Racist reforms, while religious groups may be taking advantage of victims

[quote name='Quillion']EDIT:You're way off on the system of law comment. Our system of law is based on two things actus reus and mens rea. That's guilty act and guilty mind action and intent. You don't judge someone by their words, but by the evidence against them.[/QUOTE]

Yes, this is a tangent that best deserves it's own thread.

Basically you asked me not to judge you by your bigoted words and expressed a desire not to live next to certain segments of the population based on your assumption that they wouldn't live by a stringent moral code. To explain the seriousness of this admission, if you were a landlord and you acted on these desires then it would be a crime.
 
I understand what you're saying. Though I'm sorry that some of those very widely accepted teachings and moral codes are beyond your limits of comprehension - perhaps a trip to the libray if you're interested.

Buddhism doesn't believe in something higher - because there are MANY MANY types of Buddhism that believe MANY different things.

To assume that you prefer some people over others because of their "beliefs" is bigoted.

I think you argued yourself into a hole and can't get out.

Why do I believe I know exactly what you're saying? Because I have definitely expressed views similair to yours in the past.

You can be as this way or that as you want, it's cool with me, but don't kid yourself.
 
I couldnt agree more. Satan was involved, and people need to start waking up and listening to GOD, GOD has already warned the world about what is going to happen, he warn us in the beginning of time, why people dont seem to be listening, well thats just like noah's day.

Now, i wouldnt go around bashing people about the bible and GOD at this moment of time in N.O., but i would talk about GOD to them in a respectful manner.

Funny thing, alot of people dont wanna hear about GOD right now, and thats the problem.
 
[quote name='Sleepkyng']please also add Zen, Shinto, Daoism, Confucisim, Tibetin Buddhism, teachings of Menicus, and the Teachings of Epicerus to the list of "atheists" who Quillion automatically disagrees with, not having read probably 1/2 of the moral codes listed.


cheers[/QUOTE]

I think you need to research Shinto more, IIRC it's a relgion that does worship gods and spirits alike. In fact, in some regards, traditionally Shinto has more in common Western religions than just about any other religion from the East. Shrines are built in the names of Gods and Spirits, said shrines usually have priests, a belief in evil, it was once a state religion for a time, purification rituals, etc.
 
[quote name='Quillion']He brought up the system of law. As an aside, I repsonded.

I wasn't using that as a criteria to evaluate Atheism. But, Buddists do believe in something higher:
If not only that, there's striving for Nivana, and an end to suffering. I would consider Nivana "something higher"[/quote]

They don't deny or accept the idea of a supreme being, it's not usually a concern, as the evidence for either is lacking. Technically, it would fit more under agnostic, but since they don't actually believe in a supreme power then it can be described as atheistic.

I don't think I need to reiterate my statement that I don't think any less of Atheists, I just don't have anything to talk about with them.
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I don't believe this honestly. If you have a christian and a druid, it's like having a basketball fan and a football fan. They both like sports, but have nothing really in common to talk about.

But the reason I don't believe it is it was only an opinion you adopted after people insisted you were a bigot. Your original reason was:

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that religious people tend to be helpful and caring people, atheists tend to be cynics. I'd rather have a religious neighbor than an athiestic one........

I don't. I'm not saying that Atheists are bad people, simply that I prefer people of faith. You generally know where they stand.
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Basically, I see your "I have nothing in common with them" argument as simply taking a new position because your original was attacked, not a clarification of your belief.

I'm not calling you a bigot to denounce you, I'm just saying that is a characteristic of your opinions. It's not meant as an attack as something others use it as.

In summation:

I think the primary problem we're having is a communication one. I do understand your points of view, but I don't think I'm being understood. I can't do anything more to rectify that. I'll leave this topic alone, and not post unless I see a sign that I've been understood.
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I have nothing to say to this, it just seemed like I ignored your statements if I didn't quote this.


I couldnt agree more. Satan was involved, and people need to start waking up and listening to GOD, GOD has already warned the world about what is going to happen, he warn us in the beginning of time, why people dont seem to be listening, well thats just like noah's day.

Now, i wouldnt go around bashing people about the bible and GOD at this moment of time in N.O., but i would talk about GOD to them in a respectful manner.

Funny thing, alot of people dont wanna hear about GOD right now, and thats the problem.
Click to expand...

I think it's best for you to go your way and me to go mine. When we die, you'll die knowing you did what you know was right, you did what you know was best. When I die I'll have done the same. A statement of belief speaks much softer than peoples actions, and the christians who primarily focus on the words of people have much more to worry about in death than the atheists who focus primarily on the actions of people.

But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth
(1 John 3:17,18).
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If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works is dead, being alone (James 2:15-17)
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If you believe god exists, and especially if good comes from god, then those who do good deeds have done much more for god, and are much more valuable to god, than those who preach and believe words.
 
[quote name='Duo_Maxwell']I think you need to research Shinto more, IIRC it's a relgion that does worship gods and spirits alike. In fact, in some regards, traditionally Shinto has more in common Western religions than just about any other religion from the East. Shrines are built in the names of Gods and Spirits, said shrines usually have priests, a belief in evil, it was once a state religion for a time, purification rituals, etc.[/QUOTE]

doo doo doo doo doo

taken from http://www.religioustolerance.org/shinto.htm

[font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]The Kami are the Shinto deities. The word "Kami" is generally translated "god" or "gods." However, the Kami bear little resemblance to the gods of monotheistic religions. There are no concepts which compare to the Christian beliefs in the wrath of God, his omnipotence and omni-presence, or the separation of God from humanity due to sin. There are numerous other deities who are conceptualized in many forms: [/font]
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[font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]Those related to natural objects and creatures, from "food to rivers to rocks." 2[/font]
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[font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]Guardian Kami of particular areas and clans[/font]
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[font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]Exceptional people, including all but the last of the emperors.[/font]
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[font=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]Abstract creative forces[/font]

In regards to kami, taken from the wiki -
he most immediately striking theme in the Shinto religion is a great love and reverence for nature. Thus, a waterfall, the moon, or just an oddly shaped rock might come to be regarded as a kami; so might charismatic persons or more abstract entities like growth and fertility. As time went by, the original nature-worshipping roots of the religion, while never lost entirely, became attenuated and the kami took on more reified and anthropomorphic forms, with a formidable corpus of myth attached to them. (See also: Japanese mythology.) The kami, though, are not transcendent deities in the usual Western and Indian sense of the word - although divine, they are close to us; they inhabit the same world as we do, make the same mistakes as we do, and feel and think the same way as we do. Those who died would automatically be added to the rank of kami regardless of their human doings. (Though it is thought that one can become a ghost under certain circumstances involving unsettled disputes in life.) Belief is not a central aspect in Shinto, and proper observation of ritual is more important than whether one "truly believes" in the ritual. Thus, even those believing other religions may be venerated as kami after death, if there are Shinto believers who wish them to be.



 
and on that note - concerning it as a state religion:

State Shinto

Following the Meiji Restoration, Shinto was made the official religion of Japan, and its combination with Buddhism was outlawed. During this period, it was felt that Shinto was needed in order to unify the country around the Emperor as the process of modernization was undertaken with all possible speed. The arrival of large Western gunships and the collapse of the shogunate convinced many that the nation needed to band together if it was going to resist being conquered by outside forces. As a result, Shinto was used as a tool for promoting Emperor (and Empire) worship, and Shinto was exported into conquered territories like Hokkaido and Korea.

It has been proposed that the uncharacteristically aggressive beliefs upon which State Shinto operated may have been inspired by the application of a number of inconguously Western religious ideas, such as universality and evangelism, to certain, otherwise benign, mythological elements of Shinto, a national folk religion. For example, the notion of the Emperor being a divinely mandated ruler is not particularly unreasonable if this dominion encompasses Japan alone, as was intended in the creation myths of the Kojiki and Nihonshoki. If one extends this mandate to the world, however, one can quickly see that such a notion becomes problematic
 
I may not have been right about all the comparisons but I was still right about them worshipping a higher power of some sort (that's what diety is, along with the worship of dead ancestors), which is nothing like atheists.

Edit: And even with what you posted I'd say it's still more like western relgions than any other major religion from Asia and the Far East.
 
[quote name='Duo_Maxwell']Edit: And even with what you posted I'd say it's still more like western relgions than any other major religion from Asia and the Far East.[/QUOTE]

That's probably due to the fact that nature worshipping/polytheistic religions in China have either gone underground or been significantly reduced in the wake of communism.
 
[quote name='Duo_Maxwell']I may not have been right about all the comparisons but I was still right about them worshipping a higher power of some sort (that's what diety is, along with the worship of dead ancestors), which is nothing like atheists.

Edit: And even with what you posted I'd say it's still more like western relgions than any other major religion from Asia and the Far East.[/QUOTE]

I would say we were both off the mark, I was just posting those facts for both of us to see.

Seems like it's more in the middle, eh?
 
[quote name='Sleepkyng']I would say we were both off the mark, I was just posting those facts for both of us to see.

Seems like it's more in the middle, eh?[/QUOTE]

Yeah I would agree with that.
 
I'd prefer an atheist as a neighbor - they don't clutter their yard with tacky xmas displays, they are always available to help you on a Sunday and they never go on an axe-murdering spree because "god told them to."
 
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