I am a Christian, in most senses of the word. I believe in God, and in Jesus as the son of God who died on the cross to save us.
However, I also think that most other religions are equally as acceptable. I think that Siddhartha Gautama had some really good ideas. I agree with a lot of the Islam teachings. I also share some of the Hinduism beliefs, in that there are different manifestations of a single god all over. Honestly, many of these religions practice very similar ideals and I think that they're probably all right, in a way.
I'm pretty much okay with my beliefs, but I was just thinking this afternoon...Does this make me a Christian open to other religious pathways, or a religious person with no specific denomination?
Not really angst so much as something I wanted to get out...feel free to state your own opinions, philosophies, whatever, because I really like reading that type of stuff.
Anonymous
05:52:07 PM
16 comments:
With my limited knowledge of Christian theology, as long as you accept Jesus as your savior, you can accept any ideas you want.
I actually respect that a lot.
as long as you accept jesus as your savior, christianity states that you can accept other ideas, so long as you keep your faith and beliefs pointed towards jesus/god.
no, i'm going to hafta disagree with the people above me, I've personally talked about this in sunday school, and there are a few reason why you can't accept Christianity with other religions
1. Well, if there were other ways to gain salvation, then Jesus didn't have to die on the cross for us, right?
2. And yes rashi, if you are Christian then you do believe that Jesus Christ died for us, and we are saved only because he sacrificed himself for us... but that would me that you would have to disagree with all other religions in terms of the way they give salvation.
There were some other things that came up (I don't really remember), but basically Chrisianity really isn't compatible with other religions.
i think it's ok to look at other religions and adopt some of their moral standards and/or rules as long as they don't conflict w/ the teachings of the Bible..
but i don't think that i would still really be considered very Christian is you believe in the pathways taken, ex: accepting Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, so following 8 fold path of bhuddism really isn't neccesary and it's kinda like thinking that accepting Jesus Christ isn't enough even tho it is (in Christianity)
It is only your built-in need to bond with others, that makes you feel the need to call yourself 'a christian' or a this or a that.
You will find wisdom wherever you find it.
Respect is the word for me, all else is bullshit.
~
What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to others. Confucius
Let none of you treat your brother in a way he himself would dislike to be treated.
Muhammad
One should seek for others the happiness one desires for oneself. Buddha
Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.
Jesus
if god is perfect, which he/she would have to be to be a god. then all people would automatically be accepted by him(for the sake of simplicty). the christian idea that there isonly one god could mean all god that are worship are worshiping the same god not that there is only one path to the true god.
why would jesus need to die to save us. Its god. god has infinte power "he" wouldnt need to kill "his" son to save us.
Jesus died to forgive us our sins.
but aside from the regurgitation...
God sacrificed his only Son for us, and perhaps our salvation lies in the fact that we have empathy for God for doing so.
and if we can have empathy for a perfect, and absolute, and infinite entity that we believe exists purely out of faith then we also have the capacity to love and empathize with our fellow man.
thats why jesus had to die to save us.
that doesnt even make sense does it
Dear Anonymous 5,
You're right. God is omnipotent. God didn't /have/ to send His son to die for us. God could have forgiven us way up from heaven - saying anything else is contradicting His infinite power.
But God DID send His son to die. Why? We can't truly know why. After all, He is God and we are not. (As if you couldn't tell already, this is a Christian perspective.)
My guess is that Jesus' mission was twofold. His death was a way to communicate God's forgiveness to us as humans. We're not the brightest - we simply wouldn't get it if one day everything we did was wiped clean and forgiven. Jesus also set an example of the perfect life. He never sinned, and is therefore the example of how we should be attempting to live.
Sorry, OP, for the whole not-addresssing-your-topic thing.
Op, you're bitheistic and there's nothing wrong with that. Most experts agree that it's something you're born with and it's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. You may be turned off by the accompanying prejudice, but always remember to be yourself. ...:)
Things you must ignore in Christianity to accept all religions as truth.
1. Jesus Christ is not the only way to salvation.
2. The bible is not the absolute word of God and neither is any religious text (seeing as how there are numerous contradictions among them), but all could be seem as approximations of God's law.
3. Your place in the afterlife is indeterminate no matter what church you go to or what your actions are here on earth. Maybe works are more important or maybe it's faith, maybe the Puritans are right and either you're a member of the elect or not, or maybe there is no heaven and hell and you'll end up in some other animate form entirely in your next life because the Buddhists and Hindus were right all along. The point is, if you accept all religions you can't know what happens when you die until you're on the threshold.
4. Evangalism is pointless, because you're religion is no more closer to the truth than anyone else's. Trying to convert them would be a complete waste of time, and who knows, you might be doing them a disservice.
My point is, that for you to really believe that all religions are equal you cna't really be a "good" christian or any other religion for that matter. Liberalism might have a place in government but according to our world religions it has no place in the heart of a man of faith.
Now it's up to you. Do you stay on the path of moderate, secular humanist hipocrisy or do you turn over to dogmatic insensitivity? Good luck with your descision.
to the poster above, basically what your describing is agnosticism. i think it would probably be more satisfying to settle on something (or two), but i suppose it doesn't matter.
Well, to all of the anonymouses who brought it up, I don't honestly think that accepting Jesus is the only way to salvation, because I find it hard believing that God would just send any non-Christians to Hell, especially if most of their other practices and ideals are very similar to that of the Christian faith. And I'm not one to even say whether or not the Christians are right, or whether or not the Buddhists are right, or whether or not the Daoists are right for that matter. I just have to believe what seems right to me.
That being said, thanks for the comments. They were appreciated.
You can believe anything you want. Your beliefs don't have to come from a single religion.
That's the beauty of the 1st amendment- freedom of religion.
^ more rather, that's the beauty of independent thought and rationale.
Yeah...the first amendment is nice, but it doesn't really dictate what people can believe. That would be too controlling.
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