All Comments (23)

Janamac

I'm an old man.I have always been very curious about life;about the miracle of existence;the wonder and mystery of life,and the cosmos.I am still enthralled with it all;still in awe,and ever curious and still asking the big question..."what's it all about?"
What I'm interested in,of course,is understanding the truth of things.How things really are.What are really the answers to the big questions.
Though I may never know the answers,I still feel an excitement whenever I read of a new insight,a new idea or discovery that might get us closer to knowing more and more about ourselves,how we came to be,and what our relationship is to the greater universe.
The very last place to look for truth of any kind is surely in a religion. Religion is not about truth.And neither is the Bible.
And it has nothing to offer regarding the big questions,other than ancient superstitions about gods and devils and celestial angels,and so on.
It offers not truth,but solace.
Anyone really interested in the truth might start by reading anything by Carl Sagan.
Those genuinely interested in the truth will delight in his insights.
Also, Einstein, who got as close to anyone in his search for the truth of things. And Bertrand Russell who had the curiosity of genius,and insights and knowledge to match.
The real world is infinitely more exciting than the pretend world of religion;and is where the search for truth occurs.
Religions are where you don't go if its the truth you're looking for.The very idea is hilarious.

Oof.

I call BS!:

"or the Buddhist, forgiveness is prescribed because it prevents harmful emotions that disturb one’s “mind karma.” This is beneficial teaching, but it lacks moral force."

Seriously, man. If your mind can't work it out, your 'force' is supposed to help?

Look around.

" Hindus are urged to forgive, since it is characteristic of one born of a divine state, as one teacher describes it. But Hinduism has no concept of grace; what you have done in this life will inevitably be done to you in the next, which perpetuates the evil cycle."

Which is obviously why they pray and do all that spiritual like that.

I call BS.

Everything about god and religion is no more than a matter of opinion.
No matter what anyone says,the fact is nobody knows whether there are gods or not..All that's known is in an old book that folk have fought over and disagreed on for two thousand years,and still no-one knows anything for sure.
A degree in theology is like a doctorate in astrology or witchcraft.Its the study of a particular kind of superstition.
It's my opinion that god is as much a myth as the old Greek and Roman gods were. There's no reason to think that the christian god is anymore real than them.Ditto the muslim allah. Just a fantasy.

Two thousand years of Christianity has been two thousand years of wars.Religion hasn't helped.In fact it was part of most of them.
The recent 'Hallmark' version of Christianity is non-violent because of secular restraints on religion,as a result of the Enlightenment;
otherwise they'd be burning my atheist @ss at the stake,or torturing me until I saw the light, and recanted my disbelief.(as if such a thing is possible...to recant what one believes).
Out of my twenty first century eyes religion looks increasingly like superstitious nonsense made up by our ancestors as a response to the fear and ignorance of their confusing and savage world.
We have come a long way since then,thanks to scientists and writers and philosophers who broke free of the dogma and rediscovered the world of reality,and showed that the supernatural world is unreal,like the gods who inhabit them.

I appreciate the truth and candor of Chuck Colson as he explained the difference between religions; that maybe they are all based on love, compassion & forgivenes, but what motivates us in these areas is vastly different. I'm sorry that this is upsetting to so many of you, I suppose that the idea of absolute truth is upsetting to those that don't choose to believe it. I guess that the truth of who Jesus is & what He's done is threatening to some of you, and this is what causes such intense emotion and disrespect that I see on so many of these posts. I understand if you choose not to believe in Christ, that's between you and Him; what I don't understand is why some of you feel the need to be so mean and hateful. You talk about the fact that Christians are intolerant & yet in most of these posts I sense an ongoing attitude of intolerance for the Christian belief and for Christians themselves. As a believer in Christ my responsibility is to share w/ you the truth of Who He is and what He has done for all of mankind (including each one of you), what you choose to do w/ that is totaly up to each of you, take it or leave it, ultimately this is between you and God. I would never dream of trying to force someone to believe the way that I do, but I am passionate about my relationship w/ Christ and do love to share w/ others what He has done in my life. Jesus is The Way, The Truth and The Life, I've chosen to believe this as truth, and I have absolutely NOT been brainwashed into believing this anymore than some of you have been brainwashed into not believing it. It's a choice that I've made for my life it has brought me abundance, peace and joy, why wouldn't i want to share that with others? I can't and won't attempt at MAKING you believe what I believe, but I will earnestly and persistantly continue to share this w/ anyone I come into contact with!

I appreciate the truth and candor of Chuck Colson as he explained the difference between religions; that maybe they are all based on love, compassion & forgivenes, but what motivates us in these areas is vastly different. I'm sorry that this is upsetting to so many of you, I suppose that the idea of absolute truth is upsetting to those that don't choose to believe it. I guess that the truth of who Jesus is & what He's done is threatening to some of you, and this is what causes such intense emotion and disrespect that I see on so many of these posts. I understand if you choose not to believe in Christ, that's between you and Him; what I don't understand is why some of you feel the need to be so mean and hateful. You talk about the fact that Christians are intolerant & yet in most of these posts I sense an ongoing attitude of intolerance for the Christian belief and for Christians themselves. As a believer in Christ my responsibility is to share w/ you the truth of Who He is and what He has done for all of mankind (including each one of you), what you choose to do w/ that is totaly up to each of you, take it or leave it, ultimately this is between you and God. I would never dream of trying to force someone to believe the way that I do, but I am passionate about my relationship w/ Christ and do love to share w/ others what He has done in my life. Jesus is The Way, The Truth and The Life, I've chosen to believe this as truth, and I have absolutely NOT been brainwashed into believing this anymore than some of you have been brainwashed into not believing it. It's a choice that I've made for my life it has brought me abundance, peace and joy, why wouldn't i want to share that with others? I can't and won't attempt at MAKING you believe what I believe, but I will earnestly and persistantly continue to share this w/ anyone I come into contact with!

Tim,

English ..... Arabic
======================
Carrot ..... Gazarah
Walk ..... Yamshi
God ..... Allah

Did you get the point? Names are not invented, they are taught by instinct (like the way Adam learned them) and they can be translated from one language to another. The word Allah is not an invention of some moon god as your church would love to tell you. In the arabic bible, the word Allah is used as a translation to the word God.

I know you are brainwashed and do not want to be exposed to the truth. Believe what you want, you are the one who will pay the price or earn the reward at the end. I am just but an eye opener.

Good point A. Thorn. Also, as I understand it, the whole Cult of the Dying and Resurrecting God thing was old hat by the time the Christians got around to forming their version of it.

Tim,

Does this mean that the Bible is flawed because it borrows from other, older religions? Get real. Christianity wasn't new either. All of its traditions can be traced back to older religions. Christianity borrowed and adapted traditions and stories from pretty much every other religion it has come in contact with.

The Qu'ran didn't plagiarize anything. Just because it came after does not make the religion invalid.

All banks carry money (but) unless one's credit being good,there aint money to be got.As being with one's individual spiritual account, if be it empty,then one's credit,word as bond, being worthless.If interested the "spiritual account" of the "Dalai Lama" be equal to young "CHUCK'S". You get respect without having to kiss ass. x X

Somalitrade, the fabrication started with Mohamed. Excuse me but Mohamed came after Jews and Christians and all he did was borrow from these traditions to invent a new God called Allah. Of course, Mohamed changed a few things along the way, like the story of Abraham and Issac becomes the story of Abraham and Ishmael. The Bible is not flawed but the Quran is full borrowed Bible concepts since it came after the Bible. Because it is a plagiarization of the image of God that is in the Bible it is terribly flawed. Islam us not all that hard to understand. It is works based religion - you know the 5 pillars. It is a lot of vitriol from the Quran; and noise from the loud speakers we hear in Islamic nations (and now in Cleveland and Boston); and the Burka women are required to wear; and the sound of the explosions as young males seek sex with virgins. Nobody in their right mind would want to live in an Islamic dominated nation with religious police forcing you to pray 5 times a day. What else do we need to know about Islam?

"Only in Christianity does God sacrifice himself to pay the debts of humankind. This is the basis of the compulsion that uniquely directs the Christian toward moral behavior: If Christ lives in me, and Christ has died for my sins and the sins of others, how can I be unforgiving of someone who has hurt me? Forgiveness is not an option -- it is a mandate."

The facts on the ground today clearly shows that no christian applies these concepts because they do not make any sense. You are in it because you have no other skills to earn you money. The founders of christianity made a devastating mistake 2000 years ago by fabricating a religion and a new god, then sold it to the masses. It is your job now to keep brainwash people into believing in this nonesense. In order to fend off any competition from other religions, you simply started labeling these religions and tag them with hidden hate messages. I don't blame you because you really got nothing in your scripture that helps you uphold your words.

As a muslim, I feel a great unease of you calling God having double standards when it comes to His mercy. I am not going to waste any word on you because you obviously, like most of your peers, are completely ignorant about Islam.

Mr Mark has missed the mark...the only cyanide being served on these blogs is the reprehesible rancor from random atheists.

Many acts of violence in Islam are motivated by sexual desire to be fulfilled in the after life. Motivation is a big differentiator between Christian behavior and Islamic behavior just in this one area, for example. Martyrdom promised to young men of Islam is an ideal alternative to life. A glorious death beckons the sinner, it is said even before the first spurt of blood, who is forgiven and will behold his place in Paradise immediately. Seventy members of his household might be spared the fires of hell because of his sacrifice. The martyr will be crowned with jewels more valuable than the earth. And for those young men who are sequestered from women in their youth and girls are unattainable, well, martyrdom offers the conjugal pleasure of seventy-two virgins - the "dark eyed houris," as the Quran describes them, "chaste as hidden pearls." Now for a young male that is what I call motivation. It is certainly a bit different than the motivation you'll find coming from Saint Paul in his letters to the early church. You got to give it to Big Mo in this area of motivation. He really knew how to use forgiveness and sex to motivate his warriors.

Mr. Colson wrote:

"Only in Christianity does God sacrifice himself to pay the debts of humankind."

Humankind has no debts, and owes nothing, to any cosmic force or to any imagined "God".

Mr Colson serves up the cyanide of Xianity straight. Other religion columnists at On Faith mix the cyanide into a bit of kool ade to make its drinking more palatable.

But make no mistake, they're both serving cyanide.

At its very core, Christianity is a take-no-prisoners religion. Any moderation to the Xian message is moderation supplied from the secular world and the morals that humanity holds - and has always held - outside the influence of religion. 'Twas gentle Jesus, meek-and-mild who spoke of everlasting torment for non-believers, not the god of the OT. You're with him, or against him. Period.

Yes - Mr Colson's brand of Xianity is reprehensible, but why should we be surprised? It's all there in black and white to read for oneself.

Mr. Colson: you have just demonstrated the point I made on the main thread. You claim at least moral superiority for your religion, from which you presumably deduce that you are praying to the right god, and then further claim the inferiority of others, from which it follows that they are not. the world would be better rid of those who insist that their faith is in the truth and that other's faith is in a lie. only a small fraction of the world's population hold any single faith. the rest of the world either doesn't believe at all or believes that that fraction is deluded or worse. and so on. humility would suggest you act accordingly, and let whatever you believe in guide you quietly and personally. why is it that all the worlds religions are just a tad embarrassed about, and hide, their actual theology about those who don't hold their faith? is it because if they all behaved as their faith dictates and ran around actually calling each other deluded that we would all wake up and realize that something is fishy?

Mr Colson, Your self-righteous drivel is getting its deserved response here.

Christian Morality is of a higher order than Buddhist Morality?

You have shown NO ability to ever understand the Buddhist Philosophy (or much else regarding morality and spirituality).

And to put your Moral Sensibility and Motivation above that of the Dalai Lama is not just laughable, it borders on the obscene.

To generalize
"it is an obscenity for Christians to maintain that their moral sense is above that of Buddhists (or atheist secular humanists for that matter).
An obscenity.
An offensive comment, to use the WAPO jargon.

On Behalf of every rational human being on these threads.......Mr. Colson, you're an idiot.

Hats off to you, Mr. Colson, for being willing to repeat in this forum all the most smug, self-serving, hypocritical justifications for blinkered Christianity. Others, including the defenders and proponents of religion, at least attempt to engage their audience in rational analysis and logical progressions of thought. Not Chuck Colson, no sir. From him, a repeat of the lesson taught last Sunday in every Sunday School class in every Southern Baptist church in the United States. An argument in which every basic assumption about his particular sect of Christianity is accepted as absolute truth. More preaching to the choir by the Sunday School Teacher-in-Chief.

I would think, for example, that the business of Jesus forgiving us all would lead to the exact opposite of what Mr. Colson says. Far from encouraging morality, it encourages all who accept it to engage in rampant immorality, secure in the knowledge that they are headed for eternal salvation regardless.

Oh, I forgot. That would simply prove that they are not real Christians to begin with! Which leads us immediately to the ability to analyze empirical evidence to arrive at the truth, i.e., we can objectively come to a reasonable conclusion of how many people declaring themselves Christians have engaged in immoral acts.

Oh, I forgot! Religion is beyond the realm of the rational, and depends on faith alone! Once more, Chuck Colson and his merry band of putative Christians have given themselves a get-out-of-jail pass, no matter what they do.

Thank God people like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitches have begun to expose this circular reasoning for the claptrap that it is.

Hats off to you, Mr. Colson, for being willing to repeat in this forum all the most smug, self-serving, hypocritical justifications for blinkered Christianity. Others, including the defenders and proponents of religion, at least attempt to engage their audience in rational analysis and logical progressions of thought. Not Chuck Colson, no sir. From him, a repeat of the lesson taught last Sunday in every Sunday School class in every Southern Baptist church in the United States. An argument in which every basic assumption about his particular sect of Christianity is accepted as absolute truth. More preaching to the choir by the Sunday School Teacher-in-Chief.

I would think, for example, that the business of Jesus forgiving us all would lead to the exact opposite of what Mr. Colson says. Far from encouraging morality, it encourages all who accept it to engage in rampant immorality, secure in the knowledge that they are headed for eternal salvation regardless.

Oh, I forgot. That would simply prove that they are not real Christians to begin with! Which leads us immediately to the ability to analyze empirical evidence to arrive at the truth, i.e., we can objectively come to a reasonable conclusion of how many people declaring themselves Christians have engaged in immoral acts.

Oh, I forgot! Religion is beyond the realm of the rational, and depends on faith alone! Once more, Chuck Colson and his merry band of putative Christians have given themselves a get-out-of-jail pass, no matter what they do.

Thank God people like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitches have begun to expose this circular reasoning for the claptrap that it is.

Hmmm. Seems to me that if Jesus already forgave everyone then I don't need to. I used to practice forgiveness because it was the right thing to do, but apparently there is no grace or moral force in that. Thanks for setting me straight there Chuckles.

If for Christians "Forgivenes is not an option" but "a mandate," then where is "free will"? (Whenever there is "no option", can there be "free will"?)

I know, Jesus Christ is paramount in and to a Christian's world- and life-view, as noted in your last paragraph, His example "is the basis of the compulsion that uniquely directs the Christian toward moral behavior." But, while he did indeed "became man," all the time, as well, he was/is God! What does that imply to you who posits Christ as men's "model"? If we were too Gods..., then, well and good, but...

Sure, "motivations (for love and compassion) are very different from religion to religion," but so are they from one man to another. And, in humility I dare say, from God to any and all men (human beings).

So, why do I forgive? Because I want to be forgiven too! Because it is the way to rid the weight of others' sins from off my shoulders! Because it is better--for me and for the world--to have closures for oppressive situations and to move on! Because... And so with compassion. Whatever the intentions or motivations may be what is important is what one does (or does not do, say, think, feel, etc.) to one's self, others, and the world.
If there be God (and I for one says, There Is), would He be miffed if we forgive or are compassionate for forgiveness or compassion's sake, or whatever, but not "in His Name"?