this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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Showerthoughts
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Preface: I'm a Christian, so this will be about the Christian view on things. I can't really speak for other religions, since I don't really know enough about them.
On prayer: asking for miracles is not actually the main point of prayer, the main parts are listening to God, and God listening to you. Imagine a perfect parent/child relationship. Sure, there will be the occasional "hey dad, I need some money to make this month's rent. Can you help please?" or similar conversation, but most of the time it will be the child learning from the wisdom of the parent, or the parent helping the child vent. If you want to see an example of what Christianity says is the sort of things to pray, look at the book of Psalms in the bible.
On other religions: yes, of course at least most religions are fake. A false religion could be started by someone who believes they heard from God but got it wrong, or someone who wants to be the head of a religion for their own gain. Many religions warn about false prophets, so this is hardly a surprising thing.
Other religions are fake, but my religion....
Have you never disagreed with someone? At that point, at least one of you is wrong. You believe what must be true based on what you've seen, so of course you think you're right.
It's the same with religion. Because there's disagreement between each different belief (including atheism and such), there can be at most one correct option. I believe Christianity, because based on what I've seen that is by far the most sound option.
You think there can only be one god? That sounds limiting. I don't believe in any, but say does Buddhism really contradict most of Christianity real values? Like be good to people (help the less fortunate) try to let things go to not burden your well being (praying for forgiveness), respect others (do unto others). Besides having to actually believe in a god what's the difference between the two? Though the Buddhist view I'm thinking of doesn't require a god either but both seem to have teachings of compassion and love for your fellow person (some restrictions apply when dealing with intolerant types). I'm not saying you shouldn't have faith but don't say one has to be wrong.
Christianity and Buddhism (as well as many other religions) agree on a lot of the things you should do, but not why you should do them. Christianity says everyone is made in the image of God, so should be treated with love, while Buddhism (as far as I know) says showing compassion improves your karma and brings you closer to enlightenment. It might not seem like that difference matters, and according to some religions it doesn't, but some religions (especially Christianity) that difference in reason means everything. With Christianity, the only way to heaven is through Jesus, so a Buddhist living a life of love and compassion would be no closer to heaven.
I have a lot of opinions and beliefs that I can realize probably aren't correct
As it turns out, religion is faith based