I remember thinking this at a very early age. I saw 3 different girls from three different religions all getting together to support something at school. I don't understand how people from different religions can actually be freinds. If you were with someone and pointed out, "Hey, look at that cute little dog." And they were to reply, "It's not a dog, thats a cat," Even though you knew it was a dog, in every respect, down to your very soul, how would you look at this person from then on, and continue to involve yourself with this person? Is it tolerance that allows this? But isn't tolerance just a freindly way of saying" Well, this person is obvioulsy crazy but I will just let them think they are O.K., no sense starting a fight." in a sort of cute puppy dog way.All the time knowing that you are right. That is, if each of these people truly beleived in their religion, then they would obviously come to the conclusion that the other cannot be truly rightous, or of their right mind. How can you be freinds with some one who is obviously delusional while still considering them your equal? Is it perhaps to slowly convince the other through shallow laughter, all the while waiting for a break in their confidence to allow their false god to come through. Each one subtly proving through all of their actions that they are on the path of rightousness. I find this extremely confusing from a religious stand point. Is there an awnser to this? Can two religions truly respect each other and consider the other an eqaul?
People of different religions can respect each other because (fundamentalists excluded) most of us know we don't have all the answers.
2 religions can respect each other but there is almost no respect left on the world these days. Everybody likes to cheat, lie..... If we can accept the fact that God is too big to fit into one religion only then we can start to talk about respect.
Not the way that it's being taught now. It has to be practiced more & read from the basis of that experience. Right now it's just being read with no real frame of reference - except what is told, or assumed. These books are psychologically intense - you have to be of strong character. Whether you agree or not with what's said in them, anyone can see that the material therein requires more than an ability to read. As it is, the more people read it, the more they'll find to justify any manner of evil - in the name of their God. I'll explain, if your outlook is 'warped', reading the Bible, Quran, Torah... will only fill your warped mold, from which will come more warped practice. Just look at the things sanctified by people these days. The books they read have not changed, but they have found the justification in them. One would think from the figures we hear about religions that the world would be better, but why isin't it? The measure of success is yourself; your character should develop, if it gets worse - rethink. When people have attained, by practice, a maturity of mind , character & spirit, then no matter what they read, they'll be in a better position to seek the right path. Infact , I'll dare say it will elude most till they know what it is by experience. Of this I'm reminded of a sufi saying "Fasting is only the saving of bread. Formal prayer is for old men & women. Pilgrimage is a worldly pleasure. Conquer the heart - it's conquest is mastery indeed. Kindness to the young Generosity to the poor Good counsel to friends Forbearance with enemies Indifference to fools Respect to the learned " I hear people daily talk about the greatness of the word of their God etc, etc, but I see no development in their character as a reflection of that word, because that is how I see it - you're a reflection of that which you claim to be the truth - otherwise you' re false.
I can accept some other's religions if they are in my sincere opinion, based on love and good and noble teachings. Occassionally I run into individual items that are ludicrous, such as a Pentacostal's nutty 'speaking in tongues'...where clearly that is only guidance to a laypreacher that when in France...speak french...not in a foreign tongue or you will sound as if you are speaking jibberish and can not then edify anyone. The Catholics believe in idolatry and gambling...two sins indisputably abhored by Jesus...yet they do it anyway, with all their 'saints' and symbols, fish draped around their necks and all the statues they pray to...no different than praying and partying around a golden lamb here or there; and of all the gambling being officially sanctioned WITHIN Catholic churches...I find it incredible and appalling. But in each case I can overlook those fau paux because of the greater good done by those religions, and the fact they are truly family-centered ministries. However in the case of Islam, the devils cult, I can find nothing good to say. The principal reasons are two-fold: 1) A virtually unbelievable amount of calamitous harm is brought to individuals and nations not believing in too-many sects of Islamic belief...murder, rape, torture, bodily mutilation, war, dissension, anarchy, pedophilia, kidnappings, brutalities of every imaginable kind, bombings, plundering, hate speach...and all in the name of their "Allah"...Satan by any other name, and 2) Their chief 'prophet'...this Mohammad creep... was a pandering pedophile who raped little girls routinely, committed incest by marrying his own son's wife and in all had 16 'wives'. In no way can a bigamist be considered a saintly or Godly person...inasmuch as by the very act of bigamy he reduces any woman brought into his home and bed to nothing more than a whore...and effectively diminishing his first (and only true...) wife to nothing more than a convenient liaison now and then. And by the act of bigamy a man or woman only shows his complete succumbing to the sexual greed...the incredibly numbing, cheapest of all personal satisfactions. All depth to his marriage is vanquished by his liberal whoring with all other woman, as only the first can be considered to have been his wife. Finally, consider that if all men who could, had 16 wives as did Mohammed, then horrendously 15 out of every 16 men on earth would have no woman left to marry. The very thought of that extrapolation denies any realistic logic to having more than one woman per man. Mohammed married "his favorite" 'wife'...a little girl named Ayesha, at age 6 years. He consummated their 'marriage' when she turned 9 years of age, after being called in from "playing on her swing". In any age, a 54 year old man who has intercourse with a pre-pubescent girl of 9 years, is considered a child rapist, as the child has absolutely NO SAY whatsoever, and through her pain and torture can not adequately express her desire to be left alone to grow up to womanhood undefiled. Thus the man who was also an avowed and patholical liar, who pretended over and over again to have recieved "messages from Allah" that told him he would marry his 6 year old niece and his daughter-in-law, is the sole source of manhood-example set forth to all muslim men everywhere. No wonder Islam is a manifestly biased sexist cult...men are the benefactors...women the sufferers and oppressed. Ever see a man wearing a burkha? ...never will... So while I can have friends with most the worlds major religions, I can not trust any man or woman who would be Muslim. The men believe that when they die, they go to a Heaven filled with and infinite number of little girls they can rape into eternity. Their teachings are filled with macho cretinous visions of their Heaven. Muslim terrorists are more often in the firm belief that after they commit a bombing where countless men, woman, children and babies are murdered or catastrophically maimed, that they then will go to Heaven only to be feasted and given virgins ad infinitum...never minding that a virgin to a Muslim man may mean an underaged, premature little girl having not yet passed through her puberty...so in my mind's eye, all I see are a lot of children laying bleeding as the dead Muslim men go about raping more and more of them until I guess there are hundreds, then thousands, then millions...billions? trillions? After all, eternity is a very long time. So I guess you may summise that to me, Islam is ridiculous and sexist, and most assuredly ludicrous...and only pampering of the male ego while dismissing woman to the part of a bed mate and house cleaner, with less and less importance as the husband continues to fulfill his pandering desires by accumulating more minor partners into his stable of fantasy fillies. I can understand how one out of every 10 men among 1.2 billion member Islamic cult would be named Mohammed. Some are even named Mohammed Mohammed. There are countless others who re name themselves Mohammed Mohammed Mohammed...cheez...talk about brain dead devotees to the glorified child rapist...(May Allah keep and adore you)... ...yeah, right.
I don't think people of different religions cannot truly respect eachother; at least not if you look at Christians and Muslims. Take Matthew 12:30: "He that is not with me is against me." If a Christian declares that he believes in the Bible and then calls me his friend, then I know the bastard is lying, or just exerting his typical religious condescence. I have experienced this very thing with a Mormon: She told me she was my friend. I, knowing Matt. 12:30, asked her is she believed in it, and what it meant. "Those who are not of our religion are not with us," and pointed at Muslims and Buddhists and others. Well, I'm not one of her flock, that means that I am not with her. And that means that, according to her rules, I am against her. She just refused to admit this, when I pointed it out to her, saying that I was special to her and all that shit, and that that makes me "with her". Hah, double standards!! Smarmy cowards. Sorry for the rant, but in everyday life, I see much religious condescence and pride, and it tends to piss me off.
RosaMagika Maybe I can shed some light on it (Matthew 12:30: "He that is not with me is against me.") Exactly who is "for" Christ? John 15 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. ... 17This is my command: Love each other.So what your Mormon friend should have told you is that she could not be "for Christ" if she wasn't a true friend to you, regardless of your beliefs - because if she wasn't, then she would be a hypocrite, both to you and to Christ. And if you read the rest of Matthew 12, you'll see that's exactly what Jesus meant: Matt.12:50 "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."I hope you don't experience this as condescence. Sincerity can never be condescence, and anyone who calls himself a child of God should be sincere and humble first. That's what makes his faith "right", not his beliefs.
Jenyar, Thank you for your reply and the positive thoughts. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I still think that what esp. many Catholics do is pure condescence. "How can you be so blind, that you don't see that Jesus died for our sins to save us?!" I was told. Spit at me, and I won't listen to you, that's what I tell them.
That's the unfortunate reality. It's the result of pride, if you ask me, and when I get it from fellow Christians it always upsets me. But you have to forgive them if you know better. When people find religion they often become very protective of it, sometimes to the point of elitism. The author of 1 Tim. 3 was certainly aware of the same fact: 6 He [an overseer] must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.And some people stay "recent converts" their whole lives. That's a greater problem for churches than people who never convert, because it can do a lot of damage. Be thankful that you know better, being an outsider; don't play the same game. Be a better Christian than Christians, because knowing what is right is more important.
I think that it is very possible for two different religions to respect and get along. I have two very good Mormon friends, and some Catholic ones too. I am Christian, and we respect eachother. I do think that people can put aside that fact that every religion is different and just be friends.
