I'm not exactly catholic or very religious for this matter, but i'm curious as to why there is so much conflict on the religions of abraham. I mean these 3 religions, and many secs, all believe in God, Yahweh, elohem, allah or whatever, talked to abraham. Such followers of islam and Christianity then both believe in Jesus Christ, though muslims think he's a prophet. Though with many doctrines and different ideas, don't essentially, you all believe in the same god, so whats with all the conflict? I mean even if muslims and jews don't follow whats the truth, don't they atleast follow the semi-truth of god, same with protestants also. Couldn't there be a religion where you could simply believe in jesus christ and god, without believing in too many specifics.

Why can't western civilization be less fanatical of devotion, and be more like asia, where the most a religion rivalry has gone is not a crusade or jihad, but drunken barroom debate of which person's religion is better by comparing philosophies, and adding the best of the others to their own.

My philosophy is that even if you are an athesist or a liberal, if you live the life of a righteous person, god would grant you the key to his kingdom. The bible should work for you and , not you for it. Its simply meant to teach you to be a good person, and while its always good to honor god, i don't think you have to always tithe to the church, or my church, nor go to church EVERY single week. A simple daily prayer and chapter of scripture acknowledging what he has done for you ought to suffice.

-- RAnny (ranny@something.com), September 02, 2004

Answers

You could give the reply that jews don't believe in jesus, who is our lord, so they don't believe in god, but wouldn't they still believe in jesus's alter ego?

-- rbump (bump@something.com), September 02, 2004.

"Why can't western civilization be less fanatical of devotion, and be more like asia, where the most a religion rivalry has gone is not a crusade or jihad, but drunken barroom debate of which person's religion is better by comparing philosophies, and adding the best of the others to their own."

Ranny, I'm sure you'll bring a great laugh to the Kashmiris being murdered by Hindus, the Hindu Tamils being murdered by Buddhist Singhalese, Falun Gong being murdered by Maoists, Japanese being murdered by various Buddhist and Shinto sects, etc.etc. Your idealized vision of Asia is non-existent. And Asians yield to no-one in the fanaticism of their devotion to their religions. (btw you seem to forget that the Middle East is part of Asia)

The idea that people kill each other because of religion is widespead but untrue. Wars are caused by greed. The warmongers on all sides sometimes emphasize the fact that the people they are making war on have a different religion, because they know this is a good way to push emotional buttons to gain support for their wars.

Jesus Christ stated unequivocally that He was God. If you "believe in Jesus Christ" (capital initials please)you can't just say that He was just another prophet or a good or holy man or a great philosopher. If you say He's not God you're calling Him a liar Who has deceived billions.

It has never occurred to me that being a liberal would bar me from God's kingdom. But I won't be given the keys to it. Christ gave the keys only to St Peter and his successors.

"The bible should work for you and , not you for it. Its simply meant to teach you to be a good person" - you got that much right.

"i don't think you have to always tithe to the church, or my church, nor go to church EVERY single week. A simple daily prayer and chapter of scripture acknowledging what he has done for you ought to suffice."

Faith without good works is dead. You don't necessarily have to give 10% of your wealth to the Church, but you simply MUST be charitable with your wordly goods. And you can't be a Christian just by tucking the Bible under your arm and never communing with other Christians. Christ intended us to be part of His Church and to partake in the community of faith and grace through His sacraments. If you miss out on this your faith will soon die. This is why the Church commands us to, as a minimum, participate in Mass every Sunday and receive Communion worthily at least once a year.

-- Steve (55555@aol.com), September 02, 2004.

In a sense, your sense, we are only arguing about the attributes of the One. But there is more to it than that. The eastern religions and philosophys are inclusive. A person can be a Buddhist, a Taoist, a Shinotist, and not feel that there is any problem. And not just on successive days, but benifit from the viewpoints of all inclusive religions. The Children of Abraham are exclusive. Too many commands to that effect in both the common religius books, and in the ones exclusive to each branch of the tree. Even in each branch, each sub- branch sometimes feels the need to be exclusive.

I think this is both a reformat of your question, and its likely answer: Why exclusive, and its in the books.

-- Sean Cleary (seanearlyaug@hotmail.com), September 02, 2004.

The eastern religions are not as inclusive as you think, Sean. For example Hindus regard Buddhism as merely a Hindu sect, but Buddhists certainly don’t see it that way. Taoism and Confucianism are more philosophy than religion. Yes many people combine belief in some Buddhist concepts and practices with some aspects of Taoism and/or Confucianism and/or Shintoism. But they don’t embrace the whole of each religion. And many people in Africa and America combine aspects of Christianity with aspects of spiritism and animism. The Druzes even combine aspects of Christianity with aspects of Islam. That doesn’t prove anything about these religions. I think the eastern religions are equally “exclusive”. For example Buddhism teaches that Buddha’s way is the way to enlightenment and nirvana and that there is no other way.

-- Steve (55555@aol.com), September 03, 2004.

there have been hundreds of other wars that have propogated for reasons OTHER than religion. i think that religious-motivated hatred and war is more obvious than, say, a war over control of a trade route or something.

people bash religion for this reason, but face it-- man will always kill man for lust, greed, paranoia, and a host of other reasons than just religion.

-- jas (jas_r_22@hotmail.com), September 10, 2004.

Jas, I think that religion per se has rarely if ever "caused" a war. Wars are nearly always caused by greed. Warmongers emphasize religious differences between their own people and the enemy they are targeting, because they know it is an excellent way of pushing people's emotional buttons to tell them that they are not being true to their religion if they don't support the war party. But of course there are always people of various religions on both sides. e.g. in the Thirty Years' War, which is often spoken of as being Catholics versus Protestants, Catholic France fought on the "protestant" side!

And of course let's not forget that in the last 87 years, atheism has caused the worst war of all time and the most savage repression of all time and has killed more people than have been killed (supposedly for "religious" reasons) throughout recorded history, for all religions put together. People who "bash" religion and say "I'm not religious because religion causes violence" are dishonest and / or too lazy to think.

-- Steve (55555@aol.com), September 11, 2004.