I'm a bad Buddhist

[nabiscothejerd]

I had someone do this to me when I was down and out and had no place to turn, and I said, "No thanks." But then again it might have been different if I hadn't been so set my beliefs, which I was. If it was a matter of choosing to starve to death or, listen to someone's sermon, I think most people would choose to listen the sermon. There's nothing that says they have to accept what's being said anyway ... or, is there?

i've had the same thing happen but i did not depend on them for anything. when i was young i was forced to go to church and listen to the pastor's and everybody and being between 5-10 years old i believed all that they said and more (that's not possible i know it's just for melodramatics) and i depended on my mom ( who was the one who sent me to church and forced me to sing jesus loves me among other songs and i did not have a choice so what about the children who are being programmed to follow a faith which really has fatual basis only a written tradition and we do not know who wrote the bible exactly, they will grow up never questioning anything about their religion so isn't that basically unethical conversion for if are not allowed or are programmed to not question that hurts all of society and our valuable scientific process which has been proven to cure diseases and bring about new and exciting technology remember religion has never proven it can do that. not to the adults they could be told that their children will go to hell with them and if they do not seem sincere about it they don't get anything but the regular misery of unscientific life (fear tactics) if they do not convert (remember back to the middle ages when people we're tortured for heresy and eventually they confessed after so much torture) and after seeing their own beloved children suffer for so much longer they will cave in they will eventually believe and i accept that as pure manipulation

 

[TragicMonkey]

Holy crap! The sentence and the paragraph are divine gifts straight from Moses and Jesus. Let's use them!

 

[Abdul Alhazred]

But sometimes, something manages to find a chink in my armor and make me think very unpleasant thoughts.

You say your one weakness is Christian fundies, yet you speak freely of "a chink".

I think you owe our Chinese (that's the correct word) friends an apology.

 

[nabiscothejerd]

Holy crap! The sentence and the paragraph are divine gifts straight from Moses and Jesus. Let's use them!

sorry i got caught up in it and i will from now on or at least try to

i am good at history, philosophy, math, and science, but english (we'll just say that i will not ever try to learn or write in another language before i learn this one)

 

[Iacchus]

remember back to the middle ages when people we're tortured for heresy and eventually they confessed after so much torture

This sort of behavior is no longer tolerated, not even with the missionaries I believe.

 

[nabiscothejerd]

This sort of behavior is no longer tolerated, not even with the missionaries I believe.

i do believe that i was using it as a example

please do come up a better argument than that (after all we are in the spotlight of randi himself

 

[Iacchus]

i do believe that i was using it as a example

please do come up a better argument than that (after all we are in the spotlight of randi himself

What, do you actually thinks he reads this stuff?

 

[nabiscothejerd]

What, do you actually thinks he reads this stuff?

No but i do believe that he created this website and these forums for intelectual conversation and not diverting from a main argument or debate. Now please do get back on the subject and please stop these one-liners if you cannot think of anything else. Do remember that i was nice enough to apologize tiwce now for my mistakes accept yours.

 

[nabiscothejerd]

And he might just be viewing some forum somewhere just to see what people think and what their opinions are. Do remember that he has more of a curious mind than anyone on this forum.

 

[Ryokan]

Re: Re: I'm a bad Buddhist

You say your one weakness is Christian fundies, yet you speak freely of "a chink".

I think you owe our Chinese (that's the correct word) friends an apology.

Haha...

Isn't that the right expression? A chink in the armor? Sorry, English isn't my first language...

 

[Kopji]

Your English is great. Both 'kink' or 'chink' in the armor would be correct.

Chink with a capital 'C' would be a racist term for Chinese, never used civilly. Abdul is just being funny. (Or, trying to be funny...)
Ask him about railroads.

The English of many of the forum's non native speakers is so good we sometimes forget that subtle humor can be easily misunderstood.

Welcome by the way.

 

[Dancing David]

Hiya Ryokan,

Thanks for the thread, I have studied buddhism and I try to live by the precept but have not commited to them. I would say that you are not a bad buddhist at all, you have shown friendship and openness to strangers and have judged them by thier acts, not thier beliefs. The Mormon are far from thier home and were probably gratefulk to have a place to be with a friend.

The issue I believe to be the one that iachus has pointed out, that our response to discomfort is the indicator of our intent. Other people thoughts and acts are interconnected with ours, when we encounter suffering, it is human nature to feel suffering in response. It sounds as though your acts will not perpetrate the anger that you feel and therefore you will not accumulate negative merit.

(Please forgive me, I hope that was not prechy, you seem to want to know our reactions to your post. I hope I have not offended you.)

Unethical conversion! AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGH!

Christianity is often presented in the following fashion:

Join the church or you will suffer for eternity.
That is against the message of jesus and very unethical. But it is the Christian way, they use all sorts of pressure to make people convert. I think that it is sad , when I was younger I was raised in a cult, and when I met the 'lesus people' they helped me feel a whole lot better about being a christian, many of them were trying to live the life that jesus taught about. Unfortuanately many jesus people are now 'born again'.

Jesus taught the the acts of a person are a better indicator than the words of thier merit, have you ver heard the story that jesus went to India and met buddhists while he was there?

 

[chocolatepossum]

I'm mostly a lurker, but I just had to get this of my chest.

As a dedicated Buddhist, I'm supposed to have no hate and to show loving kindness towards all fellow beings.

But sometimes, something manages to find a chink in my armor and make me think very unpleasant thoughts.

Yes, I'm talking about the fundamental evangelical Christians.

Anyone watching the show Revelations? Really, it's not really a bad show, I can enjoy shows like that with no problem, because they're fiction. Just as I can't stand psychics in real life, but can enjoy it when it's presented as fiction like the tv show Medium (until I found out it was based on a real life psycic, bah!)

Anyway, the one thing on Revelations that really makes me feel uncomfortable, is the chief bad guy, the head Satanist. Why? Well, when he's using his evil 'magic', he assumes the lotus position. Heh...

It reminds me of when I was in high school, and we had religion class. When we had about Satanism, our religion teacher brought a video about the dangers of Satanism, and on the cover was the devil himself, sitting in lotus position.

Yeah yeah, I get it. Buddhism is Satanism and evil. All those who are not with me are against me, etc.

I remember there was a short period that missionaries seemed to be on my door on a weekly basis. First there were the Mormons. I made it clear I was a Buddhist, but that they were welcome in to have a chat, and to discuss the bible. They were very pleasant people, so I didn't mind that they returned several times. In fact, I enjoyed it quite much, and became very good friends with these missionaries and often had them over for pizza and a movie, with no religion talk at all. Then there were the Jehova's Witnesses. Now, I've heard a lot about those kind of people, and none of it very nice. So I told them (two old ladies) that I was a Buddhist, but they were welcome in. We had a good chat about the bible, and religion in general, so when they asked if they could return next week, I said sure. They returned about 5 times, and we had a good time each time.

And then there were the evangelists. As I did with the previous missionaries, I told them (two teenage girls, very cute) I was a Buddhist but they were welcome in. They told me the end times were coming, I was an evil sinner, and would go to hell... Then they left... So as you can see, I have no problem with Christians, only the extremist evangelicals...

Another thing that gives me these sinister feelings, are unethical conversions. For those that don't know, the term unethical conversion refers to some of the methods the Christian missionaries use in third world countries, like exchanging food and medicine for conversion. No accepting Jesus, no food.

http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1113838580

In Sri Lanka, they're trying to make unethical conversions illegal, but the Christians are protesting against it.

http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=14104

And then there's this page, that just makes me sad.

http://www.onebillionwait.org/

Why can't these people just accept and respect that some people don't, and don't want to, believe in their god? Is it too much to ask for?

(sorry for the rant, it's 5am)

I feel your pain, but the thing is, if these people actually do believe that anyone who doesn't believe in Jesus will be condemned to spend eternity being ripped apart by giant stag beetles whilst being forced to listen to the best of Cliff Richard (or whatever) then aren't they actually showing you a kindness in trying to convert you?

It's their crazy beliefs that are the problem but if you were to accept those beliefs as true I think they would have a case for using any kind of persuasion necessary to save people from eternal torment.

 

[supercorgi]

nabiscothejerd,

Please use capitalization and punctuation - this is not an internet chatroom where typing speed is of the essence. The lack of these things makes your posts difficult to read.

 

[nabiscothejerd]

supercorgi,

I have started and don't worry, even my brother has warned me so i've already started to correct myself

sorry to everyone, I do have ADD (or whatever it really is, I don't know) but hopefully my OCD will correct that

 

[Dr Adequate]

but facts are the way that we know things after all the sillyness of the earth is flat argument during the middle ages is that they just believed it because they we're told to and did not think for themselves at all out of fear of god and the church so think if they wouldv'e used science and not religion then they wouldv'e known that their idea was silly but that could not have happened because they grasped for themselves the believe that the earth is flat and nothing can really change your mind when you do nothing but believe and you see that is the exact reason why i choose to acknowledge facts and not to care what i think is right or wrong but instead to believe and search for the truth do you agree or disagree.

Europeans in the middle ages knew perfectly well that the world was round. The myth that they thought it was flat originates in a short story about Christopher Columbus by the American author Washington Irving.

Sometimes it's not just fundies who believe myths...

 

[nabiscothejerd]

Europeans in the middle ages knew perfectly well that the world was round. The myth that they thought it was flat originates in a short story about Christopher Columbus by the American author Washington Irving.

Sometimes it's not just fundies who believe myths...

They could not have known that the earth was round because for one they all believed in the bible which indicates that the earth has four corners in the book of relevations (i don't remember which verse). Two, wasn't it copernicus that got into a lot of trouble for proposing evidence that the earth was round because of the evidence he saw in the sky ( i think it was copernicus).

 

[c4ts]

What's the use? Fundamentalism is Bizarro World. "Us do opposite of normal thing!"

Logic is illogical.
Well-supported fact is mythology.
Love is setting fire to or drowning a whole city full of evil men.
Ignorance is knowledge.
And so on...

 

[nabiscothejerd]

Dr. Adequate what is the name of the short story and what other evidence, not just sputtering words , but give me links and/or facts (i prefer both). The use of that rhetoric (it is not yet a fact that you are spitting rhetoric it's my belief) makes me think that you don't know what you're wrinting about but just trying to say something to feel important.

 

[Pahansiri]

Oh, I'm not a Christian if that's what you think. Or, at least I don't subscribe to any so-called "Christian Church." Of course the topic of the thread was about being a bad Buddhist, and he began by speaking about getting angry. So I guess I could have been mistaken there? But then again (in all honesty) it could have had more to do with this other "Buddha-Pest" who's been following me around the forums ...

But then again (in all honesty) it could have had more to do with this other "Buddha-Pest" who's been following me around the forums ... [/B]

My silly friend, you being dishonest again?

You believe I am a “bad” Buddhist, why?

Because I ask you to prove what you say is fact? Because I demonstrate in a logical, factual way and respectful way the flaws in your post, all the time doing so with respect to you and what you believe?

Now please remember, as you know as do all here I unlike you have never called you names or launched any personal attacks. You have but I forgive you for such. For unlike you said above

In and of itself, anger is not a bad thing.

Anger is a useless emotion, one that clouds thinking.

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."---Buddha

Now I am sorry you feel persecuted by me for responding to your post and challenging them. I know you have told me
1- you only as questions and am not here to answer questions.
2- That I am disrespecting you by not believing what you do.

As I have tried to point out many times along with the fact I respect you and what you choose to believe that this is a discussion board people hold discussion. I believe you would feel more comfort at a preaching board.


You are not becoming obsessed with me are you? That is unhealthy.