@JLNobody,
JL
I understand why followers of a particular faith want to believe that their fellow followers, in the whole, are exceptional in that they actually embody the core teachings of their faith, but, frankly, this is ridiculous.
Buddhists as a whole are not more in adherence with the central tenets of Buddhism than are Christians with Christianity or Muslims with Islam.
I'm betting that you believe that by choosing the Buddhist faith, Buddhists have revealed their exceptionalism, but only a very small number of Buddhist are Buddhists by anything approaching actual choice. This is the same for all followers of the world's major religions.
Most everyone in America are aware that even some of the leaders/priests/mullahs of religions like Christianity and Islam are far less in keeping with the teachings of their faiths than the "common" followers, but the same is the case with Buddhism.
Sinhalese Buddhist monks lead Buddhist mobs in burning the places of worship of other faiths in Sri Lanka. Thai monks take up arms and Burmese monks encourage riots.
Someone on this thread tried to argue that Hindus are exceptional. One need only realize that the Tamil Tigers who practically invented the suicide bomber are overwhelmingly Hindu.
This is not a reflection on Buddhism, or Hinduisim but rather on human beings in general.
I have repeatedly argued in this forum that Islam is not, in essence, a religion of violence, and I feel the same about all of the other major religions.
Are there violent Muslims? Of course there are, just as there are violent Christians, Jews, Hindus and even Buddhists, because identifying oneself as a Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu or Buddhist doesn't imply that one is living on a daily basis the teachings of these faiths.
There is much truth in the teachings of all of the world's religions, but there is much truth in the ruminations of an old man in Appalachia if he is mindful and balanced. Everyone who listens to the wisdom of the old Hillbilly, however, are not saints or even on the same level of him and very few would argue they are.
While I see religion as far more a positive than negative force in human history, I certainly accept that others believe the reverse. I'm happy to debate that issue, but what concerns me are people who believe their religion is the only source of truth and all others are somehow evil. What irritates the hell ot of me, however, are people who claim to have no use for religion but draw distinctions between them based on silly political ideology:
"Buddhism and Hinduism are cool, but Christianity is horribly hypocritical and destructive."
