if you believe that all religions worship the same god but use different name for him like freemasons for example.Dosent this mean that you cant really worship Idols if everythin is god by a different name. Interestin thought???? what do you think
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Ecumenicalism
- Thread starter simonjandrews
- Start date
When evidence is not abundantly clear and undeniable before the eyes of the mind, the mind is persuaded by preference and desire.simonjandrews said:
If you had 2 distant nations, each worshipping in every detail the exact same god of peace and love even to the names of every prophet and every principle and every element within, when these 2 nation grew to great size and then into the domain of each other, each nation would find even the tiniest microscopic distinction between the worshipping of one verses the other and proclaim that almost indiscernible distinction as the divide between the true worship and false worship and the true god and the false god.
The name of one god would be distinguished from the other so as to make it clear which is false and which is true. They would fall into contention between each other, and then within each. Each nation would rise into rage and flood, divided within and threatened from all sides. Holy war would be their final decision maker, fore they worship not in true faith, but in pride for their own and want for the power of glory. "We are the truer worshippers and must defend the name of our god" They will claim as they seek to kill their mortal enemies.
Until the true exact name and make of God is in full sight of every mind, contention and war are their destiny regardless of which god or name they worship. "My people are fools, fore they know Me not".
Who can stand in faith against their own truly clear knowledge? Who in sight of their own clear knowledge can give into contradicting faith unless their sight is indeed unclear.
Clarity is the first bidding and call of that Holy Spirit which has no agenda but to serve with benevolence each who possess it. Have faith in its effort to clarify, fore it shall indeed unblind the eye.
The calling of God Himself - "KNOW Me with clear understanding throughout or know suffering, fore there is nothing else."
He who hides his God from the sight of understanding eyes and declares that which is knowable is not, does not know his God and brings division and strife. “God can not be understood for He is too greatly above thee” is indeed the voice of thy bedevilment within.
Yes, the same God can be understood in many different ways by different peoples and even be given different labels, but this fact itself is a part of the clear understanding of God and test of who truly knows Him.
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I had a blurb to say about this in another thread. It's just that I was thinking about for a while, "If there are so many religions, either none are right, all are right or only one is right." I came up with "All are right in some way", in that just about every religion out there is based on some sort of universal moral/ethical truth. Even the gods of the greeks/romans tend to follow typical universal human archetypes, which are echoed not only in other religions but also in literature, Tarot cards, movies and so on.
Neal Stephenson (my favourite author) has a bit to say about the universal archetypes in his novels, if you read beween the lines. One exception is a bit of dialogue in Cryptonomicon about Athena and Ares, comparing the attitudes/practices of these two gods to the Allied and Axis powers respectively of WWII. Also mentioned in passing are archetypes in Lord of the Rings, Beatrix Potter books, Television and even ancient Sumerian.
Neal Stephenson (my favourite author) has a bit to say about the universal archetypes in his novels, if you read beween the lines. One exception is a bit of dialogue in Cryptonomicon about Athena and Ares, comparing the attitudes/practices of these two gods to the Allied and Axis powers respectively of WWII. Also mentioned in passing are archetypes in Lord of the Rings, Beatrix Potter books, Television and even ancient Sumerian.
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There has never been in all existence a great thing, without much greatness within it.moogoob said:
Proof of an idiot = "Everyone before me was an idiot."
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Lifesaver
Fides et Ratio
Do all religions worship the same God? The answer to this lies in honest study of what each religion teaches.
I will compare Christianity and Buddhism (briefly and without detail, but, I believe, truthfully).
For Christianity, God is the source of all that is. He is the Absolute Being, and everything that is has, from this very fact, a resemblance with God. Being is a synonymous with good; evil is the privation of being (the absence of being where it should be; in other words, the destruction or corruption of being).
A man who wants to be good wants, in fact, to be as fully as possible. All the things that make him who he is are good, and the great challenge of life is to love all beings as they ought to be loved: to love more what is greater and less what is lesser.
Our relationships, our thoughts, our reason, bodily pleasures, life, are all very good things. They are only bad to the extent that our love for these relative goods surpasses the love we ought to have for God, the Absolute Good.
That is why so many Christians become monks and nuns: they forsake the relative goods of the world (which are truly good!) so that they may dedicate themselves more fully to the Absolute Good, the source of those very goods they left behind.
To Buddhism, on the other hand, existence is a prison. Our relationship, our pleasures, are all chains that bind us to the wheel of things. True salvation lies in breaking free from the prison that is being; even from thoughts and desires. The nirvana is the nullification of the individual man, the liberation of his "true self", which is nothingness.
Reason is but a tool of deceit which keeps us imprisoned, much like desire (love).
The Buddhist monk leaves behind all goods not because he seeks an even greater one, but because he sees them as essentially evil. Every desire, every particular love he has, prevents him from escaping this prison that is reality.
So, whereas the Christian monk seeks to love as fully as he can, the Buddhist monk flees from all love.
Whereas Christians worship the Absolute Being, Buddhists believe that the true good is non-being.
As we can see, these two religions are very different from each other; likewise, there will be fundamental differences between all religions. To try and pretend they don't exist, that all believe in the same thing, is to disrespect the reality of all of them.
Now, I am a Christian. Does this mean I consider Buddhism to be absolutely evil? No. Every religion has partial truths to it; they are all, to a greater or lesser extent, the honest attempt of men to understand the universe they live in and their place in it.
However, on his own man will, as he chases some glimpses of truth, reach many false answers.
Without a direct revelation from God it would be impossible for there to be an actually and fully true religion.
But God has revealed His religion, and has estabilished His Church to safeguard that truth, to preach it on all corners of the earth and to provide men with the means for their salvation. Only in the Catholic Church can the truth be found in its fullness, and it is rightful meeting place of all the worthy and good aspects and partial truths of other religions.
I will compare Christianity and Buddhism (briefly and without detail, but, I believe, truthfully).
For Christianity, God is the source of all that is. He is the Absolute Being, and everything that is has, from this very fact, a resemblance with God. Being is a synonymous with good; evil is the privation of being (the absence of being where it should be; in other words, the destruction or corruption of being).
A man who wants to be good wants, in fact, to be as fully as possible. All the things that make him who he is are good, and the great challenge of life is to love all beings as they ought to be loved: to love more what is greater and less what is lesser.
Our relationships, our thoughts, our reason, bodily pleasures, life, are all very good things. They are only bad to the extent that our love for these relative goods surpasses the love we ought to have for God, the Absolute Good.
That is why so many Christians become monks and nuns: they forsake the relative goods of the world (which are truly good!) so that they may dedicate themselves more fully to the Absolute Good, the source of those very goods they left behind.
To Buddhism, on the other hand, existence is a prison. Our relationship, our pleasures, are all chains that bind us to the wheel of things. True salvation lies in breaking free from the prison that is being; even from thoughts and desires. The nirvana is the nullification of the individual man, the liberation of his "true self", which is nothingness.
Reason is but a tool of deceit which keeps us imprisoned, much like desire (love).
The Buddhist monk leaves behind all goods not because he seeks an even greater one, but because he sees them as essentially evil. Every desire, every particular love he has, prevents him from escaping this prison that is reality.
So, whereas the Christian monk seeks to love as fully as he can, the Buddhist monk flees from all love.
Whereas Christians worship the Absolute Being, Buddhists believe that the true good is non-being.
As we can see, these two religions are very different from each other; likewise, there will be fundamental differences between all religions. To try and pretend they don't exist, that all believe in the same thing, is to disrespect the reality of all of them.
Now, I am a Christian. Does this mean I consider Buddhism to be absolutely evil? No. Every religion has partial truths to it; they are all, to a greater or lesser extent, the honest attempt of men to understand the universe they live in and their place in it.
However, on his own man will, as he chases some glimpses of truth, reach many false answers.
Without a direct revelation from God it would be impossible for there to be an actually and fully true religion.
But God has revealed His religion, and has estabilished His Church to safeguard that truth, to preach it on all corners of the earth and to provide men with the means for their salvation. Only in the Catholic Church can the truth be found in its fullness, and it is rightful meeting place of all the worthy and good aspects and partial truths of other religions.
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