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Thank you all for taking the time to answer. It has been a good learning experience already. Being a non-believer, I have always wondered how religious people internally reconcile their differences with other religions. Now, I see how. They don't.
Stunning.... revelation(for lack of a better term)!
Thank you all for taking the time to answer. It has been a good learning experience already. Being a non-believer, I have always wondered how religious people internally reconcile their differences with other religions. Now, I see how. They don't.
Stunning.... revelation(for lack of a better term)!
Keep reading. Christians can't even agree with each other. Christians don't WANT to agree with each other.
That would mean we had to walk the walk. We'd have to have compassion for those who are different and understanding that we aren't all the same and love for our fellow man and acceptance of people who don't think like we do. It would mean we'd actually have to LIVE all the good things Christ taught. **Nudge, Nudge**
Thank you all for taking the time to answer. It has been a good learning experience already. Being a non-believer, I have always wondered how religious people internally reconcile their differences with other religions. Now, I see how. They don't.
Stunning.... revelation(for lack of a better term)!
Well, something is true and something isn't. If two concepts of religion are different, they cannot both be true. So why would someone choose to believe something if they didn't believe it was the truth? If they didn't believe it was true, the they could compromise and believe something a little different. But you are asking people to turn from what they believe is truth and embrace a falsehood.
This is the difference between you and religious believers. You don't believe in anything, at least in this regard. You say don't believe there isn't a God (or god or gods) but you also don't believe there is. You could perhaps be described as undecided. Fair enough? So you would be willing to change your beliefs if the truth could be proven to your satisfaction.
Others believe they already know the truth. You may not agree with them, but you surely can't expect them to see this as you do, especially since you don't seem to be able to view it to from their perspective.
To the OP: Hate to break this to you, but you don't understand people or religion very well. People are all different. Ever heard of Republicans and Democrats?
Thank you all for taking the time to answer. It has been a good learning experience already. Being a non-believer, I have always wondered how religious people internally reconcile their differences with other religions. Now, I see how. They don't.
Stunning.... revelation(for lack of a better term)!
LOL! Well, a conclusion reached on the basis of how many answers? Yes, there are many people who will not compromise, probably the vast majority, however there is a strong commitment among some who are reaching out to others to express what is best in their faith tradition. I'm sure you have seen releases by the Dalai Lama, who is probably the highest profile such person.
Basically, what you are talkin g about are the "liberal" people of some of the faith traditions, and to the conservative mindset that is anathema. Some of us have been happy to work alongside secular humanists toward common goals of relieving suffering and promoting peace and education. It will happen, but it will take some time. Heck, some of our traditions have only been working in that direction for 350 years, give us a chance!
Others believe they already know the truth. You may not agree with them, but you surely can't expect them to see this as you do, especially since you don't seem to be able to view it to from their perspective.
The difference is I don't implore that I know the answer. Furthermore, I would not feel comfortable in saying someone's belief is a false belief.
I would hope that the matter would be decided on a peaceful preponderance of the evidence but that would just be naively idealistic.
An atheist here, and this is not meant to be a "drive by".
My question is: Why aren't all religions trying to work together to form a cohesive and agreeable concept of religion and god?
Why so many splintered factions? Most believers agree there is one god, right? Is any group trying to synthesize the known information into an intelligible concept? Is anyone doing the research? Are people from different religions reaching out to each other? Has any progress been made in the last 2,013 years?
Because all religions are made up of flawed human beings with egos and plenty of hubris.
Christianity is a relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ. Christianity is God reaching out to fallen mankind through Jesus. .
This is the fundamental difference between Christianity and all other religions.
To the OP. You see religion as being something just made up. No god involved. Not the case. If it were so I would agree with you. Let's all just hold hands and sing We are the World. All religions worship some sort of deity. Many of which are real. Thus the rub.
There is the Creator of all and then there are the other gods and spirits. God says we are to worship Him only. So when it comes to the Hindus and Buddhists and pagans (and others), there is no happy holding of hands. The Jews have an issue with the Messiah. The Muslims don't think Jesus is who He said he was. So there you have it.
An atheist here, and this is not meant to be a "drive by".
My question is: Why aren't all religions trying to work together to form a cohesive and agreeable concept of religion and god?
Why so many splintered factions? Most believers agree there is one god, right?
I have written about this before but perhaps it bears repeating as it was on a different forum.
I think the reason they can not agree is that there is no basis in reality for reconciling any differences.
My first experience of this was as a child when two of my friends fell out. They were VERY close guys indeed. They could not spend enough time with each other. Or express their mutual affection often or deeply enough.
One of the cute things they had at the time was a shared imaginary friend. They used to use this to express their mutual love. The imaginary friend would spend the night in one or other of their houses. The next day we would hear things like "Oh he said how much he missed you last night" or "He said how great you are at X last night" (whatever X was at the time). It was painfully cute.
However one day one of them off hand mentioned the color of the imaginary friends hair. The other guy disagreed and said it was another color. Alas since the friend was entirely imaginary there was no way to resolve the conflict. There was no test to perform or evidence to present which could settle the arguement either way. In the end it turned from a disagreement, to shouting, to violence, to the ending of what was and should still be a powerful friendship.
Fast forward a few years and map this onto my view of religion. An answer to the OPs question lies in this and I would add something to your point above. Differences can be a point of conflict but entirely irreconcilable differences are much, much, worse and can lead to all manner of horror.
There simply is no evidence, argument, data or reasoning on offer to even suggest there IS A god entity. As such when differences of opinion arise with regard to some attribute, aspect, opinion or other feature assigned to this imaginary entity those differences are.... much like the color of that imaginary friends hair.... often irreconcilable.
This problem is only compounded by those religions which teach not only that their path is the "Right" or "True" one but that in fact getting it wrong can lead to eternal torment, hell or some other kind of punishment or "missing out" on some aspect of paradise.
Whereas the irreconcilable color of a mutually shared imaginary friends hair is mundane and incidental.... those religions teach that their points of differences are past even the point of being "Life and death".... but relevant to the eternal well being of your very soul. And the very souls of your loved ones and progeny.
So the OP wants to know why such groups find it hard to "get along"? For me it is obvious. Give people irreconcilable differences... and then lend them the impression that reconciliation of those differences can influence the fate of eternal souls.... and you create an atmosphere and recipe for disaster.
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