What I feel is, In Buddhism, Lord Buddha stood 7 days continuously looking at the “BO” Tree which has provided him shelter through out the journey of seeking the truth. This was a tribute done for the Tree, which has helped him to succeed.

In the Bible, It tells that All the Animals in the Barn of Bethlehem were the Christ was born, has helped him. So what we have to believe is all the Animals were respectable due to the help given for this Holy Moment. But It turns out that all the Christian’s kill the same animals to celebrate the Christ’s Birth. No Offence, but is this the tribute that you can convey to them?

Buddhism is not a religion, but its a Vision. Many Doctors, Professors and Scientists now have faith in Buddhism due to the facts which are exactly matching with the latest discoveries in Now a day science, which were toled centauries ago.

I’m not intending to public Buddhism, but in this FILM, It is certain that there is no sign of any Grail at all. The Event is Breaking Bread; can u imagine a supper with out wine or any other liquid substance? Clearly there must be a reason for Learnado to paint such a picture. I believe Brown’s fact just links to each other (some of them). But what I believe is, Jesus Christ was a man ( not a God’s son) who had a clear vision and a love, caring hart for people. Obviously, If there were some person like that there’s no dough that people treat them as GOD. :::: PEACE ::::

Let’s kick back and relax a spell–and let’s consider something.

Chris, let’s say that you were born and raised in an old Indian tribe that no one has heard about. You live there, get married there, and live your life there.

Now, let’s say a missionary from England (what a coincidence) visits you.

You are, by this time, about fifty or sixty years old. You’ve raised your kids and they’ve gotten married and lived happily ever after.

You’re also very smart too…

Now, what would your reaction be if the British missionary told you that during winter, you could walk across the lake because the water would have become hard?

What would you say?

“Logical fact #1: You just CAN’T walk across water because water NEVER GETS HARD!” (In India’s hot climate, there is no chance for the water to become frozen).

“Logical fact #2: It is totally ILLOGICAL for someone to walk across water and you are a stupid idiot if you think that someone can walk on water–even the IDEA of water “getting hard” is absurd! Things just don’t work that way!”

“Logical fact #3: No one from our tribe has EVER been able to walk across water their entire lifetime–and yet you, a very young missionary man, tell US that you can walk on water? You are just young and stupid; one day, when you get older, you will come to understand what we do about water and how it works.”

I ask you; who is the idiot? The missionary man–or the tribal leader?

The British missionary man has experienced the FACT that water can freeze–however, the tribal leader has not. If he were to be truly humble, he should ask the missionary man to take him to the place where water is hard and also, once taken there, he should also have the fun and the joy of “walking on water.”

(And it IS fun walking on frozen water, isn’t it?) :)

In the same way, this is the difference between the unbeliever and a Christian; the Christian has experienced and knows the truth that Jesus is Lord and as a result, has lived a victorious life.

The unbeliever however, not only doesn’t understand what the Christian is talking about, but he also makes fun of and sometimes goes as far as calling the Christian an idiot.

Cordially,

–JJ

Of course, I think there are good reasons to believe God exists. :) Not perfect, absolute, 100% proof, but enough to warrant belief, given the alternatives available. And I have to keep myself open to the possibility that I’m wrong; we all need to struggle to try to remain ‘teachable’ so that we’re able to evaluate other’s opinions to decide whether they are valid or not.

Chris, eventually when it comes to God, we will find some questions that we can’t answer entirely. Des Emery said it well above. Does the fact that we have some questions that aren’t yet answered mean belief in God is unjustified? I wouldn’t say so. When we are discussing a being that is infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, etc, we (as finite, non-omnipotent, non-omniscient, etc beings) necessarily cannot know everything about God. I’m not suggesting that asking the questions is in any way not a very good thing. I’m suggesting only that we have to recognize that not all questions can be answered, at least not in this life.

By the way, Shakespeare always said it best, whatever he said. Your quote — All the world’s a stage… was said by one of his characters who was mired in a deep funk at the time.

Your comments about the name of God were fortuitous. I was thinking about this point over the weekend. There’s a show on EWTN in which Fr. John Corapi goes through the Catechism of the Catholic Church and talks about it. This week’s show dealt with the Lord’s Prayer. In care you’re not familiar with it, the Lord’s Prayer, AKA the Our Father, was a prayer Jesus taught His disciples (Matt 6) when one of them asked Him to teach them how to pray. It starts off “Our Father, who are in Heaven….” The point was that Jesus was telling His disciples that they should think about God as their Father in Heaven. Elsewhere in the Bible Jesus uses ‘Abba,’ the Aramaic equivalent of ‘Daddy.’

It made me wonder why Jewish people believe they shouldn’t speak God’s name. (I understand the missing vowels and that we’re not positive how YHVH was actually pronounced, but I’ve even seen people from Jews for Jesus use G-d instead of God.) I know of nothing in the Bible that says this must be done. Why do you think that Jewish people won’t use God’s name? It seems to me that the concept of God as a loving Father is foreign to Judaism. Is that the case?

re: children born with venial sin

In Ps 51 David writes that he was brought into the world in sin. Children are born with what Christian theologians call original sin which they inherited from Adam and Eve. (Theologians are those people who make a living by obscuring the simple by creative use of terminology.) It is not that they have committed a sin. One, they haven’t had the chance and two, they’re way to young to be morally culpable. However, very young children can and will do stuff that they know they shouldn’t. Having raised twin daughters I know this by experience.

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Chris,

I didn’t mean to imply that God created us just to test us. He created us so that He could love us and we could love Him and that we could live forever in fellowship with Him. (When I was in grade school – late 50s/early 60s – we used to memorize the Baltimore Catechism. It had a great way of putting this: We were created to enjoy God.) Unfortunately we broke that fellowship with God when Adam and Eve sinned. Putting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden was a test to see if they would obey Him but the test was not the reason for our existence. Love can’t be real love unless the possibility of rejection exists. When they ate of the fruit Adam and Eve were essentially saying “We’re going our own way. We don’t want you” to God.

re: “Life is just a play and we are all actors” ( Shakespeare)

I guess you could think of it that way but the play is being written as we go along. What happens next depends on what we do now.