A poll about God and the hereafter

Spirituality Religion
#61

Lotusgirl, you have no argument.

You dish out direct personal attacks at me. A lot of your posts are about me personally, criticising me as a person, rather than criticising my arguments or ideas. If there is anybody here who is guilty of personal attacks it is you. Your must recent one was directly calling me arrogant.

I do not attack people, I attack ideas/arguments. Your statement that Buddhism is not a religion is so absurd that it does not even deserve a debate. Every main religion expert web site I have linked has categorically listed Buddhism as a religion.

There was no such thing as Buddhism during the time of Buddha. He was born a Hindu and died a Hindu. Buddhisim as a religion was started after his death. He did not reach enlightenment on his own, he had masters and teachers. He did their practices and in the end got enlightenment.

You are now starting to sound like a Buddhist fundamentalist.

#62

Oh Surya, sometimes you just don’t get it.

Nah, obviously you do not get it. The academic experts on religion classify Buddhism as a religion. I have cited three major web sites on worlds religions backing up my point: religioustolerance, adherents and religionfact. Every religious study text books mentions Buddhism as a religion.

You are on losing ground here by forcing us all to accept your religious views that Buddhism is not a religion. You may believe this with all your heart and mind(which makes you religious) but this is not the view held by experts on religion.

#63

There are many different definitions regarding what religion is…to say Buddhism is or is not will remain an arguable point.

Lotusgirl is right in that it is the most widely stated, that it isn’t a religion which Buddhists would support.

SD is right in that the definition of a religion by some, puts parts of Buddhism into its definition.

#64

Now this is funny! I’m really laughing here. You can view me saying get off your arrogant high horse as an attack on your horse. I don’t dish out personal attacks on you. Now you are being absurd. You do attack people. End of discussion.

I do understand, BTW, the beginnings of Buddhism. The Buddha walked out on Hinduism to find the answers. He left Hinduism. He reached enlightenment on his own.

And me a Buddhist fundamentalist, now that’s a good one, coming from you. Really.

And I will apologize to the OP for the direction this thread has taken. I just could not stand by and watch others defend me from SD’s attack and have me remain silent. It is unfair how others are talked to and treated, like we are a bunch of idiots. We are not.

#65

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

[i]Also, in keeping with the sociological perspective of Adherents.com, we are applying Emil Durkheim’s classical definition of religion as “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden–beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community…”

To this definition, we add its more recent reformulation describing religion as an ultimate concern with transformational/motivational effect. With these sociological (non-theological) definitions we could include in this list schools of thought which aren’t always considered “religions,” such as atheism, humanism, Communism/Marxism/Maoism, and Confucianism. [/i]

#66

This is such a waste of time. I have better things to do than argue with someone about something they don’t understand or want to understand. You read nothing I write. You pick and choose what to address.

I have chosen NOT to surf the net and cut and paste. I have chosen to share what I have read and been taught. I have no more time for you Surya Deva.

I am once again banning myself to the non-religious forum area.

#67

I do understand, BTW, the beginnings of Buddhism. The Buddha walked out on Hinduism to find the answers. He left Hinduism. He reached enlightenment on his own.

No, he walked out of his palace :wink:

Buddha did not go against Hinduism. Anybody who is objective can read the Upanishads and find everything Buddha taught therein. Buddha perpetuated the ancient teachings. The notion that Buddha went against Hinduism is only held by Buddhists in order for them to separate themselves from the mainstream religion they have splintered of from.

There is nothing that Buddha teaches that is original. The only ones who want to believe Buddha is original are some Buddhists because of religious sentiment. In the same way Christians want to believe Jesus is the ONLY son of god and his mother is a virgin and totally pure sin-free. It is very clear Buddhists are religious as any Christian, Hindu, Jew or Muslim.

You say Buddhism is not a religion, but the way you are behaving at this moment reeks of religion.

#68

I have better things to do than argue with someone about something they don’t understand or want to understand.

It is you who are on losing ground here, not me. My statement that Buddhism is a religion is backed up by religious experts and every faculty of religion department in the world, where Buddhism is taught as one of the classical religions of the world. I have so far cited 3 expert internet sites on religion that have backed this up.

It is you who are refusing to listen to and understand what is a unanimous concensus view that Buddhism is a religion.

#69

It remains a debatable subject whether you like it or not…You can pull out anyones quotes and articles but it still remains a debatable point in which Lotusgirl remains right and so do you.

It remains a debatable point and will do

I can find more than 3 articles on the web and even more in the Scholar section that say the opposite of your ones

Debatable x

I have been sent to Coventry, nice place, freedom to talk in a relaxed manner, ahh:D

#70

Buddha walked out of his palace and left Hinduism behind. That I know. I’m sure it wasn’t one day he stepped one foot out of the palace and suddenly he was no longer Hindu. It happened over the course of his journey. I did state, did I not, that he did have Hindu teachers. But he left those Hindu teachers and religion to seek the answers.

And I agree with Kareng that it remains a debatable point. But as stated earlier, it does not fit nicely in the religion category.

#71

Everything is debatable. Everything has several viewpoints on it. However, not all viewpoints are equally valid. The point of a debate is to weigh one viewpoint against the other. In this case, the viewpoint that Buddhism is not a religion is on very weak ground and has no backing up from experts on religion. It is a foregone conclusion that Buddhims is a religion and it taught as a religion on every RE course in the world. It is regarded as the official religion of half a dozen countries.

We have veered to far from the subject. I am going to start a separate topic.

#72

It is not agreed by the masses that Buddhism is a religion, Buddhists alone will disagree with you… Scholars continue the debate as we speak, across the world.
You cannot state it is when it is in current debate and has no conclusion that is OFFICIALx

#73

I just read through this entire thing and you know I have a thought based on the Chinese Buddhists I know.

If someone told them that Buddhism is not a religion they would say you are right. If someone told them Buddhism was a religion they would say you are right.

It is just not worth arguing about and it wastes precious time arguing for or against they know what it is and that is all that matters. Why spend time with someone that wants to waste your time when it is so much better to spend time with someone that wants to help you enjoy it.

#74

Where is the party Yulaw, can we come if we promise to be quiet:D

#75

[QUOTE=kareng;42162]Where is the party Yulaw, can we come if we promise to be quiet:D[/QUOTE]

If there was one I would tell you where and you could make all the noise you want. :smiley:

#76

Can we bring the flying ferrets, fish and cow with the yoga mat? I promise they will behave.
I anyone new sees this they will think I certainly have lost my mind. Don’t answer. Just check the last few pages of Is yoga Hindu and you’ll understand.

And you are correct Yulaw that it really matters not. But…nope I’m finished now. Off to class.

#77

Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
No.
Yes.
Not exactly. I deliberately take comfort in the hope that, being mortal, the description we give each other of Hell actually falls short of the plan our good Creator has in place.

#78

ha techne hope we must

#79

Ha Techne, and hello…I think we should start a thread on what one might find there!:smiley:

#80

hahaha