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Old 02-27-2012, 04:24 PM
 
Location: Australia
4,001 posts, read 6,260,123 times
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I do follow the words of Christ to the best of my ability and with the utmost sincerety

Asked and answered - yes you are a Christian. Christians follow the word of Christ.

I think you are getting confused (like a lot of people!) with Religion. I am not religious, by which I mean I don't subscribe to the mass hijacking of the word of God by all the so-called Christians of differing religions, who all believe they have the only "right" interpretations of the bible. This does nothing to me but emphasise the towering ego of men who assume they know the unknowable and dictate to others what it is.

I am not Christian either, by which I mean there may or may not have been a Christ. I do not know because I was not there. I suspect there was a man who did something remarkable once, but it has been re-written so many times it contains goodness knows how many inaccuracies and personal opinions of the various writers.

Last edited by MsAnnThrope; 02-27-2012 at 04:45 PM..
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Old 02-28-2012, 04:25 AM
 
Location: UK
121 posts, read 158,837 times
Reputation: 27
Quote:
Originally Posted by MsAnnThrope View Post
I do follow the words of Christ to the best of my ability and with the utmost sincerety

Asked and answered - yes you are a Christian. Christians follow the word of Christ.

I think you are getting confused (like a lot of people!) with Religion. I am not religious, by which I mean I don't subscribe to the mass hijacking of the word of God by all the so-called Christians of differing religions, who all believe they have the only "right" interpretations of the bible. This does nothing to me but emphasise the towering ego of men who assume they know the unknowable and dictate to others what it is.

I am not Christian either, by which I mean there may or may not have been a Christ. I do not know because I was not there. I suspect there was a man who did something remarkable once, but it has been re-written so many times it contains goodness knows how many inaccuracies and personal opinions of the various writers.
If you follow the words of Christ to the best of your ability and with utmost sincerety, then you are a Christian; no problem with this!

However, if you're not a Christian either as you're not sure if Christ existed since you were not around during his lifetime; a bit unsure about this as it may reflect doubts on the Christ. Just wondering how could one follow the words of Christ with utmost sincerety if one has a doubt on the person.

I suspect most atheists from Christian background have left the faith since they could not reconcile with the Bible; if this was the case, what if Jesus was different from what have been described in the New Testament; what if he is (was) somebody who wanted to disclose something from the Bible that would contradict the Bible itself?

What if he was the next would-be Buddha that has been predicted by the existing Buddha, and also from the Old Testament?
What if Jesus was fulfilling his last perfection to become the next Buddha?

Moderator cut: solicitation and giving out personal information

Last edited by june 7th; 02-28-2012 at 06:02 AM..
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Old 02-28-2012, 09:51 AM
 
Location: The Universe
61 posts, read 72,452 times
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Wow the moderation is super heavy here. I was actually going to check out his research until it was deleted. i guess the moderators know what's better for me than I do.
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Old 02-28-2012, 09:53 AM
 
Location: The Universe
61 posts, read 72,452 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sidneytinhtut View Post

What if he was the next would-be Buddha that has been predicted by the existing Buddha, and also from the Old Testament?
What if Jesus was fulfilling his last perfection to become the next Buddha?

Moderator cut: solicitation and giving out personal information

It's possible that Jesus was a Buddha type of being and that he just misunderstood his unique insight. But a truly enlightened being would never claim to be the son of any God so I seriously doubt your claims are correct.
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Old 02-29-2012, 06:15 AM
 
Location: UK
121 posts, read 158,837 times
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Originally Posted by WordClock View Post
It's possible that Jesus was a Buddha type of being and that he just misunderstood his unique insight. But a truly enlightened being would never claim to be the son of any God so I seriously doubt your claims are correct.
I didn't say Jesus was a Buddha as there are considerable differences between a Buddha and a would-be buddha. Such would be buddhas may have to undergo perfections for an eternity (uncountable earth years; e.g current Buddha took 4 eons and 100000 earth/worlds to become a buddha)

A buddha an a perfect and enlightened person who had searched the cause for life and death, looking for a creator God as a supremene being but finally found himself that it is a system of natural laws that is collectively called Dhamma in Pali language. It is this set of natural laws which has become his teachings, and he showed how to free from the bindings of these laws and becomes liberated.

The Buddha said everybody, including the gods of all religions and atheists alike, are bound by these laws and would not escape unless one finds the right path to liberation and takes the path into practice.

Would-be buddhas may still believe there is God and they would fulfil the ten perfections to become a buddha in their last existence as a human to learn this Truth, and teach others how to liberate from the bindings of these natural laws. The dispensation period of the teachings of the current Buddha is 5000 years and anyone who came to know this Truth and became liberated could not be the Buddha.

So, Jesus is definitely not the Buddha and he needs to discover this Truth himslef after the current dispensation period is over. However, he may be a would-be buddha as his last perfection clearly equates the standard of the Ten Perfections.
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Old 02-29-2012, 10:52 AM
 
Location: The Universe
61 posts, read 72,452 times
Reputation: 31
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sidneytinhtut View Post
I didn't say Jesus was a Buddha as there are considerable differences between a Buddha and a would-be buddha. Such would be buddhas may have to undergo perfections for an eternity (uncountable earth years; e.g current Buddha took 4 eons and 100000 earth/worlds to become a buddha)

A buddha an a perfect and enlightened person who had searched the cause for life and death, looking for a creator God as a supremene being but finally found himself that it is a system of natural laws that is collectively called Dhamma in Pali language. It is this set of natural laws which has become his teachings, and he showed how to free from the bindings of these laws and becomes liberated.

The Buddha said everybody, including the gods of all religions and atheists alike, are bound by these laws and would not escape unless one finds the right path to liberation and takes the path into practice.

Would-be buddhas may still believe there is God and they would fulfil the ten perfections to become a buddha in their last existence as a human to learn this Truth, and teach others how to liberate from the bindings of these natural laws. The dispensation period of the teachings of the current Buddha is 5000 years and anyone who came to know this Truth and became liberated could not be the Buddha.

So, Jesus is definitely not the Buddha and he needs to discover this Truth himslef after the current dispensation period is over. However, he may be a would-be buddha as his last perfection clearly equates the standard of the Ten Perfections.

I see what you are trying to say. Not saying I agree but it is worth thinking about for entertainment purposes only as we can never really know anything. Would you say then that Jesus was an enlightened being who didn't realize his true nature? Because, according to Buddhist tradition, an enlightened being would not mistake their true nature for anything else.

According to Buddhism everyone is a Buddha. Buddha nature is the core of it all. An enlightened person is not perfect as perfection in relative. Nobody can be perfect yet a person can be perfect/not-perfect.

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Old 02-29-2012, 11:00 AM
 
6,822 posts, read 6,616,037 times
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Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper 88 View Post
So obviously this question seems astounding to most at first glance. Of course one cannot be a good Christian and still maintain their Atheism, correct?

Well, maybe not.

I've been here quite awhile and have seen many of you define just what it means to be Christian. So lets think about that for a few moments. How do we define a Christian? The overwhelming answer that I have received here on this board and elsewhere is that if one believes in the teachings of Christ and makes a sincere effort to follow the path he set for us in the Bible, the rest is just semantics and that person by all means is Christian.

So as many if not most of you know, I am atheist. I do not believe in a literal God or even a literal Christ in the sense that he is the Son of God. However, when reading the Bible, it is obvious that many of the teachings of Christ are moral and just. I do believe that the fictional depiction of Christ is a hero to society, providing a true example of how to live a clean and moral life. I do follow the words of Christ to the best of my ability and with the utmost sincerety. Not because I am scared of the hell fire that will surely burn me for etetrnity if I don't, thats all fantasy, but because I, as a rational human being, want to do what is best for the well being of myself, my family, and my fellow humans.

So, I beg the question, even a proclaimed Atheist, could I still be considered Christian? i.e. an Atheist Christian?
How can one that lives for God deny his existence?

And they think we are evolving.
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