Judging Religions By The People

[sweet_princess 0]

I Think that judging a RELIGION by the POEPLE that follow it is negative.If I saw a person who called themselves a "Christian" walking down the street, i would not say that Christianity is a bad religion because of that one person (who might not even be practising the religion in the firs t place)So regardless of what Osama Bin Laden (I hate him too), Al-Qaeda Etc., Etc. what do you think about Islam?Do you think it is a true religion? I doDo you think that Islam is a religion od peace? It does come from the root word "salaam" which means "peace"I don't want to hear answers that are about the PEOPLE who follow Islam, I want to hear what you think about Islam using the Qur'an as a resource.I'm sure that no-one can ever reject this true faith once they come to know the true meaning, there are hidden meanings in Islam, and Allah has surely said that many people will call themselves Muslims, but those who really have knowledge will be a minute quantity amongst the Muslims.You may think that Islam is a bad religion, but misconceptions can lead you to think that way, now is a chance to clear all those, ask any question, write your views and I will definately provide answers that will make a difference to what you think.

[pixieloo 0]

I agree! I know that Christians have been given a bad name because of history, and people trying to force others to convert to Christianity. By only judging one person, people will be biased and will form sterotypes. It goes for everything, not just religions.

[husker 0]

From my understanding of Islam, there a some people out there that are Islam and kill people for fun. Most others though are Islam and do not cause any trouble and do what they want to do without causing trouble. Many people consider Christians like the "peace" type people but you are going to find some "bad" Christian. In every religion there is always someone who causes chaos in the world.

[Hadi 0]

And who said that islam is a bad religion, I know people who do.But they say this because they only saw islam through ousamaa bin ladin, but not through the Quaur'an, They should read it first in order to judge this religion fairly, I read some of this book it was fascinating, I mean they use really hard arab language in it, something that know is able towrite like, except God. Islam is truely a religion of peace, i know lots of muslims people and they are really really nice to mee. I am thinking of being a muslim myself.

[arnz 0]

Agree to an extent that a vocal minority of many religions will decide the view of many of those religion/s in question. Islam and Osama are obvious examples. But bad examples from religions such as Christianity, Muslism etc tend not to cloud my judgement, as I usually only dismiss the crazy ones and/or vocal minority and tend to see by what the majority do.

[soulju 0]

I kinda have to agree that judging a religion by 1 or 2 of its followers is not a fair way to paint a picture. However, you have to judge a religion by its followers.. You cant say that being a muslim makes you a terrorist or that being an atheist makes you an anarchist, but what other way is there to judge a religion then by the people who follow it and there actions....I do know for a fact though that the muslim religon on a whole is peaceful. If you know something about it then you might know that the word Islam means peace, submission and obedience. I myself am torn with religion. I was baptised catholic, went to a catholic school and attended a luthern church. I went to a fransican Highschool for 3 years and then I was enrolled into public school. When I was 17 I started to study buddhism and I have read some of the Qur'an. I know a fair amount about alot of different religions. Even though I do not follow one in perticular , I am still a very spiritual person.I think that religion is good and bad. Many of the wars in the world have been caused by, you guessed it, religious leaders of all kinds. A down side to religion is that the 6 main religions in our world and most have major conflicts with each other that date back thousands of years and usually end up in a serious spillage of blood. You cant say any certain one is good because they have all done horrible things to each other at some point in our recorded history. On a posotive note, the feeling that people get when they go to church on sunday or get called to prayer by a muezzin at a mosque is amazing. The feeling of being one with your community and the love you feel, you can almost get absorbed in it.I also cant believe that there are not 5000 replies to this topic yet, as religous debates are virtually never ending. Everyone has there own opinion and they are entitled to it. =D I think that I will post a bazillion times here if other people follow up and keep the topics interesting. =D

Edited October 8, 2006 by soulju (see edit history)

[truefusion 3]

but what other way is there to judge a religion then by the people who follow it and there actions....

The only way to judge a religion is by their Holy Book(s). One cannot truly judge a religion by the followers' actions, cause they could be doing things that are against their religion. You can call yourself whatever, but that doesn't mean you are. But it's hard to find one that fully follows their religion, huh?

[soulju 0]

its very hard to find someone who fully follows there religion.. to put it in perspective.. i literally know over 2000 people between highschool friends from many years ago and the people ive met in work and life, i honestly can say that none of them fully follow there religions. its an ultra rarity to find someone who fully follows there religion and i would live to listen and learn from someone who does.

[Madkat-Z 0]

Islam to me is just another one of the many religions in the world. Just like every religious group there are extremest who twist and bend the their scripture till its a completely different book. I do agree judging a religious group on who is practicing it is not the best way to go. Since no matter who's preaching it there will always be some difference or bias. However, it is somewhat easier to have someone talking to you about then to have to be sitting there reading about it. So, as a personal opinion I think its better to learn as much as you can from a non-bias source. Whether that be from a person, book, or scripture. I'm currently taking a Art course that helping me learn alot about the religious beliefs (from an educational stand point, not really from a religious stand point) in India and South East Asia and whats better is my professor is very non-bias.

[biscuitrat 0]

Fanatics are only a very small portion of a religious following, and if they get all the publicity, you're going to have discussions like this. In the same way that not every Christian is ultra-conservative, not every Muslim is related to terrorism - the fact that we even associate people like that is bad. Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist, but he wasn't Muslim. When fanatics of a peaceful religion get out of hand, the entire religion is victimized and it's not fair to anyone. I'm hesitant about every grouping people because of the prescence of stereotypes. We are all hurt by them, and although it's not possible to stop them (grouping ideas is a fundamental part of human logic), perhaps if we lessen their influence on society, we can return to a sort of peace which will end up being very necessary if we get ourselves into another war before Bush's term ends (HATE).

[sylenzednuke 0]

I agree one can never judge religions by the people following them... I did in my past and now I regret it totally...I have friends from almost all the major religions as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and even Agnostics and Atheists like I am.They are all nice to me and I am nice to them, once in school, no one cares about which religion the other person belongs too, I am an atheist but I usually help other people to defend their religion if some other guy insults someones religion. Like that day this christian guy Clyde (although I never saw him in the church) was giving a hard time to this Muslim junior in our school, I got angry and at once tried to stop the fight, and when that Clyde was out of control, I beat the crap out of him although I was punished by my principle after that but I think my action was right as that guy didn't have any right to bully the other junior just because he was a Muslim.Although some people do discriminate on me as I am an atheist, they look down on me but I don't even care, although they are like that but my friends accept my atheism and everybody I talk with except some elders in my country including my parents don't look down on me, everyday my parents scold me for some silly reason and say that I don't believe in God just because the Devil has taken control of my mind, it kinda sucks when my parents are the ones who don't support me, but still thats life I guess...I know first even I did the same mistake of looking down at Islam because of Osama and some other terrorists, but once I saw a Muslimg wearing a t-shirt with a finger against the potrait of Bush and Osama both and I was touched at that moment, then I realized in my schools, Muslims are one of the most peaceful people, I never saw them engaging into any kind of fights, same with Christians and all others... Although sometimes Hindu's don't mix up with Christians and Muslims as for them non-veg food is a taboo but still other than that, everyone mixes up with everybody so perfectly...I agree that many Christians force people to convert and I have seen this happening in front of my eyes in my village but guess what, some christian priest saw this while he was outside the adjacent church and he stopped the person from forcing the poor farmer, and then I stopped judging religions by some people.

[biscuitrat 0]

Actually, that's not true. The only meat that's offlimits to Hindu (myself being one) is beef because of the whole cow thing. I know many Hindus (not myself) who eat meat because it's so readily available here and the quality is probably better than in India. But that's true; a religion has no bearing over how someone acts, which is why I still believe it's up to the human to influence their own morals because morals are always going to change in some way. Therefore we shouldn't classify people by their religion.

[sylenzednuke 0]

Well, here majority of the Hindus don't eat any kind of meat and thats why I mentioned it in my post, some people also refrain from eating vegetarian dishes made in same utensils as nonvegetarian foos or by the hands who made nonvegetarian foods. I was a born Hindu myself until I chose to be an atheist, and so this was all I experienced here in India and these things still are there. 2 people from my own group refrain from eating the foodstuffs prepared in the houses of my other friends who cook nonveg at their home.

[arnz 0]

Fanatics are only a very small portion of a religious following, and if they get all the publicity, you're going to have discussions like this. In the same way that not every Christian is ultra-conservative, not every Muslim is related to terrorism - the fact that we even associate people like that is bad. Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist, but he wasn't Muslim. When fanatics of a peaceful religion get out of hand, the entire religion is victimized and it's not fair to anyone.

I agree those days in regard to the small vocal minority which resort to doing extreme things to get their points across. Esp the case with Martin Bryant (who iirc wasnt aligned to a particular religion) down here, he wasnt a terrorist or anything, but still he was a crazed gunman acting alone.

[Jon Jon 0]

Sad to say that, people DO affect impressions of religion. Come on, a religion teaches someone to be good, but we do otherwise. So first impression, that religion doesn't emphasis on this and that. So yeah, people must POTRAY the teachings of the religion then only one can really find out whether that religion's really ummm, good or something different from another religion.