Is it possible to practice both Buddhism and Christianity?

[Jonathan95]

No, Buddhism is a false pagan religion. To believe in a spiritual reality, yet deny God's existence, is a contradiction. Where did the spiritual reality come from if there's no God?

Beware:

"See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ." (Colossians 2:8 ESV)

 

[smaneck]

No, Buddhism is a false pagan religion.

Do you even know what pagan means, Jonathan?

 

[dlamberth]

Do you even know what pagan means, Jonathan?

For Jonathan, I suspect that anything not Christian is considered Pagan. My brother-in-law feels that way. The word "pagan" comes out with a lot of disgust in his voice when he talks about other religions. By the same person I've been labeled a "heathen", with the same voice of disgust.

.

 

[dlamberth]

I am a Christian and Catholic.

Many of my spiritual hero's come from the Catholic faith. I have much love for them.

.

 

[BruceDLimber]

I'm sorry, but you are NOT accepting the Bible as legitimate when you start adding stuff from other religions to its contents in belief.

Only in your not-so-humble opinion.

Nor do I have to apologize to YOU for my sincere beliefs!

(And your violation of the no-judging command of course clearly continues....)

You will forgive me, I trust, if I'm neither impressed nor amused.

 

[Supreme]

For Jonathan, I suspect that anything not Christian is considered Pagan. My brother-in-law feels that way. The word "pagan" comes out with a lot of disgust in his voice when he talks about other religions. By the same person I've been labeled a "heathen", with the same voice of disgust.

.

I'm sorry to hear that. By attacking those of other faiths, Christians do themselves no favours, and even violate Christ's command to love one another. I think part of it also stems from ignorance; many Christians aren't even aware of what a pagan actually is.

 

[light upon light]

No, Buddhism is a false pagan religion. To believe in a spiritual reality, yet deny God's existence, is a contradiction. Where did the spiritual reality come from if there's no God?

Buddhism denies the kind of small god coming out of humanity's polytheistic past. But indeed Buddhism does point at a discarnate (unmanifested) universal ordering principle from which all reality arises: Dharmakāya. This is similar to the Baha'i and Islamic belief that God is beyond anything manifested or known or knowable in the world.

 

[smaneck]

I'm sorry to hear that. By attacking those of other faiths, Christians do themselves no favours, and even violate Christ's command to love one another. I think part of it also stems from ignorance; many Christians aren't even aware of what a pagan actually is.

Jonathan is a teenager who I believe has been home-schooled all of his life. We can cut him some slack.

 

[Jane_the_Bane]

Jonathan is a teenager who I believe has been home-schooled all of his life. We can cut him some slack.

As far as I'm aware, homeschooling is just as illegal in Sweden as it is in Germany, and for the same reason: to protect kids from brainwashing at the hands of fanatical parents who'd "protect" them from society and consensual reality. If Jonathan is indeed homeschooled, he's a prime example of what is potentially wrong with that kind of upbringing.

 

[smaneck]

If Jonathan is indeed homeschooled, he's a prime example of what is potentially wrong with that kind of upbringing.

With that I would agree. There are some children with special needs who do better with homeschooling, but when it is done for ideological reason, the results are not good.

I don't know about Swedish law in this respect but my recollection is that Jonathan mentioned a few years ago that he was being home-schooled.

 

[light upon light]

Jonathan is a teenager who I believe has been home-schooled all of his life. We can cut him some slack.

We home-schooled both of our kids because we felt the values of the public school system were materialistic and the social milieu tended to destroy the innate love of learning that children have. My son got into every university he applied to, and just finished his first semester of college with straight As. I expect my daughter will do very well when her time comes. We know of a Baha'i homeschooling family in our area, and have run into them in several homeschooling activities.

I also just found this link:

Yahoo Groups

 

[smaneck]

We home-schooled both of our kids because we felt the values of the public school system were materialistic and the social milieu tended to destroy the innate love of learning that children have. My son got into every university he applied to, and just finished his first semester of college with straight As. I expect my daughter will do very well when her time comes. We know of a Baha'i homeschooling family in our area, and have run into them in several homeschooling activities.

I also just found this link:

Yahoo Groups

My problem with homeschooling isn't that it doesn't prepare students academically (that depends largely on the education of the parent) but that it doesn't prepare students for the outside world. It is too insular and they don't adequately learn how other people think. How do you teach children the independent investigation of truth if you only expose them to their parents' mindset?

 

[light upon light]

My problem with homeschooling isn't that it doesn't prepare students academically (that depends largely on the education of the parent) but that it doesn't prepare students for the outside world. It is too insular and they don't adequately learn how other people think. How do you teach children the independent investigation of truth if you only expose them to their parents' mindset?

I'm sure there are parents who (mis)educate their children by only exposing them to their own mindset.

My own children learned from many other adults. They took (and my daughter continues to take) classes taught by other adults. All of the homeschooled kids I have known are very independent-minded and often develop quite different beliefs and philosophies than their parents. On the other hand, we simply haven't been around homeschooled kids where the parents are rigid fundamentalists. I don't know what those kids turn out like, I don't know any.

What I see coming from many of the public schools are kids who think learning is for social rejects, kids who bully or are bullied, kids whose peers introduce them to sex and drugs, often at a very young age, kids who are basically serving a prison sentence for much of their twelve years in uncreative, unloving, uncaring institutions.

I think small, family and community based schools based on spiritual and moral as well as educational values, with intensive involvement from the parents and a mix of ages is a much better model for education than today's "assembly line" factory production education model.

I went to a school like that, run by the Friends(quakers), but its tuition rose by so much since I attended only the 1%-ers can afford to send their kids there now.

 

[Sophrosyne]

Only in your not-so-humble opinion.

Nor do I have to apologize to YOU for my sincere beliefs!

(And your violation of the no-judging command of course clearly continues....)

You will forgive me, I trust, if I'm neither impressed nor amused.

I forgive you of not reading the Bible in proper context and accusing me of violating a non existent command of God. I'm not really interested in impressing anyone as I know that too often people who post ideology that equates God is a "buffet" experience don't really take the Bible too seriously to begin with.

 

[Zoness]

We home-schooled both of our kids because we felt the values of the public school system were materialistic and the social milieu tended to destroy the innate love of learning that children have. My son got into every university he applied to, and just finished his first semester of college with straight As. I expect my daughter will do very well when her time comes. We know of a Baha'i homeschooling family in our area, and have run into them in several homeschooling activities.

I also just found this link:

Yahoo Groups

Interesting. See, I like a lot of things about homeschooling as I legitimately more or less believe large public educational systems by their very nature turn kids into pro-Statist zombies without critical thought. However, the home schoolers I've always encountered have been either very kind Christians who are sheltered to the point it is painful or the insufferable [still Christian] ones who think they are better than "government school" kids.

Of course, those stereotypes probably sound pretty negative and by no means am I applying them to you...they mostly result of my own bias but I do say good on you for at least being involved in your children's education. There is not a chance in the world that me or my future SO would be able to afford one of us not working to teach kids full time, she's even a public school teacher.

How do you manage if I may derail?

 

[light upon light]

I just wanted to clarify one thing. I was not religious until 18 months ago, my wife is still not religious. For most of that time, I self identified as "spiritual, not religious". That is how my wife still use things. Our kids both self identify as atheists, although my son is a bit more open-minded to the possibility of some kind of transcendental reality behind the universe.

Financially, homeschooling has definitely been a sacrifice. But we felt pretty strongly that we did not want to institutionalize our children in daycare, or in public schools. And even the private Quaker school I attended has turned in to something of a prep school, we were not thrilled with the values of that institution either.

The other thing we've decided, as we do not want our children to graduate college with a bunch of debt. So basically, we are using all of our financial resources to ensure that. I feel that our current society is committing a terrible injustice on our children by putting them in a situation where they are supposed to accumulate massive amounts of dad just in order to have a reasonable career of any kind whatsoever. So that the richest 1% and it even richer still. Warped values, sick values, twisted values. What kind of society eats its own young?

 

[light upon light]

Please excuse the transcription errors in my last post. Siri needs a bit of help!

 

[Zoness]

I just wanted to clarify one thing. I was not religious until 18 months ago, my wife is still not religious. For most of that time, I self identified as "spiritual, not religious". That is how my wife still use things. Our kids both self identify as atheists, although my son is a bit more open-minded to the possibility of some kind of transcendental reality behind the universe.

Financially, homeschooling has definitely been a sacrifice. But we felt pretty strongly that we did not want to institutionalize our children in daycare, or in public schools. And even the private Quaker school I attended has turned in to something of a prep school, we were not thrilled with the values of that institution either.

The other thing we've decided, as we do not want our children to graduate college with a bunch of debt. So basically, we are using all of our financial resources to ensure that. I feel that our current society is committing a terrible injustice on our children by putting them in a situation where they are supposed to accumulate massive amounts of dad just in order to have a reasonable career of any kind whatsoever. So that the richest 1% and it even richer still. Warped values, sick values, twisted values. What kind of society eats its own young?

Understandable. The government calls this financial cannibalism Capitalism but it is just about as far away from it as you can get, contrary to what popular media says. We're all underwater, I'm just lucky I have a job but I always feel as if the institutions want me to default so they can own me even more. NOPE.

 

[BruceDLimber]

I said no such thing: PURE EXXTRAPOLATION on your part!

Nor are you in any position whatever to presume to know what my experience with the Bible is, the more so given that I've been involved for years working with detailed books about it.

Bruce

 

[Jane_the_Bane]

What's this current obsession with "The State" as Ultimate Big Bad that has gripped so many Americans (left and right-leaning, as far as I can tell)?

Have your media successfully brainwashed you to the point where you believe that leaving it all to the free market (and thus, to corporations and banks who ALREADY hold too much power by leaning heavily on democratically elected governments) is the best answer to everything?

I can see the problems we're currently having with our administrative bodies, even on a global scale. But as far as I'm concerned, the answer to that can NEVER be handing even more power to the very people who've undermined our representative democracies to begin with.