What do you think about religion?

Buddhism and the Dalai Lama are two different things.
It is kinda like Buddhism chose the Dalai Lama and not the other way around.
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What makes you want to become a Buddhist Maya?
I suppose all religions can connect us with our spiritual side and one particular one works better than the others for some people. Reply to this

I think likening it to philosophy is the way to go. Things like reincarnation are just symbols anyway. Believing in them or not is not the relevant part. They are not necessary for many these days and they hinder some in finding the true roots of religion.

Nothing wrong with enjoying the celebrations of Christianity without being a Christian. Many of them were originally pagan holidays anyway. :D Reply to this

Are all the Kings of Thailand so important Koi, or is it just the current one?

Mel Reply to this

Thanks Koi 😊 Reply to this

I am not religious at all Koi but I was born in a country which was/is predominantly Roman Catholic and I went to a convent school there so know quite a bit about it. The nuns made sure of that. :D

Yes, Jesus is the son of God. His mother is the virgin Mary. Yes, you heard that right. She had a baby while she was still a virgin. That is how the story goes. The pope is head of the Catholic church and always lives at the Vatican in Italy.

Christianity as far as I know is all the religions which believe in Jesus and the teachings of the Bible. Maybe there are people here who can give more information about Christianity in general than I can. I was thought by the nuns and society that there is only one right religion and that is Roman Catholicism. There was little information given to us about the others. :D
I dont know much about Orthodoxy or Protestantism because there were few of them in Ireland when I was growing up.
I think Protestantism was invented by King Henry VIII of England. He wanted to remarry but the Catholic church does not allow divorce. He demanded another religion for England to fix that. Reply to this

The Protestant movement actually started in Germany, with Martin Luther. Some of his writings influenced Henry VIII as he was 'arguing' with the Catholic Church about his first marriage. When King Henry VIII split off from the Roman Catholic church, he started the Anglican, or Church of England.

The founders of Protestantism wanted the scriptures available to all the people, because they believed the scriptures taught the real truth about God and salvation. To put it simply, they thought the Roman Catholic Church were corrupt and were controlling too much in people's lives. Protestantism encompasses several denominations, all of which had their beginnings in the Protestant Reformation.

None of this would have been possible if Guttenberg hadn't developed the printing press when he did. By printing the Bibles, and letters and treatises of men like Martin Luther and Henry VIII, information was spread beyond the elite, to the people who would fill the new churches developing. Reply to this

Yes Maya, there are different types of buddhism : )
1.Theravada Buddhism
2. Mahayana Buddhism

Theravada Buddhist counties are Sri Lanka,Cambodia,Burma,Laos,Bangladesh and Thailand

Mahayana Buddhist counties are Tibet,Korea,China,Japan,Mongolia,Nepal,Vietnam and Indonesia

but between Theravada Buddhist counties there are different types also...as same as Mahayana Buddhist counties too.....

and there are different sectfor example in Japanese Buddhism :they have a different sect ; Jodo sect ,Tendai sect ,Zen sect ,Shingon sect ,Nichiren sect ect...

hi Stephen Paul!! i agree with you ; ) Reply to this

I suppose we cant condense travel philosophies and belief systems into forum posts either but we try because we find it entertaining, interesting and informative. 😊 Reply to this

Mell - Yeah, I certainly didn't mean that we shouldn't...it definitely can be informative, etc. I wrote that post way too late at night, so perhaps it didn't come off right.

But I do think it's a bit trickier than travel philosophies. Countless volumes for all the religions written over several mellenia are indeed hard to condense into a forum though. And it's started off with some instances of people explaining religions that they claim to not even profess.

For example:
- The Protestant movement was not started by King Henry (though this has already been corrected by tannismc)
- Methodists do indeed believe in the virgin birth but not the Immaculate Conception...though I'm sure one can find people in all strains of their religions who differ on certain beliefs. (For the record, I'm not Methodist

One could easily write large books comparing just the different versions of the Protestant church. After Martin Luther made the initial break, Protestants have continued to protest themselves ever since...thus resulting in dozens of versions of the non-Catholic Christian belief system - Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Calvinism, Baptist, etc. Once the adherence to the central authority of Rome was out the window, it was open season on creating one's own interpretation of things (sorry if that sounds pejorative to the Protestants out there). So although there are many common beliefs amongst all the branches of Protestants, there are areas of differing. Protestants generally rely solely on the Bible for their source of their beliefs...which leaves interpretation open to each reader...which then results in the multiple factions above.

The Catholic Church is a bit easier because they have a central authority - and thus a consistent declaration of beliefs in the Catechism. (Have fun reading that over your coffee break). Thus Catholics rely both on the Bible and the Tradition/authority/history of the Church as the source of their beliefs.

So I guess the danger I've seen already is the digging too far into the details with explanations of a rather complex topic by someone who doesn't profess belief in a particular system. I don't mean offense to those who tried...you're noble for trying. I'm just saying it can be tricky.

Not sure if this is any better:
WikiChristianity

In closing I'll give my best effort at the "Christianity in 100 words or less"

-God created people.
-People sinned.
-Because of the sin, the relationship between man and God got hosed up.
-God came to the world in a tangible form in that of Jesus Christ...the Son of God.
-Jesus was tortured and killed by crucifixion by those in power...and then Resurrected from death 3 days later...thus exerting his power over death and sin.
-He offers this power over sin (Salvation) to those who believe in him...thus restoring the opportunity for communion with God.

That's my best shot at it without getting into doctrinal specifics.

To be clear...go ahead and discuss...I'm just sayin' it's a tricky one.

Damn...I tried to just sit here and drink my virtual beer like Stephen. I'll go back to that now. Though it's 9:30am...so perhaps orange juice? If you've ever read my blogs...you'll know I can start rambling...and I have again.

(oh, and I hope that I don't go to Hell for linking to the 'Buddy Jesus' picture from Dogma. but it cracks me up)
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