Fading religion

[Belle]

Originally Posted by Morpheus

And Belle? It becomes evident that all the various faiths align at their essence...
regarding a Creator, a Creation... and regarding Life being more than this limited material, and organic situation.

www.nderf.org

That doesn't make them the same religion. For sure, many of us recognise the commanalities more the differences but religion is close to tradition and the necessity of tradition in a lifetime is vastly different across the boundaries.

What I would dearly love to see is a respect and tolerance for others' thinking - even if it is not accompanied with understanding or acceptance. Agreeing to disagree is very very important.

[Morpheus]

No, they are not the same religions. I ddn't say they were. I stated, at their essence, they all agree.

[DaiBach]

I don't think all religions share the same essence. Shintoism and Buddhism, for instance, don't have a creator.

[Belle]

Originally Posted by Morpheus

No, they are not the same religions. I ddn't say they were. I stated, at their essence, they all agree.

Mostly yes. I agree with that. But different religions.

Are we arguing the same point?

[Morpheus]

I didn't know we were arguing. Are we?

Meanwhile, regarding this essence of all the Faiths... modern Science today continues to confirm and support the nature of the material world, and organic life. Or, "Matrix".

Originally Posted by Lilyth Von Gore

Why force people to believe in something which they do not want to believe in? Is that not a bad thing?

I would never want to do this. It goes against everything I believe.

Originally Posted by Lilyth Von Gore

Why make people believe that hings happen which were their fault when it wasn't?

Again, I wouldn't. It goes against everything I believe.

Originally Posted by Lilyth Von Gore

Ecthalion, I thought you said you didn't believe in Law Of Attraction. Uniting all under one set of beliefs would bring LOA into the mix. You'd follow a belief system that blames victims.

Sorry Lilyth, you misunderstand me.
The unified set of beliefs would be a rejection of most beliefs and a united belief in love, charity etc. All the beliefs which are shared amongst religions. Beliefs peculiar to a minority of religions (such as animal sacrifice, need for baptism, etc) would be rejected.

I can see that my hopes of unity are far from popular. Perhaps I am wrong on this but I'd just like to see an end to divisions.

Originally Posted by Ecthalion

The unified set of beliefs would be a rejection of most beliefs and a united belief in love, charity etc. All the beliefs which are shared amongst religions. Beliefs peculiar to a minority of religions would be rejected.

I can see that my hopes of unity are far from popular. Perhaps I am wrong on this but I'd just like to see an end to divisions.

It's not that you are wrong in your hopes of unity, its simply that your idea of unity in this instance resembles finding a broken vase on the ground and, not knowing it was a broken vase, but recognizing that the pieces have a commonality in that they all look similar because of the colour, proceed to glue it all back together (unite) without any recognition or understanding as to what the object originally was as well as the tiny differences in each piece which define how they fit to form a whole...or in another possibly more simplified way you are smashing and jamming the pieces to a puzzle together simply for the sake of having it finished.

Your concept of unity seems to be founded on the new agey concept of "Oneness" instead of Wholeness.

If people wish to search for a commonality amongst religions/people it is that we are all different. It is in our differences that we are all the same, so to speak.

Your very first point of unification you state would be love. Well, inherent to true love is the acceptance and understanding of the differences and peculiarities of others so long as they are not abusing the rights of others. Again, this is all that is needed. If this was adopted these peculiarities would not need to be rejected, in fact it wouldn't be true love if they were.

~Naddread~

[Belle]

Originally Posted by Morpheus

I didn't know we were arguing. Are we?

Meanwhile, regarding this essence of all the Faiths... modern Science today continues to confirm and support the nature of the material world, and organic life. Or, "Matrix".

Sorry my error, I thought you were disagreeing with me!

Originally Posted by Naddread

It's not that you are wrong in your hopes of unity, its simply that your idea of unity in this instance resembles finding a broken vase on the ground and, not knowing it was a broken vase, but recognizing that the pieces have a commonality in that they all look similar because of the colour, proceed to glue it all back together (unite) without any recognition or understanding as to what the object originally was as well as the tiny differences in each piece which define how they fit to form a whole...or in another possibly more simplified way you are smashing and jamming the pieces to a puzzle together simply for the sake of having it finished.

Your concept of unity seems to be founded on the new agey concept of "Oneness" instead of Wholeness.

If people wish to search for a commonality amongst religions/people it is that we are all different. It is in our differences that we are all the same, so to speak.

Your very first point of unification you state would be love. Well, inherent to true love is the acceptance and understanding of the differences and peculiarities of others so long as they are not abusing the rights of others. Again, this is all that is needed. If this was adopted these peculiarities would not need to be rejected, in fact it wouldn't be true love if they were.

~Naddread~

I see your point, and I agree.
Perhaps I shall change my hopes for a more tolerant society rather than a unification of religions.
Thank you Naddread.

[Belle]

Originally Posted by Ecthalion

I see your point, and I agree.
Perhaps I shall change my hopes for a more tolerant society rather than a unification of religions.
Thank you Naddread.

I hope that for you - as that's my position! It's my hope for the world, the problem is that so many people need to believe they are right, they cannot accept another point of view.

I also love the diversity and the challenge of differences so you have to really truly get to grips with the belief system.