1) With what religion are you affiliated (if atheist or agnostic, please indicate this)?
I am a multi-religionist,
concurrently holding memberships in quite a number of religions.
Since there is just so much time in a week,
I cannot be as active in all of them as I'd like to be.
So happens that just today [Fr9Nov2012] I attended a Muslim-mosque
[Shia Jafari masjid in Pinellas Park, FL].
(I've been a registered Muslim since 18Nov1977.)
But I guess the religions that get most of my attention at present are:
Buddhist: Soka-Gakkai International (membership 28Dec1983),
International Raelian Movement (membership 6Aug2011), &
NewThought: Religious-Science & Unity
(membership 14Sep1986 & c.2002).
What role has religion played in your life (past and present)?
Religion has been my hobby since I can remember in childhood.
It is 1 of the 6 aspects of a well-rounded life,
so I consider it imperative to spend at least as much time on it as on any of the other 5 aspects:
1) Body (exercise),
2) Brains (education),
3) Breeding (relationships),
4) Bounty ($),
5) Bonvivance (fun),
6) Being (religion).
Hopefully it has made me a little less of a bad person than if I didn't have it as a hobby.
2) Should religion play an important role in private or public life?
Yes. It's purpose ought to be GNH (Gross-National-Happiness);
see video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zqdqa4YNvI
If so, how important and why?
Happiness, individual & group, is extremely important because truly happy nations do not go to war with other truly happy nations. Truly happy individuals do not become murderers or serial-killers. Truly happy individuals effect others around them to choose to be happy, and crime rate drops in their city (this has actually been scientifically tested in D.C.).
3) Do you think there is one true religion?
Not 1 for everybody, but whichever religion motivates an individual to be a better-person, happier, self-actualized, is the "one true religion" for that individual.
If so, what is it and why is it true?
Being an expert religionologist extraordinaire (with a Master's-Degree in Religions), there are about 20 religions from which I choose and prescribe to particular individuals as a physician would prescribe a medication, based on that individual's unique condition. However, the best cure-all that I am aware of right now, that I could prescribe with confidence to most people, would most likely be:
Buddhist: Soka-Gakkai International,
&
NewThought: Unity (not to be confused with Unification-Church).
These, I believe have the best record of happy-fy-ing people.
If not, can religions that make contradictory claims be true?
Of course. Truth is like a multi-colored beech-ball, with people standing around it in a circle, each claiming that the ball is of the color they can see from their vantage-point. So yes, the ball is red, but it's also blue & also yellow, only most cannot see it because they don't dare walk around the ball to see the other colors. Well, I am one of the few who dares to walk around the entire ball. Therefore I am able to resolve harmoniously what appear to be unsolvable contradictions.
4) Do you think some religions are false?
80% of EVERY religion is false, pure B.S. Some visionary comes along and moves humanity 2 steps forward, and as soon as he dies (or they kill him), little-brains start piling truck-loads of manure on top of that progress until they move humanity backward a step or 3 into such darkness as the Dark-Ages of European Constantinianity (Christianity), or the current Dark-Ages of Islamist-Fascism. That's what happens when the religious-B.S. gets strong enough to take over secular governments. Interestingly enough, the Christianist & Islamist Dark-Ages happened when the 2 religions were in their teens (in terms of centuries).
If so, please give an example of one that is false and summarize the main reasons you think it is false.
Any & every religion that kills, or burns someone alive @-the-stake, or requires blood-sacrifice (animal or humanimal), or persecutes others who believe differently, or imprisons, or tortures, or preaches hate or fear, or shuns, or forbids scientific research, or promises 70-virgin-wives to someone if he'd blow himself up in a crowded place, etc. is false. Hmmm?!? There were quite a few who have done such atrocities in the name of God:
~ ancient Israelites when they came to Canaan & killed everybody,
~ Roman-Catholic Holy-Inquisition (thousands maybe millions tortured,
killed, burned alive),
~ Calvinist-Protestants who also burned people alive,
~ Catholics & Protestants in Northern Ireland,
~ Christians in South-Korea who burn Buddhist temples,
~ Islamist-Fascists (Taliban, Al-Qaeda, culture-of-suicide-bombers),
~ Hindus who still today burn 5 brides/dy because dowry was too small.
5) Is there one main religious issue that you find very difficult to deal with or answer
(such as why there is evil in the world if a "good" and "loving" God exists)?
Nope.
Do you want to find answers to this question?
I have the answer to this question: Humans are stupid little-brains & selfish parasites. Many mention the Golden-Rule, but almost no one practices it. If people would just practice the Golden-Rule, everything would be just fine.
6) Can you summarize in a sentence or two what Christians believe?
Yes:
Just say the magic words, "I accept Jesus as my savior," and you're saved from hell no matter what harm you cause others, or how much you hate all those who don't say those magic words. But the unbelievers don't matter anyway because the loving God will just torture them in the fires of hell for ever, & ever, & ever, & ever, & ever, and ever ....
Do you think that you could ever be convinced that Christianity is true?
Sure. I already know that 20% of it is true, the parts that Jesus-buddha taught before Constantine got a hold of it in year 312. Oh yes, I said "Jesus-buddha." During the "missing years" in his 20's he spent at least a decade in central Asia studying, living & teaching Buddhism (lots of documentation is available now to substantiate that). I also earned a B.A. degree in Christian-Theology, have been a Christian cleric, and also have acquired several concurrent Christian memberships (which I still hold).
If so, what would it take? If not, why?
Sadly, Christianity keeps on impeding progress, pulling backwards 2,000 years. Would you want to go to a dentist that uses methods & implements of 2,000 yrs ago? Yet Christianity keeps insisting that we must all obey theologians of 2,000 yrs ago?!?
7) What do you think of the Christian church today?
80% full of 2,000 yr-old Constantinian B.S., reactionary, in dark-ages still, refusing to move forward, demonizing pro$perity, glorifying poverty, and concentrating on death-&-magic of Jesus instead of his life-&-teachings.
Do the Christians that you know make you more or less interested in becoming a Christian?
Way, way, way LESS. If I didn't already know what I know about the Buddhist-Jewish teachings of Rabbi Jesus-buddha, Christians would make me hate it.
No comments:
Post a Comment