Why do you hate Secular Humanism?

[loinburger]

Come to think of it, that class didn't cover Jains either. There really are a lot more Eastern than Western religions.

The course I took on Buddhism covered Jainism since Jainism predated and influenced Buddhism. They're very similar, except that the Jains practice very severe austerities because they seek to eliminate all karma from their "souls" (scare quotes because they don't believe that humans have souls) in order to break the cycle of death and rebirth. Jain monks have a tendency to starve to death.

[Kidlicious]

You admitted in another thread that you're sticking around at least partially to spite my ostensible desire that you leave. I don't even have such a desire, and I certainly wasn't aiming for such an effect, but I had it anyway purely by accident. How are you independent?

Because it's MY CHOICE. I didn't choose because of you.

[loinburger]

I really don't think the OC is as screwed up as Elok is. He's got nothing better to do on a Sunday but argue forcefully in favor of non-christian beliefs.

I am amazed that Elok hasn't given up on you yet - you are either the stupidest poster here or the most dishonest poster here (or both)

[Elok]

The course I took on Buddhism covered Jainism since Jainism predated and influenced Buddhism. They're very similar, except that the Jains practice very severe austerities because they seek to eliminate all karma from their "souls" (scare quotes because they don't believe that humans have souls) in order to break the cycle of death and rebirth. Jain monks have a tendency to starve to death.

Ah. I take it Jains influenced Buddhism in the sense that Buddhist moderation developed in reaction to such austerity?

[Elok]

Because it's MY CHOICE. I didn't choose because of you.

But you made that choice because of my actions, no? If I had chosen differently, there's a chance that you would have chosen differently, at least in theory. There can be no total independence.

I am amazed that Elok hasn't given up on you yet

You never know where an interesting conversation could come from. If Kid hadn't been "bugged" by Hindus and Buddhists, I wouldn't have gotten to think about how their traditions are similar to/different from mine. Nor learned that little tidbit about the diversity of Hindu conceptions of God.

[loinburger]

Ah. I take it Jains influenced Buddhism in the sense that Buddhist moderation developed in reaction to such austerity?

Exactly. The story goes that the Buddha was a Jain at one point (prior to reaching enlightenment), but since neither opulence (from his time as a prince) nor austerity allowed him to achieve enlightenment, he formulated the "middle path" between the two.

[Elok]

I think I actually recall reading something like that in Gonick's Cartoon History. It's been a while, though, and of course I didn't drag the books down with me.

[Kidlicious]

Wrong. I can choose to act as though you never said a thing. I can choose to believe that you never existed.

[HalfLotus]

And of course the Middle Way, or simply The Way, informs many an eastern religion. Tao Te Ching being its principle record.

[Elok]

Wrong. I can choose to act as though you never said a thing. I can choose to believe that you never existed.

Even ignoring me is a kind of response to my actions. You can't be totally unaffected. More importantly, your conception of human beings as isolated individuals is at least as threatening to Christian ethics as any Buddhist notion of illusory self. Probably more so, as Christ requires us to empty ourselves. The part where we receive ourselves back transfigured is unBuddhist--but perceiving the Christian life as something short of a communion between God and fellow-believers won't let you get even that far.

[Imran Siddiqui]

2. All three of the Abrahamic religions developed in the Middle East. What we call Western thought is a batch of Greek notions fed through a Roman lens and reinterpreted by a bunch of Romanized Germanics over the course of a couple of thousand years. As an Orthodox Christian, I am keenly aware of how Western ideas have actually modified the Christian perspective over the years. Some of these changes are, to my way of thinking, harmless. Others, such as Anselm of Canterbury's legalistic ideas on the Atonement, are not.

Truth. I was just reading about the Dyophysite Church of the East (the Nestorian Church which was too "separate natures of Christ" for the Chalcedonian mainstream) which was very big in Persia, Central Asia, and even China until Islam exploded out of the Middle East. Until Islam arose, the center of Christianity was Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria.

[Uncle Sparky]

And of course the Middle Way, or simply The Way, informs many an eastern religion. Tao Te Ching being its principle record.

[Kidlicious]

Even ignoring me is a kind of response to my actions. You can't be totally unaffected. More importantly, your conception of human beings as isolated individuals is at least as threatening to Christian ethics as any Buddhist notion of illusory self. Probably more so, as Christ requires us to empty ourselves. The part where we receive ourselves back transfigured is unBuddhist--but perceiving the Christian life as something short of a communion between God and fellow-believers won't let you get even that far.

This is what you do. You define dependency as my knowledge of your existence. No one speaks like that except for you, in this context, because you argue with everything I say. Your argument is neither consistent with christianity OR buddhism. Just because I believe that you exist (and I'm choosing to do so) doesn't mean our consciousness is connected, not in the way buddhists believe.

And I'm starting to realize that you don't know anything about christianity. The vaste majority of christians, both contemporary and today and historically, believe as I do, in individual beings, that YES, exist. And they are free to make choices for themselves, regardless of what anyother human beings think. And it's not sin, but righteousness, because you wish to affect me so that I sin.

[molly bloom]

Nothing on this page for me.

Here you go:

http://www.nmha.org/

[molly bloom]

...and met dieties.

I'm on a mostly fish and vegetable diety myself.