Originally Posted by CutterJohn
If you're a true christian or muslim, you cannot tolerate the others or buddhisms existence. They are fundamentally at odds with core aspects of your faith.
If you're a buddhist, you can't get along with christianity or islam, since, while Buddhists recognize that gods can and may exist, they are irrelevant. The gods are stuck in the same trap of reality as we, seeking nirvana.
These, along with the other major religions of Taoism and Hinduism, are all mutually exclusive. You cannot believe in one if you believe in another. By telling all people with such faith to keep their faith, you're saying what you believe in is not important, merely the fact that you have faith. You're making faith itself a religious entity.
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Well said.
It's a perfect example of the strange public perception of 'faith' being something noble, or a positive character trait. It's bizarre because being 'faithful' to religious belief is, from a practical standpoint, nearly identical to being superstitious. And exactly how noble do we view the superstitious in our society? It's silly, more than anything else.
The problem is, the "Believe whatever you want, so long as you believe!" opinion is fundamentally flawed, since these beliefs exist exclusive to one another. If you are a christian, then you have to recognize that when Jesus says that the only path to heaven is through him, you have to understand that means all non-christians go to hell. Atheists, muslims, hindus, taoists, shinto, buddhists, all going to hell to burn in agony for all time. You have to accept that. If you don't, you're as much of an apostate as I am, so you really may as well just be atheist. It makes things so much less complicated, and it really frees up your Sundays.