Are you a Taoist? I'm interested in knowing what religion you follow, or you are an atheist. Not that there's anything wrong, but you seems to mistake several stuff there

Nobody said Buddhist cannot eat beef. Some Taoist just refrain from eating beef.
No one said Guan Yin is a religion either.

Buddhism is more of a philosophy

Taoism is a polytheism religion, just like Hinduism
Islam and Christianity are monotheism.

Buddhism is none of those

This post has been edited by Hornet: Apr 28 2010, 12:10 AM

True, but what is right or wrong varies so much from individual to individual, even if we do not factor in religious brainwashing. To be more succinct, religion is largely irrelevant because it seeks to provide something that should already have been in humans from the start - common sense, the ability to freely distinguish facts from lies, right from wrong, no matter how disparate such definitions may be, the imperative that drives us to act based on principle and accepted norms, not based on our every whim.

I do not even wish to touch on how religion has been perverted in the modern age by people who abuse its very context, I've been merely speaking of the need, or the lack thereof, of religion in human life as a guiding light. Any decent human being growing up should be able to infer him/herself how to act, to think, and to behave, the brain is amazing in that respect, and there is no need for a third party.

As food for thought, consider this: Would there be less crime in the world if religion was more widespread (Nevermind the deviant teachings). I think not; I believe a person who commits crimes does it on his/her own volition, the voice inside, or some desperate drive born out of circumstances, but to put things very simply, religion is not something that will circumvent a person's inner desire to be bad. Highly dubious.

It seems like common misconception among the chinese community where 'buddhists' can't eat beef, where in fact they're simply taoists. However I strongly doubt there's any authentic Taoists around who follow strictly to the rules of Taoism.

I can't say I've came across such case as most of my Chinese friends do eat beef, but yeah I agree. I don't know the details, but the Buddhism teaching have certainly found its way to wherever Taoism originated, and its like mixed up now for Chinese. There are certain element like Karma which have been incorporated into Taoism.

I also agree that Taoism isn't strictly followed these days, though most Chinese who follows taoism takes many element from it in more of a cultural way.

But actually that's what I like about Taoism. Firstly, its not an organized religion, which is a huge plus. There isn't anyone out there who's forcing every little teaching onto its followers, or you get burned at the stake. And certainly no one to tell us that god created the universe or that birth control is a sin.

No offend meant btw



Anyway,

To contribute to the subject at hand, personally i believe there's no room in modern society for strict organized religion. Its really sad when I read this incident about a group of religious zealots in US protest at the funeral of a Marine because he was gay. Its insane that these people are driven to the extreme end and lose all their common sense or the sense of decency, all they see is their own believe to be the greatest thing and they must force it upon everyone else.


I also think that society should not treat religious figure like they are a larger than life figure and are above the law. Take for example the current scandal surrounding RCC where priest molested altar boys (brings a whole new meaning to "God loves you, and I do to"). These priest are still allow to roam free.

If it was a ordinary child rapist, we would have police kicking down the door and dragging him to jail in cuffs. But here we are, giving special treatment to those priest as if they are above the law. Since when is up to the Vatican to take action? It should have been a criminal case handled by the law enforcement bodies.

No offence meant to Christians. I don't have any problem with Christianity, but I think organized religion must go. You don't need to have a special organization to tell you what to believe in, or to take your hard earn cash every Sunday morning

This post has been edited by Hornet: Apr 28 2010, 12:34 AM

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This post has been edited by marsalee: Nov 13 2010, 08:15 PM

I think its my fault .. previous post accidentally relate Guan Yin's story >.<" Sorry guys, my mistake ..

I don't believe in god and religion. That open my mind and I see religion as a whole. The bad and the good.

You believe in religion and your religion. That make you narrow minded and see 1 side. That why you keep defend your religion and dislike others.

If we debate specifically, more and more people defend their religion. And fail to see the bad and the good. You say your religion is good I say my religion is the best.

Religion directly is intend to be teaching good. But indirectly create bad thing too. Religion war, killling for the name of religion and etc.

All religion keep adding the rule by people. You don't tell me all are 100% pure rule from the founder (god). Even buddhism original place is not pure rule anymore. The purest is sri lanka. Christian have 1 god but few rule. Methodist and christian. Islam have 1 god but many intrepreter. (sorry, I not good in religion language, Correct me if I m wrong with those word) Why is there so many branch and believing? Do the founder (god) write this?

If u are as what u mention, and able to stand out from the border and look at it as a whole
u should able to realize it is very logical that this happen because there some human out thr directly or indirectly add their own rules into it regardless what their intentions are.

We can go ahead and think something like: Actually, those are god's arrangement, everything is god's plan, god know what best..... bla bla bla
Well yeah, regardless the possibility of such a thing, we would not consider of such thing unless it is proven god exist at the first place
So as a conclusion i stick to the point saying that some human add their own rules, furthermore since the partially diff believe and branches are not only one, so i would say there are more than one people try to make their religion go (maybe a little bit) to the path that they want

Talk this talk that.But don't want to search the truth.I mean by searching the truth.Go and explore.Religions,proof and evidence.Do we need religion?Do you believe in there is a creator that create all of this?Explore and you will know.

Have you all ever searched for the truth?Not curious to know?

This post has been edited by Turnip: Apr 28 2010, 06:53 PM

religion is the truth?delusion more like...

How may i say,how may others will say it.Its up to yourselves to know the wonders of this world.

Ok you say religion is a delusion.Have you gone deeply studied about religion?Say that you studied about Islam for instance.Please don't study it on the surface.Go deep you must as you want to know the truth right?Compare with other religions.It doesn't hurt for an Atheist to do some research wouldn't it?And i thought most are 'scientist'.And im sure they do like researching.

It up to yourselves actually if you want to find the truth or just hear from people's mouth or "look at this i got from this website".

i was a christian and look what position i am in now?

Your an atheist ?

Why do you move out from it then?Because of something that you found that doesn't make sense?(the thoughts i got from my a dearly friend from Berlin)

it's hard to discuss it with religious persons as they're unwilling to accept criticisms,and don't take this personal,you are the one that should start to embrace the criticisms cast by many scholars from virtually every aspects,science,philosophy,archeology etc on religions before it's too late,religion is not something of a benefit if you let it dominates your life...

This post has been edited by CleverDick: Apr 30 2010, 06:32 PM

for me i always thought that atheist people is base on pure logic right?or am i wrong here?They don't believe in "out-of-space" don't they?

Criticism.Some people when critics they can't accept.Some can.It depends on the individuals Mr.Cleverdick.

yes,i left religion because i found it unreasonable,reasons?science,philosophy,etc each plays a big role in my unbelief,start to look at the criticisms and evidence put forth by scholars then you'll know why...
really?most of the religious persons that i've encountered quickly become enraged when things contradict with their beliefs are shown,'out of space' theory?multiverse you mean?the theory lacks support from scientific community due to its near unfalsifiable nature,unless evidence are shown to support the theory,otherwise we should temporarily discard the theory and work on other theories which shown to be more worthy of examination...

This post has been edited by CleverDick: Apr 30 2010, 06:33 PM

How to study deep about religion?

How deep of a study qualify it as being deep enough to fully understand? If study can be compared in terms of deep and shallow, then define a shallow study of religion. What kind of study is a study on the surface, in such topic as religion?

The amount of time spent on studying the religion couldn't be the only yardstick. It would be hard to compare morons with genius in terms of time spent studying.

Does reading more and thinking/analyzing more on the subject of religion makes it a deep study? I hope the religion fanatics elsewhere would do just the same.

EDIT:
And even if you still manage to study it deep, it doesn't mean you had studied it right, even worst, you might had spent your energy studying a hoax all together.

This post has been edited by Vagrant: Apr 29 2010, 12:48 AM

Yeah. Realize it long ago. When I train myself to think out from religion and think in science way, it getting clearer to me about this human write rule.

Actually this rule did bring people out from dark age and gorvern good the people hundred and hundred yrs ago. Thing start to bad when it get adding more the rule, branching, fighting own belief, killing for dominate, jealously etc.

World change and people getting civilize and have another religion call science to choose. So it getting cleary to some that religion is not important anymore and oudated. The world still have many problem and religion is not helping here.

"Atheist: A person who believes in one less god than you do”

Unless you subscribe to a polytheistic religion