R
rcwitness
Guest
What is he referring to here?
“What I have done…”
What did he do that he is referring to?
If you do not practice the faith you were "born into", why not?
- Status
“What I have done…”
What did he do that he is referring to?
S
Sy_Noe
Guest
Posters and a couple more. But not specifically those apologists. I know various posters can be wrong though.
R
rossum
Guest
He attained enlightenment. He did that age 35, and he taught for 45 years, dying at age 80.
rossum
E
Ecthelion
Guest
The first thing one ought to do in a genuine search for truth is to recognize that religion is not simply a matter of personal preference. Religion has a tremendous stake in it that is directly connected with the meaning of man’s existence as a whole. To assume that man can determine the meaning of his own existence is to assume atheism. Thus, the search for truth requires an openness to truth and faculties of reason. One can use reason to come to ascertain truth. All we need is to seek it with an open heart. Ask yourself why you are an atheist. If it is a matter of personal preference, then you are surely putting a lot at stake. If you have a more rational reason for it, evaluate it and ask yourself why you hold your belief (just as any Christian should). Faith is not isolated from reason. Rather, it is an extension of it. Thus, we have a duty to pursue truth by reason. C.S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity” uses reason to bring anyone from atheism to Christianity with the help of using reason and its conclusions (one especially being the existence of the moral law). Religion is not a matter of personal preference, just as truth is. The moment we affirm one person’s behavior over another’s, one religion’s validity over another’s, or point to any sort of moral progress in history, we appeal to the existence of objective truth. Because religions differ and truth is objective, one religion is more or less true than another. Thus we ought to pursue that religion which is most true in accordance with objective truth using the faculties of reason. The same goes for various Christian denominations.
In summary, one isn’t bound necessarily to the religion one is born into firstly because man does not define truth - he discovers it. Therefore some religions and some Christian denominations are more or less true than another. Man ultimately has a duty to pursue truth, which entails the use of reason.
In summary, one isn’t bound necessarily to the religion one is born into firstly because man does not define truth - he discovers it. Therefore some religions and some Christian denominations are more or less true than another. Man ultimately has a duty to pursue truth, which entails the use of reason.
R
rcwitness
Guest
But what did he do? He said “what I have done…”
R
rossum
Guest
Attaining enlightenment is something you do. The Buddha did it, many of his followers did it. Other Buddhists have been doing it ever since.
In broad outline what you have to do is:
• Don’t do evil.
• Do good.
• Meditate.
The details get a lot more complex than that simple summary. Christianity covers the first two pretty well, but tends to lack in the third.
rossum
J
jmcrae
Guest
Not in my experience. Christianity has many opportunities for meditation, but few people take real advantage of them - Lectio Divina, the Rosary, various other chaplets, Adoration - so many.
R
rcwitness
Guest
Ok. I certainly still don’t know what Buddha did.
We know what Jesus did. It has real impact on us. We do not believe we can do what Jesus did because we are men, but because He became man and gave us His Spirit.
I don’t claim to know a lot about Buddha. He may have taught beautiful advice. I only believe that we cannot do what is fully satisfactory to the Spirit which sustains life apart from His son.
Maybe Buddha would have accepted this. We don’t know. He was from a different time and culture.
R
rossum
Guest
Catholicism and the Eastern Christians have preserved monasticism, and so have also preserved a lot of the Christian meditation methods. Protestant Christians have mostly lost their monastic traditions, and so have lost their meditative traditions as well.
The rosary and the chaplets are Catholic/Orthodox elements not often seen in Protestant churches.
rossum
R
rossum
Guest
You just have to do it for yourself, then you will know.
You cannot learn to swim just by reading books and looking at videos. You actually have to get your cossie on and get in the water.
Buddhism is something you do.
When you have travelled to the end of the path, then you will know what lies at the end of the path. Reading a map does not get you nearer the end of the path.
Which is one of the differences between the Buddha and Jesus. We are men and we can do what the Buddha did.
rossum
R
Reuben_J
Guest
Guess so. Jesus likened himself as the vine and we are the branches, getting our life nutrition from the vine. And without him we are nothing just like the branches without the vine that whittle and die to be thrown to the flame.
It is just too hard to do it alone. Man can only do as much but we are frail and have propensity to sin.
I don’t think we can achieve what Buddha did and I doubt he really achieved it. But of course he was a good man, but as good man could be. Nirvana is out of reach by humans, in my opinion.
J
jmcrae
Guest
I would not consider Protestantism to be the full expression of what Christ intended for us, even if it could be considered as a whole. Each individual denomination seems to take one element of the Christian Faith, and ignore or even actively discourage every other aspect of it.
M
MissManda
Guest
I was raised in The Salvation Army from birth until I was about 13. Its a mix between Methodist and Protestant teachings. My mother’s family had been in The Salvation Army for several generations and it was really the only church I knew. The family had always been well known in the Army and active in it. My late great-aunt was a Minister until she informally retired.
I never felt like I belonged there once I hit an age where I could be an active member, and not the child sitting quietly on a blanket between pews with a quiet book…and occasionally playing with the shoes of people in front of me.
The practices never settled well with me, and even now I can’t put a finger on what bothers me the most. I was enrolled as a Junior Solider at my grandmother’s wishes and would have to wear a ‘uniform’ to church every Sunday. I was always reading things as a child, and if I asked religious questions that didn’t match up with beliefs/teachings/etc. I was told to hush. It never felt right to me.
The main reasons for my leaving however was 1) My minister aunt telling my sister that she had done something to anger her husband (who she had just left) and deserved the beatings he gave her. 2) The then ministers at our church telling me that I was lying about my sexual abuse, that God wouldn’t allow such a thing, and I should apologize to my abuser for ‘lying’ so that our family could move on. I left and have only been back into the churches for family obligations.
I never felt like I belonged there once I hit an age where I could be an active member, and not the child sitting quietly on a blanket between pews with a quiet book…and occasionally playing with the shoes of people in front of me.
The practices never settled well with me, and even now I can’t put a finger on what bothers me the most. I was enrolled as a Junior Solider at my grandmother’s wishes and would have to wear a ‘uniform’ to church every Sunday. I was always reading things as a child, and if I asked religious questions that didn’t match up with beliefs/teachings/etc. I was told to hush. It never felt right to me.The main reasons for my leaving however was 1) My minister aunt telling my sister that she had done something to anger her husband (who she had just left) and deserved the beatings he gave her. 2) The then ministers at our church telling me that I was lying about my sexual abuse, that God wouldn’t allow such a thing, and I should apologize to my abuser for ‘lying’ so that our family could move on. I left and have only been back into the churches for family obligations.
- Status