I think this is self explanatory.
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Sane religion is an oxymoron.
I'm by no means an expert on Buddhism, but I know there is a lot of mumbo jumbo in Buddhism as well. But it probably is one of the "least bad" religions, at least the Mahayana school.
Yes, the least stinky piece of faeces in a collection of dung.
Hinduism has no teachings of war, but when challanged by muslims physically they became physical aswell. Any belief system with absolute certainty without any evidence is dangerous, not always physically but physiologicaly aswell.
Isn't that (realistically) the problem with all religions. That's like saying the United States is the worst country in the world... Except when compared to all the others. Note I'm coming from the negative end of the spectrum on that comparison.
I do not think there is any Religion less or more awful than any other. They all seem to cause problems.
Ask the Rohingyas in Myanmar what they think of Buddhists.
There is also a distict difference between Tibetan Buddhists and Zen Buddhists. The former is similar in so many ways to the Catholic Church.
I'd disagree. There's a reason why neither Christians nor Buddhists nor Hindus seek violent world domination. There's a reason they don't blow themselves up for martyrdom.
I'm going to pick specifically on the differences between Christianity and Islam, having been brought up Christian and having learnt about Islam.
Christians understand that the Bible was written by men. Fallible and imperfect, the Bible contains many ideas that are primitive, savage and violent. For example, the story of a man who was stoned to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath. In a much more contemporary sense, there are many Christians who are in favour of gay people having the right to marry or many Christians who are also gay. It's entirely plausible for a Christian to suggest that when the Bible says that homosexuality is an abomination, that belief was something that was accepted at that time. It was the norm. But times have changed, and that kind of brutality has no kind of place in the 21st Century. Essentially, it's possible for a Christian to accept that the Bible is little more than a historical document (note that the Reformation of the 1500s in Europe was key to the progress of this idea, that the Bible is fallible).
Islam, on the other hand, dictates that the Koran is perfect. If not the majority of muslims, a significant proportion of muslims worldwide want Sharia law brought into effect. In the Koran, it says that adulterers must be stoned to death and apostates must be put to death; this translates into a very large number of muslims who support the stoning of adulterers and a large number of muslims who want apostates executed. Let us not forget that in Saudi Arabia, apostasy is a genuine crime that carries the death penalty. You are welcome to look up the statistics from Pew research.
Essentially, Christianity had a reformation in the middle ages that has, at least in part, contributed to the Christianity we see today: we see Christians getting divorced, having sex outside marriage, support gay rights (and in fairness, though we also see Christians against gay marriage, we don't see as many Christians calling for the execution of gays).On the other hand, Islam has not had a reformation. There are some moderate muslims who drink alcohol and eat pork, who believe that the Koran, like the Bible, is a historical document (would VERY much recommend any book written by Ed Husain or Maajid Nawaz, both ex-muslim radicals who converted to a much more moderate Islam), but these muslims are very much so in the minority. The majority of muslims still hold seemingly radical or extremist views.
So no. Not all religions are the same. Some are different than others.
Ziroy - "Christians understand that the Bible was written by men."
Even a cursory review---of just this forum---will show you that sadly this is not true.
"Christians understand that the Bible was written by men" - I admit, I haven't browsed the forums for very long, but particularly around Europe and where I'm from, yes. The above statement holds true.
Perhaps atheist forums attract a specific type of Christian who believes in a literal interpretation of the Bible, meaning that your perception of Christians has been slightly warped? In any case, even Christians who believe the Bible is 100% accurate don't go around starting up caliphates, beheading journalists or stoning women to death.
Ziroy - "Christians who believe the Bible is 100% accurate don't go around starting up caliphates, beheading journalists or stoning women to death."
They did when they ran the world, and I have little doubt they would do it again; given half a chance. Anyone who thinks they know the mind of god, is a very dangerous person.
Also:
Of the Christian's I've known in real life (100's) I can count on 1 hand the number that don't think the bible is the 100% accurate inspired word of god.
But I've never been to Europe (I live in the United States) so maybe it is very different there; I can't say.
Yes, they did when they ran the world. But then they had a reformation. Islam is yet to have one. And I'm fairly certain the the US is a completely different ball game when it comes to Christianity than Europe XD
The thing is, even the Christians who believe that the Bible is inspired by god, know that it was man who wrote it. Muslims believe that Allah simply spoke the Koran into existence, giving it supreme divine authority.
Ziroy - "The thing is, even the Christians who believe that the Bible is inspired by god, know that it was man who wrote it. Muslims believe that Allah simply spoke the Koran into existence, giving it supreme divine authority."
That is pretty close to what evangelicals believe. Typically they believe that god possessed the authors of the bible to write exactly what god wanted, giving it "supreme divine authority".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_inspiration#Evangelical:
'Some Evangelicals have labelled the conservative or traditional view as "verbal, plenary inspiration of the original manuscripts", by which they mean that each word (not just the overarching ideas or concepts) was meaningfully chosen under the superintendence of God.'
And this week's award for "Reply Proof Badassary" goes to (needless drumroll) Nyarlathotep
It's my understanding, that Muslims believe the Quran was recited verbally by the angel Gabriel to Muhammed. Who in turn recited it to scribes, for a period of approximately 23 years, starting 609 CE. But, as you said, most of them still seems to consider it to have supreme divine authority.
Then again, there are many Christians who believe that the Bible is the literal word of god. From my point of view, your view of Christians seem to exclude a large portion of them.
Ziroy, What is your point really, they are all still a lie, and christians do sacrifice themselves look at the abortion murders tat are in prison now.
Check this out not that long ago, "A Catholic priest who stood by while his church was bulldozed with 2,000 people, mostly women and children inside"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1536935/Rwandan-priest-is-jail...
All religion poisons humanity, and regardless which you think is worse they are all lies for power and profit.
Ziroy said:
there are many Christians who are in favour of gay people having the right to marry or many Christians who are also gay. It's entirely plausible for a Christian to suggest that when the Bible says that homosexuality is an abomination, that belief was something that was accepted at that time. It was the norm.
Not if you're a member of the RCC or any number of US evangelical sects.
Aside from Italy and perhaps Spain, there aren't many Roman Catholics in Europe, nor evangelicals. And even then, as I've already said, you don't have US evangelicals nor Roman Catholics beheading journalists, stoning women to death or beheading apostates.
Who was talking about Europe? There are RCs all over the place, C&S America, Africa, you name it. The point I'm making is that plenty of christians hate gay people.
I have no wish to offend, but they are not as you seem to think, completely innocent.
http://www.atheistrepublic.com/comment/31941
Christians who terrorise, very seldom get called terrorists in news media.
@Ziroy
I agree with you being from the border of Christianity to the Muslim world of Africa(living in Malta).
Most Christians in Europe do not believe the literal meaning but have a more of an "I do not care about the bible that much, only what the priests says is important" attitude.(even if they never admit it)
There are radicals or more dedicated Christians that actually read what the book actually says and follow it's teachings but they are by far not the majority in Europe.
"Christians understand that the Bible was written by men."
I think your estimation is right only because they they do not care to question it though, they just believe the priest when he explains to them, that apologetic.(more like dictates)
In the US maybe there is more emphasis on it, but in Europe the Catholic church has so much more power and control that basically all Catholics would follow what the priest says and not bother with details.
Christians are happy with the poison(mass) every week and get on with their lives.
So the reformation of Christianity is more in effect then it would ever be in the Muslim world because there is no authority there.
There is no pope that would dictate "No meat on Friday" or anything and every one would bow down and agree with the voice of god on earth.
So it is not just the reformation but the enforcement of the reformation that actually matters, the church did a good bloody job at reinforcing it for 100's of years.
Just an idea of how many people had to die for Christianity to be so popular with the philosophy of killing everyone who disagrees with you so that the majority agrees with you.
http://articles.exchristian.net/2002/10/how-many-people-have-been-killed...
This can never happen in the Muslim world and labeling a stable religion like Christianity which has some sort of order, with a chaotic divided religion like Islam on the same level is an argument of ignorance.
Islam is a worse religion because it is a religion out of control, there is no authority figure that controls it and takes responsibility of the evil/good deeds.
So where Christianity is an evil mass delusional cult that takes the power from the masses to give it to the few elite, Islam has all those attributes but instead of giving it to the few elite, it gives to the many elite.
(many elite= any political leader/powerful person can take the torch and represent an Islamic leader, ISIS is a perfect example)
This means you would have more fighting, more death and worse of all, no accountability, no leader would take responsibility for the deeds of an other one.
A Religion so divisive that it destroyed/divided it's own structure in a way that it cannot be controlled anymore.
The worst kind of religion possible.
Buddhism has it fair share of fantasy and fairy tales too, but Buddhism doesn't cause as much trouble as other religions did during the coarse of history, plus its founder, Gautama Buddha, taught people to be skeptic.
So yeah, Buddhism is alright.
Buddha was a privileged rich kid who cast it all aside and then tried to tell poor people that a right livelihood involves not seeking material wealth. I do not think this is a good message to send to poor people who could use their share of prosperity. How many people in famine ridden countries take a vow of poverty based on this guys teachings?
This is one of the services offered by religion to those in power. They spread a message along the lines of: "accept inequality now and you'll be rewarded in the hereafter". You'll notice this is a message that all major/successful religions deliver. I sometimes wonder if the less successful religions are less successful because they don't offer this "service" to the powerful.