Buddhism can and has been exploitative in places and times where it is powerful. Religious benevolence tends to wax and wane inversely with how much power it has. It does have the advantage of having little interest in conversion by force, as far as I know. But I wouldn’t want to live in a Buddhist theocracy.
How much has it done for civilization compared to Christianity? :rolleyes:
What has Christianity done for civilization?
I’m with Der Trihs on Buddhism. I do live in a Buddhist society, and while it’s a vast improvement over Christianity, it’s still shameful the way it’s used to manipulate. Part of it is the way it’s blended with the old superstitions. Most Westerners don’t think of fortune telling and necromancy and such as part of Buddhism, but it certainly is in this region. There are really some very shiftless monks out there too, some real dregs. I’m never sure which is odder: The views on Buddhism by Westerrners who have never been to a Buddhist society, or the views of on Christianity by Thai Christians who have never been to a Christian country.
I would ridicule you for this question, except for your user name. Are you being facetious?
Your ideas fascinate me and I would like to subscribe to your mailing list.
The Amish would disagree with you on that.
The West (in large part derived from Christianity) helped establish such things as the value of human life, equality before the law, and so on. Of course Buddhism does ascribe value to human life but to a large extent it was theoretical and not in practice.
And I find it amusing (although he certainly won’t respond) that Thailand is better say than the US despite the rampancy of drugs and sex slavery in that country. Certainly there are better examples of Buddhist societies such as Japan or Taiwan (although that’d be also quite Confucian)
Qin Shi Huangdi had nothing to do with either religion (Buddhism would not reach China until the Han Dynasty).
[shrug] India and China and Japan and Korea have done a lot for civilization. Whether they could have done as much with no Buddhist influence, who knows? Whether Western Civilization could have done as much without Christian influence, who knows?
Yeah, I love that value of human life the Christians established with the slaves. And the non-theoretical value it placed on human life during the Crusades and the Inquisition. You do realize how ridiculous this is, right?
It wasn’t an immediate process. But it was ulimately due to the domination of the West that the world is civilized as it is right now-everybody practiced slavery until quite recently and it was evangelicals in Britain who helped form the first anti-slavery societies.
Some stuff apparently.
If you think it is about proving your devotion to god, or getting to know the poor, etc., then you truly don’t understand it.
Lack of food, water and sleep plus extra prayers to ram the message home = brainwashing. Add to this threatening followers who might want to leave with death (and essentially everyone around them who isn’t a Muslim) = dangerous cult.
I glad you’re amused.
Except Muslims don’t starve themselves nor forbid themselves from sleeping.
Also, Catholics who attend Mass every dan and Orthodox Jews pray more often than most Muslims.
You really should learn more about Islam before making stupid comments about it, such as claiming that they suffer from sleep deprivation.
Both Islam and Judaism (and some sects of Christianity, I believe) have traditions of fasting, extra prayers, and acknowledgments of the haves and have nots.
That’s a mark of a collective social consciousness, not brainwashing.
There are seven fast days in the Jewish year, and they go for about 24 hours each (sundown to sundown) and not the half day fasts of Ramadan. For some, those are harder to deal with, so maybe you should direct your spite elsewhere if you think it is so deserved. :o
Do you deny that during Ramadan Muslims aren’t allowed to drink and eat during the day? Do you also deny that in practice they then spend most of the night making up for it resulting in a lack of sleep? Do you also deny that rather than the FIVE times a day prayers there are even more where the entire Koran is read over the course of a month? What percentage of the day do you think this adds up to where religion is the only focus?
5 times a day?
Hey, maybe it’s a cult, too. Muslims don’t have exclusivity.
I’m just reporting the facts. You’re the one wanting to reinterpret them into something harmless.
In the same sense that Christians and Jews have “a duty-- or at least a justification” to anyone who goes to another religion.
Deuteronomy 13:7-12
also in the same sense that Christians and Jewish husbands have “a duty-- or at least as justification” for murdering their wives on their wedding night if they discover they aren’t virgins.
Deuteronomy 22:20-21
Yes, there are parts of the Quran that are quite horrible but no matter how you measure it, the scriptures of the Jews and the Christians are at least as horrible.
However, Most Muslims, Christians and Jews tend to ignore the uglier commands of the God of Abraham.
Uh, Ramadan is one month and it’s based(though Muslims don’t like to admit this) on Jewish practices. Furthermore, no my father wasn’t a fan of Ramadan, but he never had problems with sleep deprivation and the half-day fasts didn’t have remotely the effect needed for brain washing.
Also, if they were going to use it for brain-washing children would have to observe the fasts, but they don’t.
Sorry dude, but you need to find better propaganda.
No, you’re reporting myths as facts.
Anyway, if you don’t mind my asking, since you have such an extreme hatred for Sharia law, why have you chosen “Uzi” for your username since Israel allows for the practice of Sharia law and bases many of it’s own laws on Sharia law.
I’m basing my statements on direct observation on how Ramada was practiced in Yemen.
Children are allowed to observe the fast.
And you’ve lived a sheltered life.
You mean law that sentences a woman to death by stoning because of adultery, or to the lash because she was raped? That law? Should my hatred for it be less extreme? Or should I accept it as being part of a different culture to my own? Tell where I should put it on my ‘hate’ meter? Tell me why I should even want to allow a small foothold of such barbarity in my country?
I was in the army long ago and was speaking about it a few years later when a co-worker applied that nickname to me because that was the extent of their knowledge of military weapons. It’s a username. I’m not promoting Israel or the brand of weapon which would be one of my last choices if I needed a gun.
Please. The more civilized aspects of “western society” were mostly put in place against the tooth-and-nail opposition of Christianity.