Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Strength of Islam vs Christianity.
Options
Comments
-
-
john_dub wrote:I actually did a bit of digging into the whole scientology thing a while ago and imo their beliefs make the bible look like an encyclopedia but besides that the fact is that scientology is a "religion" where you pay to reach each level, thats what makes me think so.
.
So because the bible has even more fairy tales than hubbards ramblings its more valid , what if you didn't have to pay , would it be ok then?
Originally Posted by InFront
The athiests arent looking hard enough
I looked, there was nothing to see.0 -
I just noticed now that in my last post I said:
"I know a few converts and their conviction in their religion has impressed me so much along with how well they practice it that I would feel that I'm practicing properly at all!"
when I should have said:
"I know a few converts and their conviction in their religion has impressed me so much along with how well they practice it that I would feel that I'm not practicing properly at all!"
So, what I meant was that their conviction is incredibly impressive underlining the fact that they aren't "ignoring stuff" as some have suggested and makes me feel that I should be better.
The text with the typo is kinda true (if grammatically incorrect ) now that I look at it too.
I can't speak for other religions and I can't even speak on behalf of Islam but I can speak as a Muslim and my experience as one along with my views of it. Human beings need religion in some way, shape or form. Humans want a purpose. To feel that they are not just coasting through life. If someone does not follow a religion per se then they follow something else like the pursuit of money, a career, perfect love, a better country, better law, etc. All of these things are perfectly fine and there's nothing wrong with them nor do they conflict with most religions.
As I've already said, I don't feel that me following religion is irrational. That's how I feel and that's how I know a majority of Muslims feel. It's difficult to explain but it's a little different than for people of other faiths. I know that seems arrogant and apologies for that but I'm just telling you what I see. And to continue with the things that may sound arrogant (apologies once again), a friend of mine once said "A person of another faith thinks they're following the right path but the Muslim knows they are"
I recently said to someone that I believe that everyone should question their beliefs. The mind is of a naturally questioning nature and people should not just accept things just for the sake of it. A questioned faith, if it survives the question, is a stronger faith. I can say that thank God, any question that either my mind or someone else has brought up has strengthened my faith.
As InFront has already said, the discussion will never end. There will always be both groups and both are entitled to their own opinion.
Personally speaking, I feel that most Muslims are happy to follow their faith because their faith doesn't have to be blind faith. The miracles of the Quran help to strengthen the faith of those who believe. Also, when it is practiced properly, it really does make your life easier for a number of reasons (sense of purpose, acceptance of good and bad, laws, guidance etc).
I know this all seems very off-topic but I think it's exactly what the original question is about and perhaps explains a little why some choose to veer away and others choose not to.
Anyway, let's all live in peace together and respect each other's opinions Some of the posters in this thread are caught up in a ding-dong batte that's going round in circle. There's no point arguing because it gets us nowhere.0 -
[post deleted for being off-topic, I'll raise this in a new thread]0
-
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,098 Mod ✭✭✭✭Join Date:Posts: 59027
the_new_mr wrote:So, what I meant was that their conviction is incredibly impressive underlining the fact that they aren't "ignoring stuff" as some have suggested and makes me feel that I should be better.Human beings need religion in some way, shape or form. Humans want a purpose. To feel that they are not just coasting through life. If someone does not follow a religion per se then they follow something else like the pursuit of money, a career, perfect love, a better country, better law, etcAs I've already said, I don't feel that me following religion is irrational. That's how I feel and that's how I know a majority of Muslims feel. It's difficult to explain but it's a little different than for people of other faiths. I know that seems arrogant and apologies for that but I'm just telling you what I see.And to continue with the things that may sound arrogant (apologies once again), a friend of mine once said "A person of another faith thinks they're following the right path but the Muslim knows they are"
I read a recent article on Muslim Britain in the sunday times magazine and the writer, while being sympatheic, made the observation that quite a lot of Muslims of all hues have this arrogance and "them and us" position, even down to calling converts "reverts", as we're all Muslim really, we just don't know it. Arrogance in faith that lofty hasn't been seen en masse since pre reformation Europe. The next time I berate the US for a similar arrogance(also quasi religious), it may well be tempered by this.
Christian countries, have at least become increasingly secular over time. Islam has become less secular over the same time period. At it's height Islam was quite secular for it's time, which made it a shining example to christian europe. Indeed up until the mid 20th century, Muslim countries were as secular, or more so than "western" states. Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Afghanistan to name but five, were just as "modern" states as those in the christian west. Even more so in some cases. The pattern since then has gotten increasingly fundamentalist in all of the aforementioned.As InFront has already said, the discussion will never end. There will always be both groups and both are entitled to their own opinion.Personally speaking, I feel that most Muslims are happy to follow their faith because their faith doesn't have to be blind faith. The miracles of the Quran help to strengthen the faith of those who believe.Also, when it is practiced properly, it really does make your life easier for a number of reasons (sense of purpose, acceptance of good and bad, laws, guidance etc).Anyway, let's all live in peace together and respect each other's opinionsRejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
0 -
Advertisement
-
I think it is worth remembering people tend to practice the religion they were brought up in. I know people who think miracles, Papal infallibility and the sacramental powers of priests are all hokum, but still attend Mass because they believe some kind of deity exists and feel the Catholic rituals are as good and valid an expression of that as any. Belief in a deity is one thing. Belief that deity gave an exclusive franchise to any faith is quite another.
I don’t think the key point is really about people continuing in the tradition they were raised. I’m not even sure that diligent practice is particularly interest. Its not as if devout practice was unknown to us. I recall a colleague saying how she was finding it hard to think of something to give their parents for their 50th wedding anniversary because ‘all they do is eat and pray’.
I’ve read some material about the Islamic rules on apostasy, and the impression I get is of a religion going through much the same process as Catholicism. There are hidebound Islamic scholars, like Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, saying ‘of course heretics should be executed, and anyone who says they shouldn’t obviously hasn’t a clue about what a valid Hadith is’. There are muddling Islamic scholars of a Father Ted Crilly type saying ‘Well, you don’t have to kill every heretic. It might be enough just to give them a stern telling off’. But there are also liberal Islamic scholars saying ‘Of course we shouldn’t persecute heretics. Do you think its better to be a hypocrite?’ I don’t think it’s hard to see where that debate is heading, because we’ve seen a similar process winding out.
The more you look into it, the more you seem similarities between Islam and Irish Catholicism as practiced in the past. It’s utterly understandable, even down to recalling that one of the standard Catholic bible readings for weddings includes a statement along the lines of ‘the gift of God is a quiet woman in a well-kept house’. (Which I think explains why so many opted for the ones about 'My love is like a stag that leaps and bounds' and 'Without love I am like a clanging gong'. Not many women want to be told to shut up and stay in the kitchen at their wedding.)
The real question IMHO is not why someone told from birth that the Pope was picked by the Holy Spirit, or the Archangel Gabriel whispered the Quran into a prophet’s ear retains a belief in that faith. It’s why someone who should know better decides to turn off their critical faculties and follow Creationism.0 -
Wibbs wrote:Our earliest ancestors (shaminstic) sought the spiritual on a personal basis, sometimes through shamans, sometimes not. No holy books or churches were needed. A different kind of religion to the two we're debating today. Less fear based to boot.
And people are returning to those beliefs, as can be seen in the growing numbers of assorted pagans.Wibbs wrote:Do you not realise, that if you care to ask any devout Christian you'll get the same line. Every faith thinks they're right and everybody else is deluded or downright wrong. History has sadly shown what can happen if that guff is taken to extremes. While groups of fundamentalist Christians(and others) think they're right, from what you're appearing to say is that the majority of Muslims think this more fervently.
IMO that tends to be a viewpoint of monotheistic beliefs. Those who have a pantheistic or polytheistic belief are more likely to go "That is your god, this is / these are mine."0 -
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,098 Mod ✭✭✭✭Join Date:Posts: 59027
Schuhart wrote:Belief that deity gave an exclusive franchise to any faith is quite another.I’ve read some material about the Islamic rules on apostasy, and the impression I get is of a religion going through much the same process as Catholicism. There are hidebound Islamic scholars, like Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, saying ‘of course heretics should be executed, and anyone who says they shouldn’t obviously hasn’t a clue about what a valid Hadith is’. There are muddling Islamic scholars of a Father Ted Crilly type saying ‘Well, you don’t have to kill every heretic. It might be enough just to give them a stern telling off’. But there are also liberal Islamic scholars saying ‘Of course we shouldn’t persecute heretics. Do you think its better to be a hypocrite?’ I don’t think it’s hard to see where that debate is heading, because we’ve seen a similar process winding out.
Christianity and catholicism have/had more grey areas than exist in islam, as certain points of law and behaviour were based in church tradition rather than what Jesus actually preached. Also teh seperation between church and state is written in at source(give all to caesar that's caesars, my kingdom is not of this earth etc). Islam is a more complete encompassing faith, in both the secular and religious arenas. More bases are covered as it were. While many of the faith will ease up on certain aspects, especially in those grey areas that do exist, the core belief, written down all those years ago, may take a long time to change if ever. Hey it's their bag so it's up to them. It may only come to difficulty if such beliefs are contrary to societies that conflict with those precepts. That's the same with any rigid belief system though. I'd be just as rigid with regard to democracy as an example.Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
0 -
Wibbs wrote:The belief among those of the Muslim faith that what's contained in said books is for all time and immutable is another stumbling block to a change like the one we saw with catholicism here.Wibbs wrote:Islam is a more complete encompassing faith, in both the secular and religious arenas.
Islam is not beyond our understanding. I think we know this outlook very well.0 -
Wibbs wrote:
it's quite an arrogant stance. :eek: Do you not realise, that if you care to ask any devout Christian you'll get the same line. Every faith thinks they're right and everybody else is deluded or downright wrong.
If Hobbes will excuse me, and whilst not being able to speak for him or supposing to, I dont think he is denying other religions their beliefs. Such is their free choice.
But for every Muslim, his faith is central to his existence, to his community, family, his mind and to his personal life. Being so enveloped in your faith fastens and reinforces it. I agree with his assertion that Muslims 'know' they are right, but to say that is not to be arrogant, for being arrogant alludes to superiority and authority on God. I do not observe such pretences but rather 'know' I am right because what I suppose to be right works and living my life by the Quran convinces me of God.
Living my life by God (or at least, hoping to) opens my eyes to Him because it makes me happy and makes those around me content and applying the written word to my living life brings about an experiecne of harmony that assures me that I am correct in my actions and in my religious studies. In fact, going wrong in life by living away from His word, and seeing the dangers of straying from God, also serves to reassure me of what is right.
I am sure there are Christians who feel that they experience this as well. And dont get me wrong, sometimes I seem to question these things that religion has taught me. But such rebellion is more often rebellion against myself and self doubt rather than necessarily questioning God.
Hobbes:As I've already said, I don't feel that me following religion is irrational
I hope you dont think that is what I mean. What I am trying to suggest is that lessons on God and His world often defy scientific explanation, and anyone that believes anyway, in the eyes of cold science, is 'irrational' in the sense they extend their firm beliefs beyond the strictly provable. Such an extension is brought about by the arm of faith, which is a wonderful thing and something we should be proud of:)0 -
Advertisement
-
Great post there InFront. Don't think I could put it better myself
I think you might have mixed Hobbes and I up but I guess everyone probably picked up on that.InFront wrote:What I am trying to suggest is that lessons on God and His world often defy scientific explanation, and anyone that believes anyway, in the eyes of cold science, is 'irrational' in the sense they extend their firm beliefs beyond the strictly provable.
I think Wibbs and Schuhart may have misunderstood my posts a bit and I feel that we're getting into the "going round in circles" zone as well as going massively off-topic Just quickly, there is definitely not supposed to be an "us and them" attitude.
As InFront said, I don't mean to deny anyone else their religion. If a Christian, Jew or other religion prays to God then we believe that God listens to them. As for their situation on the day of judgement, that's between God and each individual. No Muslim can ever say that "so-and-so is definitely going to hell because they didn't die a Muslim". As a Muslim, we believe that only God really knows if someone truly rejected Islam or not.Wibbs wrote:the_new_mr wrote:Personally speaking, I feel that most Muslims are happy to follow their faith because their faith doesn't have to be blind faith. The miracles of the Quran help to strengthen the faith of those who believe.
And when I said "Human beings need religion in some way, shape or form. Humans want a purpose", I meant to stress on the idea of purpose. People want to feel they are living for something. Maybe (in addition to what I already mentioned) it's their kids, their favourite sport or football team, their hobby, whatever. That's all I meant and I think it was misunderstood a bit.
Maybe now we can either let the thread go quiet or return back to topic.0 -
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,098 Mod ✭✭✭✭Join Date:Posts: 59027
InFront wrote:If Hobbes will excuse me, and whilst not being able to speak for him or supposing to, I dont think he is denying other religions their beliefs. Such is their free choice.But for every Muslim, his faith is central to his existence, to his community, family, his mind and to his personal life. Being so enveloped in your faith fastens and reinforces it. I agree with his assertion that Muslims 'know' they are right, but to say that is not to be arrogant, for being arrogant alludes to superiority and authority on God. I do not observe such pretences but rather 'know' I am right because what I suppose to be right works and living my life by the Quran convinces me of God.I just wanted to point out that I didn't mean a miracle such as when Moses (peace be upon him) split the red sea or when Jesus (peace be upon him) could heal people (both are miracles believed in Islam). I was talking about the scientific miracles that show evidence of the truth. I know we've disagreed about this before (at length) so we can just agree to disagree thenAnd when I said "Human beings need religion in some way, shape or form. Humans want a purpose", I meant to stress on the idea of purpose. People want to feel they are living for something. Maybe (in addition to what I already mentioned) it's their kids, their favourite sport or football team, their hobby, whatever. That's all I meant and I think it was misunderstood a bit.Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
0 -
the_new_mr wrote:I think Wibbs and Schuhart may have misunderstood my posts a bit and I feel that we're getting into the "going round in circles" zone as well as going massively off-topic
On the main point, unless I'm losing the plot, I think we have pretty much agreed that eduction is not the determinant of devotion. Plenty of educated people believe in mainstream religions. The question of whether those religions are valid is for another day (or thread).0 -
Apologies. Just when I thought I’d said my last, I came across this link on another thread which changes my perspective a little.http://www.pitzer.edu/academics/faculty/zuckerman/atheism.html
The nations with the highest degrees of organic atheism (atheism which is not state-enforced through totalitarian regimes but emerges naturally among free societies) include most of the nations of Europe, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel. There also exist high degrees of atheism in Japan, Vietnam, North Korea, and Taiwan. Many former Soviet nations, such as Estonia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus also contain significant levels of atheism.
Atheism is virtually non-existent in much of the world, however, especially among the most populated nations of Africa, South America, the Middle East, and much of Asia. High levels of organic atheism are strongly correlated with high levels of societal health, such as low homicide rates, low poverty rates, low infant mortality rates, and low illiteracy rates, as well as high levels of educational attainment, per capita income, and gender equality.
Most nations characterized by high degrees of individual and societal security have the highest rates of organic atheism, and conversely, nations characterized by low degrees of individual and societal security have the lowest rates of organic atheism. In some societies, particularly Europe, atheism is growing. However, throughout much of the world – particularly nations with high birth rates – atheism is barely discernable.
But it would look reasonable to say religious practice is associated with places where poverty and lack of education are common, while more wealthy societies with high levels of education are more associated with atheism. This doesn’t, of course, mean that low levels of education are the cause of religious practice. It just strongly suggests there is a significant link between the two things.
I suppose it also might suggest that the decision to trust to faith becomes progressively more difficult for educated people. Put bluntly, your average Irish Roman Catholic in 1930 didn’t have much to disturb their thinking, or to suggest that believing that someone might be raised up body and soul into heaven was just a little unlikely. That’s not to say that religious faith is not possible for highly educated and enquiring minds – we’ve seen that it is. Its just that someone of limited education will have less awareness of the need to make a leap of faith.0
This discussion has been closed.
Advertisement