dissapears. It's not really your response there that I'm concerned about as the info I posted at the end is concrete. Just wanted to know that you had read it at least to ease much of your doubt. Thanks. (..and I said I would stay out of this thread!! Seriously, I'm out now..)
I don't if that's an insult but they sure aren't nice words especially if you call all Muslims racist and ignorant. Surely we can speak about this topic for years and years but being a Muslim nowadays is pretty hard since all the media hype and false information. But I agree with you partly because uneducated people, racist that tend to follow Islam ruin it's image, forgetting that first word in Qu'ran is "learn in the name of your God" and since they're uneducated they practice Islam in the way they want to, taking what they like and throwing out what they don't like and it leads to global misconception of one religion. So next time just put ignorant and racist followers - uneducated extremists.
i have trouble envisioning muslims putting something like this out. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Dpqi56EWnQ8&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Dpqi56EWnQ8&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Chad: Who's your favorite ghostbuster? Consuela: I like the black one. Chi Chi: The black one? He didn't do nothing. Consuela: But he was a ghostbuster. They didn't give him enough to do, but he would have been a great ghostbuster if they had given him a great ghostbuster job and said, "Go do that and be successful with it."
Shoko Asahara is as Buddhist as much as David Koresh was Christian. Both are way outside of the mainstream of both religious movements yet they started and called themselves part of those faith traditions. In regard to Buddhism as I noted in the "two religions" thread, Buddhism is very broad and some sects have elements that are apocalyptic regarding the end times when cycles of existence end. Also that Shoko Asahara borrowed elements from other religions isn't unusual as Buddhism has combined and coexisted with many other religions throughtout Asia. While Buddhism does have an ethical component and Mahayana Buddhism strong focuses on compassion that hasn't stopped Buddhists from committing attrocities such as the Japanese soldiers during WWII or Buddhist Sri Lankans fighting the Tamil Tigers. While we can praise the principles of the religion the followers are still human subject to all the flaws of being human.
What is the best religion? I am trying to decide between... Paganism Summarian Egyptian Babylonian Greek and Roman Tough choices...... DD
