Buddhists...what have they ever done for us?

Rex,

No one doubts that you are sincere in your dedication to, and zeal for Christianity. Neither have I any doubt that you've found it personally fulfilling and an extremely satisfying foundation for your life. The Abrahamic religions have grown to encompass between them the largest number of people in the religious world. That success in attracting adherents demonstrates the power of the conception, but it is not a proof that the belief system is True. Christianity and Islam are especially noted for their intolerance of other religions, and their use of force to "induce" religious conversion. Still, the Abrahamic religions manage to satisfy the religious needs of millions of people.

The New testament tells Christians to wipe the dust off their feet and move on... Not force religion or spread it by the sword. Christianity teaches of us using the sword of truth not a sword of steel... So for you to look at how Christianity has been perverted in what people have done in the name of Christianity and attach that to a system that says the opposite is being ignorant of the actual words as the people who have tried to force Christianity against it's own dictates. With this type of approach it may not even help if the truth bit you on the nose... If you are not looking for it's OWN truth you will most certainly find something other than it's truth. To Judge words that have been twisted to form a Christian army of sword carriers rather than word carriers is simply not the same doctrine. So when you label Christianity you are seemingly as ignorant of the true system as those who have perverted it to force people into a submission not sanctified by the system itself. I might mention that the "new" testament is also not necessarily synonymous with the Abrahamic, or Mosaic tradition.

If you doubt that other religions are older than Judaism, all you have to do is read translations of Egyptian and Mesopotamian writings that date from 5,000 years ago. Even in your own Bible there is evidence that other religions predated Abraham. After all, Abraham grew up within a culture that had a polytheistic dominant religion. In the oldest parts of the Bible the text strongly suggests that originally, even what evolved into Judaism accepted the idea of multiple gods, of whom the most powerful was what became the God of Abraham. There is no evidence of written religious Jewish literature prior to the Captivity in 587 BCE, though an oral tradition and a set of cultural traditions may have existed going back to around 1300 BCE. Contrast that with Egyptian and Mesopotamian religious writing s that were already over a thousand years old when the Jews in Captivity began to write down their traditions.

The Bible talks of an antideluvian world long before the religion that has survived in Babylon which the Bible says predates the religion of Egypt. These religions crept out of Babylon and copied themselves in Egypt, China, India and Eastern Europe. This Babylon mystery religion has found it's way into the Polynesian Islands as far as Easter Island and also is in essence the religion of American Indians. This only proves the system came to America long before Columbus and Erikson arrived.

The Bible tells of the people who started Babylon... The son of Ham who was Cush who begot Nimrod. And even peoples prior to Babylon. As for Abraham coming from Ur. He gave tithes to Melchisidec who had retained the traditions of the bread and wine (flesh and blood) offering of Able and Adam and the promise of Noah to teach of the messiah without apostasy. So Babylon in all of her self made glory could not completely extinguish the stolen truth within. Melchisidec took it upon himself to teach of the TRUE Messiah's coming and warn of any imposers who set up a shingle claiming they were this messiah. So how could Melchisidec come out of Babylon as a priest knowing the truth of the Bible had the Bible not predated Babylonian apostasy? After this people stood in the place of the messiah claiming to be this messiah rather than admonishing this messiah by obedience and hopeful respect. Just as Jesus is rejected today for false heroes. The Bible clearly teaches of the system spreading to different languages as we can today see is exactly the case. The same exact system broken (as pieces of Nimrod's dead body) and planted in in the cities of countries of Egypt and the outer parts of the world. Without the Bible we would never know of a pre pagan world long before these great cities all worshiping the true God. A world with one pure language and one God. Noah had one God and Biblically only Noah and his family survived? So how could anything that predates the Bible know the truth it reveals? Well things could predate the Bible if you just simply do not believe the revelation given in the word of God. Because you have been taught to reject the Word of God does not on your behalf make the word any younger.

BTW, Buddhism isn't polytheistic nor pantheistic. Polytheistic means "many gods", and Buddhism has none. Pantheistic means to worship nature, and Buddhism doesn't do that either. Actually, Buddhism does have a well-earned reputation for peaceful toleration, but that does not mean that non-violence is absolutely fundamental to our religion. Buddhists have been involved as highly effective warriors in countless wars, though the number of our religious conflicts is almost nil. How can you make judgments about a religion of which you are totally ignorant? Before you go off making foolish statements, you should take the trouble to become fully informed.

Pantheistic (from my own perspective) means God is within creation rather than outside of creation, that does describe Buddhism. Not all pantheistic religions worship nature. And I call Buddhism polytheistic because they omit the true God which actually in essence if you steal the glory from God than there is obviously more than one God in the religious system. Maybe a dummy God set up just to distract people from the worship and admonition of the God of creation. Or, God by omission is still a God for the heart must admonish something to that degree and fill the place of such admiration with something.

I didn't say that your God sees only black and white. What I said was that you, Rex, see only black and white ... a zero/sum game, where everything is reduced to only two possibilities and that YOU are convinced that your religious notions about the nature of the universe are absolutely correct and all other points of view are absolutely wrong. "Either/Or" is the most elemental fallacy. I'm sure you do read the responses to your postings here, but your responses clearly indicate that you never, ever consider the possibility that anyone other than yourself has anything useful to say about religion. Your self righteousness and unwillingness to discuss religion with an open mind results in "turning off" your putative audience. If your purpose is to persuade, you have failed dismally. If you are only interested in "testifying" your belief, you would do better within a circle of people who hold the same beliefs you do. The only "religious" interest of many of the A2K crowd is to demean all religion, to insist that religion is the "opiate of the People", and that only idiots adhere to any religion. Your self-righteousness only strengthens that groups criticism of religion. Is that your intent?

Rex, the old joke goes: "MAKE me one with everything."

For those caught unprepared for the experience, loss of the self and the dissolution of the material world with all its dimensions can be very startling. The loss of everything you thought you knew, of your very being, is terrifying if fought against.

a path of destructive pseudo-mysticism.