What is the best religion?

[Robert]

And that makes sence because.....?

[Provost Harrison]

Sense

I will just attack each individually...after all, it isn't hard

[Robert]

You'd better start soon, otherwise it may become a daytime job for you to catch up!

[Provost Harrison]

I'll just bump some ancient thread where the bodies of your ilk lay scattered instead

[Robert]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
I'll just bump some ancient thread where the bodies of your ilk lay scattered instead

The bodies of my ilk?
I'm really curious to such a thread, where the 'bodies of my ilk' lay scattered!

[Provost Harrison]

It's probably archived by now

[Robert]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
It's probably archived by now

That sucks!
Your self-confidence laid all in that one argument that made sense you thought you had made one day in the far past, and now it's gone

Sounds like religion to me!
One day the unbelievable happened! You told everybody about it, then all others told others about it, and years later people started to doubt it happened, and even more years later people even started to doubt if you had ever existed and copies of your posts weren't authentic but made up by followers who never met you themselves anyway.

Poor boy!

[Provost Harrison]

I wrote a little something anyway

[aneeshm]

Buddhism isn't, strictly speaking, a religion. You can follow the tenets of Buddhism while following being a Hindu, or a Jain, the same way that you can accept Hindu principles while being a Jain or a Buddhist (and the same, or course, applies to Jainism). The three are cross-compatible, not mutually exclusive.

The problem is that Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism (and related Indic traditions) can't be classified as a religions, because in some senses, they are much more, while in others, they are much less.

[Robert]

The defenition of religion is pretty hard to give.
But Ninian Smart's defenitions are considered to be the best defenitions. And buddhism, hinduism, and all eastern religions, are religions in Smart's defenition.

We, western people, tend to compare religions to 'our' monotheistic religions. And that's why we are more keen to say that something is not a religion. It's not a religion like 'our' religions. But it's still a religion nontheless.

[Proteus_MST]

One can also speak of them (which includes the unitarian universalists) as open minded religions,
in contrast to the more narrow minded religions of the book,
as they (i.e. the open minded religions) don´t believe that faith can only be expressed by one way (i.e. their way) alone (and that all others that don´t do it this way are unbelievers that will roast in hell or some other hot place )

[Kontiki]

Tough question. The only thing we know for sure is Islam > Hinduism.

[Robert]

in contrast to the more narrow minded religions of the book,
as they (i.e. the open minded religions) don´t believe that faith can only be expressed by one way (i.e. their way) alone (and that all others that don´t do it this way are unbelievers that will roast in hell or some other hot place )

Well, it's more that the monotheistic religions are more doctrine-based while eastern religions are more based on other basics.

Hinduism, ie. has very firm believes on ones hierarchical position in nature. (and that includes the position of different humans)

I talked with one of my theology professors last saturday, and we agreed that christianity is not a 'book religion' in it's core. The Bible is not to christians what the Quran is to Muslims. For Muslims the Quran is the last word. The most divine word.

For Christians the Bible is the first word, but we should not long for the written scripture, but for the living word (which is Jesus).
Christianity is open for debate as well. Paul states clearly that there can be different opinions, and it doesn't matter what opinion is right or wrong, but that you live to serve God and give your life to Jesus.

Thus in the end, christianity, isn't as closed as many people (including christians) think. There is one major dogma though, and that's indeed what seperates it from buddhism, ie, like you stated.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Tough question. The only thing we know for sure is Islam > Hinduism.

QFT!

[Wycoff]

Germmanic Paganism is the coolest. That's the one that I'd choose if I were a spiritual person. I want to spend eternity drinking beer, eating steaks, and hanging out with Valkyries.