If One God, Why So Many Religions?

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if one God, why so many religions? May 30, 2006
few month ago smbody was explaining me how i'll realize that the only way to God is if i become baptist. before that smbody else told me that i should convert to the islam.
if u talk to a jew, he will probably tell that his religion is the best to follow.

well i have talked with all kinds of ppl and there have been lots of debates here on the forum too about faith, about religions. and its quite normal, since it determines how we percive life and the others.

all these religions say that we all have one God. if so, why do we need and have so many religions? all arguments sideing with one religion have contra-arguments from an other one. if we gather in a room lets say 5 ppl of different religions to start talking about their faith and what they believe in, and all have good arguments and solid knowledge, at the end of the dicussion, who is to decide which one was right?

raidah
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May 30, 2006
Interesting question. I think personally most religions have the same basic message and belief systems.

But I too get confused as to why so many and them causing conflict, which is why I think that a person doesn't necessarily to belong to any religion to have faith. It's a persons, personal relationship with God (if they believe that) that counts, everything else is just superficial.

Before I get flamed, it;s just a personal opinion and nothing more.
Chocoholic
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May 30, 2006
i believe in love.. :D
oldhippie
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May 30, 2006
and i second chocoholic.. history has shown us that the more people become fanatic to a certain idea, the less they become able to tolerate and communicate with others.. everyone's faith should remain in the heart without over expression so that all people can worship their own idea of god in peace without conflicts.
oldhippie
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May 30, 2006
Chocoholic wrote:Interesting question. I think personally most religions have the same basic message and belief systems.

But I too get confused as to why so many and them causing conflict, which is why I think that a person doesn't necessarily to belong to any religion to have faith. It's a persons, personal relationship with God (if they believe that) that counts, everything else is just superficial.

Before I get flamed, it;s just a personal opinion and nothing more.


u won t get flamed by me. i think the same. i mean who is to decide who is right and who is wrong? in my opinion, in matters of belief there is no such thing as right or wrong.
i was thinking about posting smthing related to this, but it would couse too much controversy, so at least this one topic is in the air.
raidah
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May 31, 2006
there is only God with only one rule of living called islam. but the followers have made their own standard

of life and given different different name for their religion.
what was the religion of Adam, Eve, Moses, Jesus [pbut] ? They all were muslim but the followers

categorized one as Jews other as Christian.

i had a discussion with my collegue here. it was something like.....

Mr J : I proud to be a christian becoz we have majority... i can say that our religion is true....the followers

of Jesus is more compared to all other religions.

Me: I agree that christians are in majority, but it is not just because of your religion or the followers of

Jesus [pbuh] but it is also because if western culture.

Mr J: what do you mean ?

Me: your portion in india is very less only about 2 or 3%. why because in india we dont follow western

culture.

Mr J: i did not get you.

Me: I have many chat mates and friends in western countries, you know ? in christianity, you cant marry

with 2 women but you can keep any number of girl friends, you even can have s.e.x with them. S.e.x with

other girls are not in your christianity religion, it is not the teaching of our Great Messenger Jesus [pbuh]
lets say in phillipines, a woman who is 36 years has 3 kids from 2 boy friends and she is stil single

searching for life partner. in search of life partner she already did s.e.x with 2. what we called such child ?

son or the bastard ? it is not only woman, i can list so many here even you can confirm this i have their

contact numbers.
I dont have any different feeling for christians and i m not acussing anybody becoz we men are responsible

for that.

now u see here now your population is growing. it is just because of Christianity as religion or the way of

life you are living ?

now we muslims are also following this culture, our next generation may give this culture a different name

as religion.
gLoBalTeCh
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May 31, 2006
Sadly your post doesn't make much sense. How can you say that followers of Islam broke off into different religions, when religions like Christianity have been around far longer than Islam. I think you'll find it's the other way around my friend.
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May 31, 2006
Sorry gLoBalTeCh - you've completely lost me! :shock: :shock: :roll: :roll: :roll: :shock: :shock:
the_zooter
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May 31, 2006
I too admit to being baffled at this current point in time by the post of globaltech... Not too sure what he/she is trying to say...
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May 31, 2006
gLoBalTeCh!
u were trying to make us think that u actually put some mental effort in this conversation that u had with that other person. but u were not. if u were, than u would have started ur post with a list of arguments and more important, a logical conclusion of ur ur arguments. instead u said at the very begining that the only and one and only is the islam. make no mistake, if u had said it about christianity, i still would have told u ur wrong from the very beginning.
this "Plato style wanna be" dialog that u presented not only made no sense, but it was not what i was trying to make a conversation here about.
so ill try to explain it again.
imagine that the whole world is only about those 5 ppl. no huge masses, no nothing, just them. all with good knowledge and arguments, experiences etc. related to their own religion and belief.
who is to decide who is right and who is wrong, if none of them is superior to the other or has any power of forcing his views on the rest?
when we argue about which religion is better or "the best"(which in itself is a stupid way to approach the question), we get blinded by things like which was first, and which came later, or how many followers one religion has. there r arguments on each side that make all the sense in the world.
so why not make it simple and reduce it to this imaginary world of only 5 ppl and see what happens.
raidah
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Jun 01, 2006
raidah wrote:imagine that the whole world is only about those 5 ppl. no huge masses, no nothing, just them. all with good knowledge and arguments, experiences etc. related to their own religion and belief.
who is to decide who is right and who is wrong, if none of them is superior to the other or has any power of forcing his views on the rest?
when we argue about which religion is better or "the best"(which in itself is a stupid way to approach the question), we get blinded by things like which was first, and which came later, or how many followers one religion has. there r arguments on each side that make all the sense in the world.
so why not make it simple and reduce it to this imaginary world of only 5 ppl and see what happens


5 ppls mean muslim, hindu,christian, jews and 5th one western culture ?
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Jun 01, 2006
Liban wrote:I too admit to being baffled at this current point in time by the post of globaltech... Not too sure what he/she is trying to say...


i am trying to say here is. chritians are more not because of the followers of Jesus but because of Western culture, their life syle. if we muslims also start keeping gf and s.e.x with every gf then we also can increase our population. for christian ppls se.x is not bad but for us it is not allowed.
gLoBalTeCh
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Jun 01, 2006
i admit that muslims are also not following islam in a proper way but atleast we are better because we did not change our holy book.
gLoBalTeCh
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Jun 01, 2006
gLoBalTeCh wrote:
i am trying to say here is. chritians are more not because of the followers of Jesus but because of Western culture, their life syle. if we muslims also start keeping gf and s.e.x with every gf then we also can increase our population. for christian ppls se.x is not bad but for us it is not allowed.


Buddy, Christians who are practicing their faith according to what they beleive is true engage in s.e.xual abstenence. Pre-marital sex is now allowed for Christians.

Now if we want to speak of most Westerners who are not practising Chrisitans, yes, the rate of pre-marital s.e.x is higher than amongst the Muslim nations but that doesn't mean higher birth rate.

Is has been proven that the fastest growing religion is Islam and the biggest population booms are in Muslim countries.
Liban
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Jun 01, 2006
gLoBalTeCh wrote:i admit that muslims are also not following islam in a proper way but atleast we are better because we did not change our holy book.


A Muslim that doesn't follow Islam is one million times more a kaffir than a non-Muslim.

That is in the Quran and that is a fact.

So, no, we are not better just because we are Muslim.
Liban
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Jun 01, 2006
All the religions before Islam were regional religions due to the limitations of human communication.

Islam teaches that all peoples were sent messengers/prophets from God, with the same basic message.

However, man has evolved in terms of civilization and social interaction and the requirements required of God has changed over time to take into account this social evolution.

All religions before Islam emphasise that that particular message/religion is not the final one - that future prophet will come to fulfil the current scripture. Jesus clearly says this in the Bible, as does Krishna, Confucious, Zoroaster, Moses and Buddah.

Krishna only preached to Indians - as that was the physical limit of the people his message could reach in his lifetime. Jesus specifically said that he was the messiah for the Jews and only preached to the Jews.

At the end of the day - Islam says that all previous religions were from God and therefore at its core all have the same values. Of course over time there has been corruption of the beliefs and practices (to the extent of idol worship in some cases), but this is despite the fact that the original founders of the religions all taught the unity of God, the necessity of worship and how we need to interact with other creations of God.

Islam teaches that each person will be judged by God alone - and God will be fair in the judgment.

Cheers,
Shafique
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Jun 01, 2006
Thanks for the honest question.

To start the answer of this, let me please illustrate some points and definitions for the sake of having solid bases for the discussions.

I will try here to be straight forward, so please don’t consider this as flaming.

Judaism and Christians say:

Chapter 9, verses:

[30] The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Al-Masih the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the Unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!

[31] They take their priests and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah, and (they take as their Lord) Al-Masih, the son of Maryam; yet they were commanded to worship but One God: there is no god but He. Praise and glory to Him: (far is He) from having the partners they associate (with Him).

In Islam we say:

Chapter 112, verses:

[1] Say: He is Allah, the One and Only;

[2] Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;

[3] He begetteth not, nor is He begotten;

[4] And there is none like unto Him


This is basically why the arguments keeps happen. Why people do that?? Ok, let me put some light on a word that we use frequently in arabic and in english which is (Cover)

In Koran, Allah Calls the unbelievers as (Koffaar) it’s a word which came from the word (Kaffar) which start to be used after that in English as (Cover) which means the same thing in both languages: conceal completely underneath


The mean reason of (Koffor) is arrogance or following the person’s own desires and that hence not admitting the truth.

If I would put it in any simpler way then I would say, Islam is the last version of all religions (it may not be the right words, but I am trying to make the picture clearer)

Chapter:3, verses:

[81] Behold! Allah took the Covenant of the Prophets, saying: "I give you a Book and Wisdom; then comes to you a Messenger, confirming what is with you; do you believe him and render him help." Allah said: "Do ye agree, and take this my Covenant as binding on you?" They said: "We agree." He said: "Then bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses."

[82] If any turn back after this, they are perverted transgressors.

[83] Do they seek for other than the religion of Allah? While all creatures in the heavens and on earth have, willing or unwilling, bowed to His Will (accepted Islam), and to Him shall they all be brought back.


Chabter: 7, verse:

[157] "Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own (Scriptures) - in the Law and the Gospel - for he commands them what is just and forbids them what is evil; he allows them as lawful what is good (and pure) and prohibits them from what is bad (and impure); he releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them. So it is those who believe in him, honour him, help him, and follow the Light which is sent down with him, it is they who will prosper.


Hope that’s was clear.
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Jun 09, 2006
as long as u believe in a "higher power" and live your life as well as you can, then why limit yourself to labels of religion! i do not mean this to offend any devout religous people, but these holy books that people follow have been passed down over thousands of years, surely u have heard of the game chinese whispers?!
dave_w_uk
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Jun 09, 2006
I am going to ask this crucial question outside FC to get more answers:

WHY THE **** IS S.E.X CENSORED???
Nick81
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Jun 11, 2006
Nick81 wrote:I am going to ask this crucial question outside FC to get more answers:

WHY THE **** IS S.E.X CENSORED???


my guess is, because in many places its a taboo word and topic.
raidah
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Jun 14, 2006
s.e.x is taboo? :roll:

Good thing this isn't the case everywhere or the closest thing we'd have as a mother would be a ****in test tube! :lol: :lol:
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Which Religion Jun 14, 2006
Hi All,

I detest people who say "My religion is better" and "yours is bad".

To me they are insecure people.

I feel ok with those who say, "this is my religion", "do not know much about yours".

God is mostly used to wipe of sins. WHich i hate. I would rather face up to the sins i might have committed.

To me God is the unknown creator who has not given us the powers to comprehend him.

I am more aware of God, on a new day, a fresh and sunny day.

God is more obvious when we realize that today we can discuss openly with people who have finer and better minds like some people. Which tells me that God did not make us all same nor equal in many ways.

But, to me God is evident in the following incidents:

a.My Mother was operated upon in USA in 1977 in NIH, free of cost (expenisve surgery) and extended her life for 14 yrs. We used no influence, nor belonged to any backward category or minority nor bribed anyone.

b.When the Immigration authority in Provo, USA, accepted my explanation that i did not feel comfortable in an University in NJ, and allowed me to shift college within six months (it was actually 1 week). It is agaisnt law to shift F1 Visa holders from one college to another within six months of landing in US>

c.When my son (who is just 8 yrs) promised me that he will keep up his high grades even if we shift him from Bangalore (the worst city to live today given the pollution and high traffic and rampant corruption) to a smaller city. He is a youung boy playing all the time...

d.When a Bus driver in Provo, (1991), in mid winter at night 11 PM, asked me to sit in the bus to be warm, till the Bus which was coming in the opposite direction arrived.

e.When my friend Gary (like a typical old world American) stood guarentee for me to so that i could buy a Car, without battling an eyelid.

and many such good incidents which make us realize that God is here in our fellow human beings. It is a pity we search for him in books or idols or prayers.

Regards
kris
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Re: if one God, why so many religions? Jun 26, 2006
raidah wrote:all these religions say that we all have one God. if so, why do we need and have so many religions? all arguments sideing with one religion have contra-arguments from an other one. if we gather in a room lets say 5 ppl of different religions to start talking about their faith and what they believe in, and all have good arguments and solid knowledge, at the end of the dicussion, who is to decide which one was right?


that because pple lost direction ie.when god sent prophet jeus(pbuh) to tell his pple to wprship god, they belived in him but they started worshiping him and they said he is the son of god (did jeuses tell them that he is the son of god ) so god sent prophet mohamed(pbuh) to guid the ppl again.to worship him i mean god ..and the same thing happend to the jews .. and sorry for my bad english.a
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