On a mean messageboard a fellow brought up the concept of, "Inter Religious Dialog". I was a fanatical Christian at the time :) but at the sametime, was his quiet plea valid?

His quiet plea, which was ignored, changed my life.

Is religion just an opportunity to play the pecking order reality?

God loves me! But not you! My dad can whip your dad! I have power and you don't!

Guys, God loves everybody, so how do we solve this world's mess? If one is inclined to actually think that there is a mess here, relative to the religious world that we all live in.

I am here to on one hand just have fun and on the onther other hand to discuss some things, that I would like some input on with some normal caring people (please don't be threatened by the word normal :) without you guys, we would have no planet and no mankind.)

I would like to explore the concept of, "Is inter religious dialog possible?" It might not be. But to me as "a totally rogue person" :) , it is an interesting challenge/subject. I love God, I love my world community, and I love people and all living things.

Anyway what do you guys think? Is "Inter Religious Dialog" as a topic/thread worth exploring?

Tucker58

Yes.

very good one....
i belief religion is for those affraid of going to hell and sprituality is for those who have been there already!! ha! It is in the breath that one exists and in the breath that one connects and if there is no cross dialog we shall be alone!!

I like the dogmatic of any particular view but i do not share it... just for the sake of them be3ing dogmatic makes me irreverant. Nothing mor fun to poke that a close minded fanatic on any topic. ha!
FF'in

Well, thats a tuff question and can get pretty deep. As a Christian I know Christianity can not be bent or moved to allow for something else. It wouldnt be Christianity then.
However, with all the different denominations it gets very tricky.
Some churches say, you must be baptised and ask Jesus for salvation and then again other churches have rules that they have added along the way. You must perform acts other then ask Jesus to be you savior and then ask Jesus to be your savoir.
In the end it doesnt make any sense. I have noticed with every person I have talked to, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Orthodox and so on. Everyone, consider me their brother in Christ once we get down to the very basic concept of Christianity. Asking Jesus for forgiveness of our sins.

So in Christianity, I have seen the rules get bent but the end result allways leads to the core.

many religions can not discuss religion without having some sort of powertrip or the hopes of converting someone, somewhere. christians and muslims are the worst in this area.

Dialogue*

And if you want me to discuss religion, don't expect me to respect your beliefs as much as you do or even at all. It can't be done so don't encourage it, as that is not just a lack of respect for my beliefs but in some form, a disrespect.

Yes, many religious people are pricks about it.

And many like to pretend as if they are not pricks by saying things like, "I accept your beliefs, but you are going to hell." . ... Yeah...

I had a friend in high school who was pretty religious. Probably enjoyed the interaction with other like minded individuals over the actual religion itself. Was a nice guy though. Then I ran into him about 5 years after high school. Got to know him a little again. At this point he was claiming he could hear god's voice. Says he sounds like Tom Hanks.

What's my point? I don't know.... Organized religion, cults, extremists and fundamentalists... Isn't it just level of commitment that separates these groups?

Eh, happy father's day dad's on allforums!

I suppose that no inter-fanatical dialog could exist.

Dialogue*
Actually Evak, Firefox's spell checker accepts "dialog" but not "dialogue" and dictionary.com lists both spellings as acceptable. ;)

Actually Evak, Firefox's spell checker accepts "dialog" but not "dialogue" and dictionary.com lists both spellings as acceptable. ;)

He must be in an advanced comp class or something.

He must be in an advanced comp class or something.

I think it's "the or something." :thumbs:

Actually Evak, Firefox's spell checker accepts "dialog" but not "dialogue" and dictionary.com lists both spellings as acceptable. ;)
Screw Firefox, I've never seen it spelled that way in my entire life.

Let's dialog...

yeah, lets' dialogue...

Me either but I just wrote it out and did spell check... neither showed as incorrect.

Personally, I think inter-religious dialog is just what the world needs, but it'll never happen. The sad truth is, the semitic religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) all claim to be the one true religion, and no matter how much "dialog" takes place, none of those religions can ever really co-exist with the others, at least not without embracing a "watered-down" version of their own faith. They would have to ignore or reject some of the most fundamental tenets of their religions, and that would be unacceptable to all of them.

I suppose some dialog could take place between them, but it would never result in any kind of peace between them. Each of them has far too many fundamentalist adherents.

It'll never happen. The religious are too set in their ways and too proud to accept that perhaps what they believe may be wrong.

Religion is a man made organization, it's all about the money and no way they will unite and have to go without their wealth.

edit..although I've always thought a universal bible would be cool.

edit..although I've always thought a universal bible would be cool.

Interesting concept. A universal book that would be appealing to me personally would be quite different from those available today.

The main religions have attempted through the centuries, and today, to make their books universal. Methods have been conquest, genocide, bribery,fear inducement, infiltration, etc.

very good one....
i belief religion is for those affraid of going to hell and sprituality is for those who have been there already!! ha! It is in the breath that one exists and in the breath that one connects and if there is no cross dialog we shall be alone!!

I like the dogmatic of any particular view but i do not share it... just for the sake of them be3ing dogmatic makes me irreverant. Nothing mor fun to poke that a close minded fanatic on any topic. ha!
FF'in

Hi FlyinFree :) That was a good place to start this topic. And dogmatic "is" to much fun :)

Tucker58

Well, thats a tuff question and can get pretty deep. As a Christian I know Christianity can not be bent or moved to allow for something else. It wouldnt be Christianity then.
However, with all the different denominations it gets very tricky.
Some churches say, you must be baptised and ask Jesus for salvation and then again other churches have rules that they have added along the way. You must perform acts other then ask Jesus to be you savior and then ask Jesus to be your savoir.
In the end it doesnt make any sense. I have noticed with every person I have talked to, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Orthodox and so on. Everyone, consider me their brother in Christ once we get down to the very basic concept of Christianity. Asking Jesus for forgiveness of our sins.

So in Christianity, I have seen the rules get bent but the end result allways leads to the core.

Inviolable your experience with our fellow Christians is the same as mine. :) and what is funny is that most Christians would consider interreligious dialog as dialog between to different Christian churches. And :) if one is not Christian, then one is not religious. Therefore you can't have interreligious dialog, because the other person is not religious :)

I think that all "Father God" religions actually take this approach, at least in their heart. And the "Self Realization" folks also seem to be very set in their ways.

Tucker58

I suppose that no inter-fanatical dialog could exist.

DanF :) yours is an interesting challenge. So what if "one" created a universal religious concept that caused all religious fanatics of all religions to ban together to destroy "one" :) I think that it can be done :)

At least then we would thin the problem of interreligious dialog down to "two" camps :)

We could separate the, "Wheat from the tares; and the sheep from the goats." :) so to speak.

So Dan and everybody what do you think? :) Armageddon! To cool! Anyway Dan you are right, fanatics are the challenge. :)

Tucker58

Let's dialog...

yeah, lets' dialogue...

Me either but I just wrote it out and did spell check... neither showed as incorrect.

So Sal do you think that inter sex/gender dialog is possible? :)

Tucker58