Personal relationships with deities

[The Grand Nudger]

By and large Christians -also- believe that their actions control their destinies.  Though, some of them are fatalists, granted.  No one is claiming that buddhism and christianity are the same thing.  If they were the same thing, we would only need one term to describe them both, lol.   Your faith shares many similarities with their faith because they were both created by similar human beings in order to pursue a similar goal, ofc they're going to be similar.  This is not a revolutionary observation to anyone but the devout, who can;t stomach any similarities between what they know to be certainly true, and what they know to be certainly false - and that applies to both you and the christians....just like everything else seems to, in this conversation. At some point, you might find it prudent to understand why you -need- it to be different, why you cannot accept those similarities present and demonstrable.

[popsthebuilder]

That's ridiculous.

The ratio of believers to non believers is most likely similar in jail and out.

Faith in selfless Unity for Good.

Not even close.    A paltry .07% of inmates in our system were atheists as of 2013. Perhaps you could answer that one?

@Mia, you might like to think of it as an "intangible force of nature" but it clearly isn't...since it's a non-natural force. Magic. Many christians tell us that their beliefs keep them doing the right thing..and that even if their beliefs were not accurate it would still be good to believe for that reason, if no other. Those things you think about, those questions you asked above, have decidedly less magical and better demonstrated answers than "karma".

You realize that differing opinions in jail such of the lack of belief in God could cause significant pain and suffering for some in there right? That's most likely a faulty statistic as it is based on what people in jail said. Most of them are criminals with motives to keep their life as peaceful as possible. In other words; they have the capacity s nd motives to lie about it.

Faith in selfless Unity for Good.

[The Grand Nudger]

Confronted with an uncomfortable fact, which was clearly new to you, you decide to call them all criminals, liars, and be done with it, eh?  All statistics are faulty, imagine a wide margin of error if you like.  It would have to be -impressively- wide to remove the disparity between .07% and the believing remainder (something like 50%).   

The believing demographic is over represented in prison, this is a fact.  Statistical moe would have to be greater than 50%, greater than guessing..which is -not- what they did to arrive at their numbers.  You can accept that, and it;s implications for the notion that religion or god belief helps one to be moral, or good...or you can imagine any number of fanciful and derisive scenarios that allow you to avoid a fact by calling people lairs out of desperation. Up to you.

[Joods]

I think pops needs to lay off the sauce.

[Joods]

The ratio of believers to non believers is most likely similar in jail and out.

Faith in selfless Unity for Good.

Do you have proof to back this up or are you completely guessing?

[popsthebuilder]

The ratio of believers to non believers is most likely similar in jail and out.

Faith in selfless Unity for Good.

Do you have proof to back this up or are you completely guessing?

I live in the south. I've been incarcerated repeatedly. It has actually been my personal findings that there is some level of contempt towards the Christians that gather for nightly prayer which is generally a vast minority, and others. There are generally relatively open believers of other faiths as well but still the majority isn't openly anything, and many are openly atheist.

Faith in selfless Unity for Good.

[The Grand Nudger]

Yeah, persecuted everywhere you go.  

Are you actually hoping to sell any part of the bullshit you just wrote as the truth?  That you've been incarcerated in an openly atheist southern prison system..where nightly congregations of minority christians are held in contempt? Do you think that any portion of your little testimonial there would have the power to change the statistics, if it wasn't laughably untrue? Come to think of it, you're a criminal, you've been incarcerated..I recall someone telling me that criminals lie.........

When you say that you've live in "the south"..do you mean the southern arctic..as in a gulag, circa 1960?

[miaharun]

By and large Christians -also- believe that their actions control their destinies.  Though, some of them are fatalists, granted.  No one is claiming that buddhism and christianity are the same thing.  If they were the same thing, we would only need one term to describe them both, lol.   Your faith shares many similarities with their faith because they were both created by similar human beings in order to pursue a similar goal, ofc they're going to be similar.  This is not a revolutionary observation to anyone but the devout, who can;t stomach any similarities between what they know to be certainly true, and what they know to be certainly false - and that applies to both you and the christians....just like everything else seems to, in this conversation. At some point, you might find it prudent to understand why you -need- it to be different, why you cannot accept those similarities present and demonstrable.

Now you and I share one thing in common Sir. Buddhism was introduced/created by a human, Buddha. He doesn't describe himself as a God nor did he believe in one. He was born normally , grew up normally , married and had children , left everything behind and went to find the truth. I'm not for a moment going to suggest to anyone that Buddhism is the truth. It is only something that i observe and follow. Being a Buddhist, If i didn't believe in Karma and reincarnation, I assume my beliefs would be similar to an Atheist.

[The Grand Nudger]

Would you be pushing old ladies into the street..if you stopped being a buddhist? I would assume not. Remind me again, whether buddhism helps you to be a good person? You -are- an atheist........btw, lol.

[miaharun]

Of course i would not. That is absurd.