Originally posted by Bill in Dayton:
Taike-
Mr. G. isn't forcing anyone, certainly not either of us to believe as he does. He's encouraging, advising, hoping, threatening, cajoling, etc. but no one's forcing any beliefs upon us.
I think G is sincere. I doubt he stands to make a nickel off of you or I and whether we join him. I find him to be genuine...
You know me well enough to know that many of your points resonated with me as well. It too stumps me that while I'm generally pre-programmed to hold Christian beliefs, I acknowledge that if at birth, I had been adopted by a Jewish family from Israel, or a Muslim family from Saudi Arabia, my beliefs would be just as heartfelt, but quite different.
Perhaps it was God's plan that I was born in Pittsburgh PA and not elsewhere, but who can say?
Bill, when someone tells me that I'm doomed if I don't answer to a God (meaning the god HE worships and the faith HE believes in), it pretty much comes over as being forced, as being given the ultimatum. It was enough cause for a former president to condemn an entire nation just because it happened to take a different approach. No one wants to be threatened.
Did you see me condemn his belief? Far from it although he may perceive that I did. What I did do was question his method of telling me and Chas, well..., read the above statement.
If one talks to me like this, tells me that anyone who doesn't confirms to his belief can't be right, it's no longer a dialog but a personal attack. He might as well tell me straight to my face that my whole family is condemned since they're of a different faith as his.
It's up to him to either feel hurt or upset. He brought it up to himself. Whether he says "a" god or his god, it doesn't take a genius to know what god he actually means. I believe the choice is ours to make, not his.
Nowhere will you find statements by me that he'll has to answer to MY god or he'll be doomed. That'd be preposterous, throwing all notions of an open dialog to the dogs.
Why not just accept that a Christian answers to his god, a Hindu to his, and so on. "You're either with us or against us" has caused millions of deaths throughout history. Never was given the notion that perhaps different regions or cultures call for different beliefs. I am not willing to concede to anyone believing that his is the only truth as much as one won't to mine. If I happen to be wrong after all, so be it. Nothing I can do about it then. I very much doubt that an instant switch from one faith to another will work out in my or anyone's favor. If that's all what it takes, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
It is NOT the religion that makes the man but man that makes the religion. One should only be judged by his actions, not by his faith.
Had I started this thread making claims that anyone who doesn't answer to my faith will have to face my god, the participation would've reached a far higher number than it has now. But I know that making such statements is preposterous. Why can't others? I don't condemn anyone's faith or belief, but I do condemn those that are unwilling to yield in their belief that only they know the answer. Neither do I question his sincerity. But that doesn't take away the fact that people of different faiths or those with a belief, can't experience the very same.
A tenet does not carry much substance. To believe one has to understand, to understand one has to question or all one ends up with is blind faith which amounts to nothing.
Taike
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Bo pen nyang.
[This message has been edited by Taike (edited 08-14-2010).]
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