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Post by pixie on Mar 10, 2008 1:15:04 GMT -5
sorry, that was long but i had to make my point clear.
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Kristie
Novel turned into BBC miniseries
"If a book is well written, I always find it too short."
Posts: 7,214
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Post by Kristie on Mar 10, 2008 13:41:30 GMT -5
I agree with you, Pixie, that the concept of a "holy war" doesn't really make sense and that it's religion used to a bad ends. I won't deny that Western countries try to force their cultures and beliefs on others, like the Middle Eastern countries, but I'm not sure Muslims must wage jihad to stop the country from Westernizing. I'm not saying all Muslims try to cleanse and purify by war, but the extremists tend to do so--or rather those who do tend to be Islam extremists. And I've strayed from the topic of religion into the war with Iraq...I'm done now
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Post by pixie on Mar 10, 2008 18:14:49 GMT -5
that's exactly my point. i agree with you. the holy war doesn't make sense. there is no excuse for killing innocent civilians even if, as some people claim, that reason is God. i used that example just to show that religion is not always peaceful and helpful and that if misused it could lead to serious consequences.
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Wess
First poem written for Mother’s Day
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Post by Wess on Mar 11, 2008 13:48:29 GMT -5
By the way, do you know what really doesn't make sense? Those people saying that they worship the "real God" and that the others don't. If you look back in history, you'll see that Christianity, Judaism and the Islam believe in the same God. They all always refer to the same God, it's just that they have different believes around that single God.
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Kristie
Novel turned into BBC miniseries
"If a book is well written, I always find it too short."
Posts: 7,214
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Post by Kristie on Mar 11, 2008 14:56:44 GMT -5
I always thought that the same God of those three religions was interesting too. Once when my mom said something condescending about Muslims, I said they believe in the same God, just not some of the particulars. You should've seen the evil look she gave me, for saying something so blasphemous!
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Post by Hanna on Mar 11, 2008 18:30:12 GMT -5
That is true to a certain extent (was that the correct word???) but what really separates them is Jesus. Jesus is the main character in Christianity, if it wasn't for Him, we'd be Jews as well, because up to His coming Christians and Jews share the same scripture. What is revolutional about Jesus is that He says several times about himself that he is the only way to God, that there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved. To a Muslim this is blasphemy, he would say that Jesus was a great and misunderstood prophet. Sent by God? Yes. The only way to salvation? No. A Jew would probably say that Jesus was a nice man, a good speeker, a do-gooder, but no way that he was Messiah, the son of the living God. So we do share some similarities, but we differ on what we Christians see as the most important; Jesus Christ.
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jobean
First novel published
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Post by jobean on Mar 12, 2008 6:39:52 GMT -5
Do the people in you country generally all believe in the same religion? Here in Australia we're quite multicultural so there's a big mix from Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Catholic, Jehovah's Witness, Buddhist... off the top of my head though.
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Isa
Administrator
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Post by Isa on Mar 12, 2008 7:14:17 GMT -5
Canada is also pretty multicultural, so we've got many different religions, but I'd say most people are Christians. Also, most people in Quebec are Catholic because of the strong French Canadian heritage.
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Post by pixie on Mar 12, 2008 10:03:50 GMT -5
I agree with hannamarie. I think that was a very good explanation to the difference between Christianity, Islam and Judaism. There are a lot of similarities between the Bible, the Torah and the Qua'ran too. Each of the three religions justifies the similarities by claiming that their book is the original true one and that the other two books are inaccurate versions of their book. For example, Christians say that only the parts of the Torah that are included in the Bible are true and that Muslims took the Bible, modified it, called it Qua'ran and created a new religion. On the other hand Muslims say that the Torah and the Bible are incomplete versions of their book and that they have been modified through history by humans and that the Qua'ran came to complete the message of God. It's kinda like three different authors with three different versions of the same book all claiming originality of the theme/plot of the book.
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Michelle
First novel published
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Post by Michelle on Mar 12, 2008 10:49:05 GMT -5
The Koran is very different from the Bible (or the Torah). I don't know if you can really make the claim that it is a different version of it.
I do think it is good to educate people on the history of the 3 religions so that people know that they all have the same God. There are huge difference b/w the three, but it is all kind of just different means to the same end, right?...
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Kristie
Novel turned into BBC miniseries
"If a book is well written, I always find it too short."
Posts: 7,214
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Post by Kristie on Mar 12, 2008 13:46:32 GMT -5
I read part of the Qu'ran for a paper I was writing, and I found some stories that were similar to the Bible, just the Muslim name instead of the Christian name. The most prominent story I can remember is of Abraham.
Hannamarie, you're very right about Jesus being the big difference. I completely understand how he makes it different for the three religions. I just would like to add that I think it's interesting the Christians focus around Jesus, but within that general religion Catholics seem to focus more on Mary than anyone else (at least to my small understanding of it lol)
I just read something in my cultural anthropology class about world religions. Here's what it says about the world: 33% are Christian, 21% are Muslim, and Judaism is the smallest at 0.22% (smallest of all religions). However, Islam has a greater growth rate annually, so it can easily overstep the Christian majority sometime probably within our lifetime. I found it interesting that my book also stated that the more strict a religion is, the more followers it tends to have (in general). Like the Mormons are the biggest growing Christian group in the US right now.
***I might point out that Judaism is smallest because they don't believe in missionary-ing and converting people. Their a common people because of their common history and experiences and if you haven't been born into it, you don't quite belong.
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Michelle
First novel published
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Post by Michelle on Mar 12, 2008 14:37:54 GMT -5
It's a common misconception that Catholics focus too much on Mary. Yes, we really like Mary, but Jesus is still the focus. Catholics believe that Mary was born without sin (the immaculate conception) so that she could bring Jesus into the world. That makes her very different from any of the other saints and other people. Interestingly, there are 6 days of holy obligation in the Catholic church where attendence is required. 3 of them belong to Jesus and 3 of them belong to Mary. So she is much revered in Catholic teachings. But Jesus is still the focus (think of the front of most Catholic churches, you have Mary on the right, Joseph on the left, but Jesus still in the middle). There are lots of holy people that Catholics honor, but Jesus always occupies that middle place.
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Post by Hanna on Mar 12, 2008 19:10:14 GMT -5
Kristie; The story of Abraham is similar in all religions, because the Muslims descend (right word???) from his son Ismael (or at least Mohammed and his crew did)and the Jews from his son Isaac. (I think Paris mentioned that at Yale once:))
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Post by pixie on Mar 13, 2008 4:18:23 GMT -5
memccart; .. yes i think the Bible and the Torah are similar to each other than the Koran ( is that the right spelling? i thought it was Qua'an. i don't know). still, a friend of mine is really interested in Islam and its effect on the world nowadays. He read alot about it and once wrote a paper regarding the origin of Islam. the conclusion of his theory goes this way, back then in the middle east, a Saint disagreed about something with the church so as a result the church decided to excluded him. he actually told me the Saint's name but i really can't remember. anyways, as a revenge the Saint took the Bible, and modified it but he knew that his trick was going to be discovered if he claimed he was a prophet. therefore, he brought Mohammed who didn't know how to read or write, asked him to claim that he was a prophet and that the Koran(the modified Bible) was the new book and that's how Islam emerged. i don't know if this story is true or not. but my friend is really informed and concerned with that stuff and i thought his theory is worth mentioning. that's also how he justifies any similarities between Christianity and Islam.
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