Religious Tolerance & World Peace

[worldcitizen]

Dear Friends,

Due to current world events I thought it appropriate and necessary for all peaceful religionists to join together in unity and solidarity to promote peaceful,attitudes towards people of all faiths and none and to encourage each other to see what we have in common rather than dwell on our differences so that we can expand our vision and make it world embracing. Maybe this is a good idea or not I don’t know but I’ll give it a go.

Of course it involves clarification of current views that hold religion is violent and aggressive something that affects the credibility of all faiths and all of us.

From the outset I want to make it abundantly clear that the purpose of this thread is to unite and share whatever we think needs clarification to enable us to come together. Questions about religion in general or a religion or just share some of the peaceful, loving and enlightening verses from our own Faith but NOT to proselytise or convert. It is forbidden to proselytise here and my Faith forbids it also.

On proselytism my religion defines it as "Proselytizing implies bringing undue pressure to bear upon someone to change his Faith… Which is forbidden.

"we are forbidden to proselytize, "

If one person’s misunderstanding can be cleared up or we can show to ourselves that despite our different beliefs we can all get along then that of itself challenges a hopeless humanity who think religion is dead and buried and is only violence and bloodshed and must be abandoned.

To bring people back to God we all have a responsibility towards humanity to show we have something to offer instead of competition and bickering or in some cases violence and bloodshed.

If religion ceases to be a cause of love and unity people will and are abandoning it so unity amongst ourselves is crucial and critical to a disbelieving world.

Over to you. Share something from you’re heart or your Holy Book or philosophy that you feel important for others to know. Thank you God Bless.

 

[Kaninchen]

He has told you, O man, what is good,
And what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice
And to love goodness,
And to walk modestly with your God,
Then will your name achieve wisdom.

Micah 6:8

 

[worldcitizen]

Here’s a good one about conquering:

1. If one man conquer in battle a thousand times thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors. (Dhammapada)

 

[worldcitizen]

There’s so much hatred and prejudice circulating especially religious.

Where does it end? Is there a solution or does it just mean another world war? With so many religions around all claiming to have God why can’t they solve the problems? They comprise billions of people.

Are the scriptures powerless or are we supposed to be doing something we’re not doing?

Everybody talks that they have the truth but then why are they powerless to reverse this trend of prejudice and hate or isn’t anybody trying or maybe nobody really cares?

What solutions do we have as religionists for world peace or is peace only something politicians will create one day if we’re around?

 

[TonyBS]

He has told you, O man, what is good,
And what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice
And to love goodness,
And to walk modestly with your God,
Then will your name achieve wisdom.

Micah 6:8

This is Wisdom

Regards Tony

 

[christofirst]

This is an old observation, but greed and desire seem to most often be the true cause of violence and aggression. Someone or some group wants what someone else has, and is willing to take it by force. Religious fanaticism and intolerance is one common way of attempting to justify this behavior, by giving the aggression a supposedly divine mandate.

“Christian non-violence is not built on a presupposed division, but on the basic unity of man. It is not out for the conversion of the wicked to the ideas of the good, but for the healing and reconciliation of man with himself, man the person and man the human family.”
Thomas Merton, Faith and Violence.

 

[worldcitizen]

This is an old observation, but greed and desire seem to most often be the true cause of violence and aggression. Someone or some group wants what someone else has, and is willing to take it by force. Religious fanaticism and intolerance is one common way of attempting to justify this behavior, by giving the aggression a supposedly divine mandate.

“Christian non-violence is not built on a presupposed division, but on the basic unity of man. It is not out for the conversion of the wicked to the ideas of the good, but for the healing and reconciliation of man with himself, man the person and man the human family.”
Thomas Merton, Faith and Violence.

You put that so beautifully. You’re a human being and so am I so there is no reason why we can’t be friends. If a doctor on an operating table cut up an American, a Jew, a Christian, an aetheist and a Muslim would he find these differences?

Isn’t it for God to judge us? If we can all just appreciate each other the world could come together in peace. After 9/11 now I see websites springing up demonising people. It’s such hatred and prejudice. When I say something good people start attacking and insulting me for not joining in the demonisation.

One of the reasons I came here was in the hope you people don’t get infected with this hate.

It’s intensifying and is like the propaganda against the Jews. Demonising caused them to be gassed in the millions.

People can’t just be silent. You know the saying evil flourishes when good men remain silent?

So I encourage everyone to promote world brotherhood, to reject that any race orereligion is evil and to visit each other’s churches and spread the love of all humanity.

It devastates me to read the hate. We can only conquer it with love, tolerance and a prejudice free atmosphere towards all peoples and all religions.

What can we do? We can talk about it in our churches not to listen to the voices of demonising others. To challenge them and discredit their racist ideas and promote tolerance and love. If I can reach one person who can reach others then something small,will,have been achieved. But the cause of hate and prejudice is growing daily and the cause of peace is so slow to gain momentum.

We need to write about how to eliminate prejudices and challenge those who maintain a large segment of humanity are evil. Otherwise what happened to the Jews could happen to others but with the technology we have today it would be horrific.

I beg God to raise up a race of lovers of all humanity.