IS INTERFAITH VIABLE?

[Altair]

Originally Posted by Chainer

Have to say I love the act of violence comment earlier, actually got me to sign up to this forum in order to post a response..

The issue with all inter faith attempts is that the non-interfaith will turn on you as a heretic and few are brave enough to fight that.

Everyone who signs up to an organised region HAS to believe they are right, AND everyone else is wrong, otherwise you are simply not a member of the club. Left hand path is the only way forward.

Depends on the religion, doesn't it? What if said religion is polytheistic and relativist?

Welcome to the forum.

[Drewskies]

The philosophy I hold is to always let others hold their values and pretend that you hold a set of experiences that could justify their beliefs. You can't logically write off the faith of others without knowing the totality of how they got there.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by HITESH SHAH

what is interfaith
Interfaith is

not random mixture of different faith

not negation of one's own faith

is an effort to find commonalities with others and promote harmony ,peace

should not be an effort to create walls , it should be an effort to create bridges

should increase faith ,...

Your points on "commonalities" are definitely a good starting point.

[GlitterRose]

Is interfaith viable?

Yes.

It does not flourish, however, when fundamentalism is present.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

Your point on "I AM <anything>" is indeed dualistic and divisive.

That is why I have specifically encouraged discovering the underlying ULTIMATE "core values" of the various faith in an attempt to establish unity....

My theory is, a person is only religious at times when they engage in religious thought/activity. At times when they do not think that way, they have no quality of religion (hence they have symbols and rituals to remind them to think religiously). I think it's obvious that we are all aware in the same way and have a fundamental commonality which is regardless of our individual personalities. That makes religious identity irrelevant to a meditation of stillness, but religious people generally believe their religion is essential, and many more people think religions in general are very important. However, in context with 'be still', it doesn't matter if you are religious or not.

Its great that it doesn't matter, but if we really understood that, we wouldn't promote the necessity of religions as social pillars, especially considering their tendencies of conflict, war and other atrocities. Lets use an analogy. Suppose that I am a fantastic person. I give charity, help people whenever I can, use my wealth to the betterment of mankind and all that good stuff - but every few years, I go out and murder a prostitute. People don't say, Well, most of the time he does so much good, so we can overlook the occasional atrocity. No! I should hang for my crimes.

For some reason we say 'Yes, religions do terrible things... but they do so much good... so let them continue to be pillars of our of society. We need them. They are so important. They are instrumental to the national identity. People have the right etc etc etc. It is deeply ingrained in social psyche and constitutionally ingrained in society, but we should recognise the problem - at least be conscious of it - and leave religious thoughts to pass like any other thought. Eventually such thoughts will cease to occur and that will be the end religious entities.

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by GlitterRose

Is interfaith viable?

Yes.

It does not flourish, however, when fundamentalism is present.

Some people believe fundamentalism lingers only in Christianity.....

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by Gem

My theory is, a person is only religious at times when they engage in religious thought/activity. At times when they do not think that way, they have no quality of religion (hence they have symbols and rituals to remind them to think religiously)...

Gem,

One of my enjoyable memories are:
being invited by a Sikh, to sit down and have some tea and converse.
trying to find a restaurant with another person who that serves food for Muslims.
being invited by a monk in charge of a 'famous' Temple that when I am in his 'country', to come visit and spend a night.
having an in depth conversation with some Jehovah Witnesses that did not realize that Jehovah is first mentioned in Genesis 2:4.

and it goes on and on......... the barriers we believe that exist, only exist if we give that kind of thinking.......... energy.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by BigJohn

Gem,
One of my enjoyable memories are:
being invited by a Sikh, to sit down and have some tea and converse.
trying to find a restaurant with another person who that serves food for Muslims.

Just to play devils advocate, I know there are good things which is why we tend to think religion is a great thing, but the dark side is there within the nature of the thing, so for me personally, I dont want to be associated with something like that, or other identity structures like political affiliation and nationality, but things like that exist in the world and I accept the good with the bad. I could give good examples of my dealings with religious institutions, but I can't use the good things to excuse the bad, and I can only hope that the fewer and fewer people identify religiously as time goes on... as well as racially, nationally and other identity structures ... because from the moment one separates and becomes 'something' that 'others are not', violence becomes inevitable. I get that people love their priests, temples, rituals and so on, and they hate the violence part of it, but you can't have one without the other. That's all I can say on the issue, and I'm happy to contribute to the thread, but I feel like I'm making things too dark and I don't want labour the point.

[HITESH SHAH]

Originally Posted by Gem

My theory is, a person is only religious at times when they engage in religious thought/activity. At times when they do not think that way, they have no quality of religion (hence they have symbols and rituals to remind them to think religiously)...

Ok. Very fair point that occasional offenders also should not go unpunished because of their other good past deed. This
Is transactional view . But world n reality works on historical n transactional view both.e.g. if I have some balance with banks,banks will allow me to withdraw with valid procedures till my balance or overdraft limit is exhausted . This is perfect financial arrangement. Similar is spiritual arrangement. One's mistake sins offence are tolerated till u have spiritual balance with reality. If the worldly arrangements fails to punish the offender ,reality takes its course at right moment in right manner n proportion as per its infallible laws.(spiritual balance can not be ascertained by 3rd party . Only self can broadly gauge n reality knows it precisely).

Further u deal in life with everybody (govt, professionals , corporates) none of whom are perfect . How do we deal with them?Do we forsake abolish them? Just a thought for consideration.

Also nothing in this post to accept anything which is unintelligible and hence untenable n unacceptable.

[Chainer]

Originally Posted by Altair

Depends on the religion, doesn't it? What if said religion is polytheistic and relativist?

Welcome to the forum.

Thank you.

My point is a simple one - folks think the world of spirit is defined 'by' this religion or that one, instead of religions being defined by a glimpse of the world of spirit, in some past moment of time, long ago and far away..

However much value they once had, religions are 'man made' constructions hugely distorted over time, but the world of spirit 'is' what it 'is', there is just the one... And it continues to sit in the black felt background of life smiling at us all, whatever you or me believe today.

Things have changed, we have to change are 'religions' (are systems for engaging in the spirit world) accordingly to get any use out of them - that is the point of them after all.

For instance who here now believes in a 1 male creator God, let alone the need to 'worship' said creator god so 'he' will 'bless us' like so much 'livestock'?

Yet many people including me believe there is incredible value when you actually understand 'how' the practise of worship works. Seems to me its the quality of the praying, not the god, that matters..