Why do people think Christianity is better than Islam?

[cyberzero]

Guys, the question of this thread is about the religions themselves.

It has nothing to do with the way that the religion is represented in this society, because that is purely the fault of the people.

The reason that Muslims, such as myself, are so oppressed and blame the media, etc, is because we ourselves aren't standing up and proving that our religion does NOT consider everyone infidels, does NOT support terrorism, and the usual controversies.
Christians are also under such pressures. Most Americans are Christian in the sense of the word, but how many are practicing? How many are borderline Atheistic? How many attend Church?
They aren't representing their religion either, but that doesn't matter because in this country, they are the majority.
And there is nothing wrong with that.

But we honestly shouldn't stray from the true topic of this thread.
I can proudly say that I've done a LOT of research on religion, and from an unbiased standpoint, Islam makes the most sense to me.

And Skiddle's point from the previous thread is very true, and even that is an understatement.

 

[akuchi]

religions as an abstract concept mean nothing; it's who practices the religion, and how they do so, that matters.

 

[cyberzero]

And are you saying that there are more people that practice Christianity than Islam?
Because if you go to a Friday prayer at your local Mosque, you will definitely see more people than you would see at your local Church on Sunday.
Terrorists don't practice their religion because nowhere in their religion does it says anything about terrorism. It is an invention that they themselves have created and have covered using the excuse of religion. Even they themselves are probably convinced that what they are doing is right.

 

[tea_and_blues]

"It has nothing to do with the way that the religion is represented in this society, because that is purely the fault of the people."

akuchi is right, insofar as anyone mortal will ever establish, religions are what practioners (or "believers", if you will) make them into. For all intents and purposes, religious worldviews don't exist outside of how they are practiced. "Christianity" and "Islam" don't float in some magical ether universe we cannot see. "Education", likewise, would not exist without people to educate and be educated.

When we discuss Christianity and Islam we HAVE to discuss how their practitioners engage with issues like freedom of expression, feminism, homosexual rights, animal rights, terrorism, education, etc. It's just nonsense to say that thread comparing Christianity with Islam should not spark a debate about their approaches to women's rights.

Incidentally, just because the Bible and Koran do not contain the words 'become terrorists', does not mean they don't contain delightful little parables like that of Abraham and Isaac/Ishmael (in my opinion, the most disgusting work of fiction ever to be treated as a religious text).

 

[RobertM]

You think slaughtering children in an organ designed for nurturing them is a great advancement for women.

I want my tonsils removed because they inconvienence me by giving me a sore throat.
I want this zygote removed because it inconveniences me by ruining the next 18 years of my life.
What's the difference here?

People think Christianity is better than Islam, Buddhism, Atheism, or basically anything that doesn't follow the bible because they think the first commandment applies to everyone. Ironically it applies to no one. All other religions and atheists don't believe in the christian god and christians have the trinity, which violates the first commandment by having three gods. If you aren't catholic, but still worship Jesus you've broken the first commandment by having 2 gods.

BTW- I'm starting a harry potter religion where we follow the teachings of dumbledore, wear robes, and meet every sunday. Its no more absurd than any other religion.

 

[Arcaseven]

BTW- I'm starting a harry potter religion where we follow the teachings of dumbledore, wear robes, and meet every sunday. Its no more absurd than any other religion.

Why is it whenever anyone suggests something like this I think about it, and actually think it sounds better than what we have now? In theory and on paper. Not to offend anyone of course, I'm only a stupid Agnostic.

 

[RobertM]

Ugh, I hate wishy washy agnostics. Quit being a pussy and pick a side.

As an atheist, I am better than everyone else.

 

[misdreavus79]

Where god says, time and time again; 'the women are yours as the spoils of war' and where it's explicitly stated that if a man rapes a woman he can buy her as his bride, because he has 'dishonoured' her, you're saying it's not condoning rape? Lot 'the righteous' offered his daughters to be gang-raped by a crowd of men.
So.. yeah.

Everything you quoted was more story telling than God himself (or Jesus) actually saying it as law. And we all know Jesus sided with the prostitute more than once ;)

The fact that it happened doesn't mean God agrees with it. And, Moses was dealing with an extremely ****** up group of people, so he basically had to make 'laws' to deal with them. That's where divorce came from.

 

[Kingdrom]

I want my tonsils removed because they inconvienence me by giving me a sore throat.
I want this zygote removed because it inconveniences me by ruining the next 18 years of my life.
What's the difference here?

People think Christianity is better than Islam, Buddhism, Atheism, or basically anything that doesn't follow the bible because they think the first commandment applies to everyone. Ironically it applies to no one. All other religions and atheists don't believe in the christian god and christians have the trinity, which violates the first commandment by having three gods. If you aren't catholic, but still worship Jesus you've broken the first commandment by having 2 gods.

BTW- I'm starting a harry potter religion where we follow the teachings of dumbledore, wear robes, and meet every sunday. Its no more absurd than any other religion.

Technically, since Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all stem from the same lineage, it is safe to say that they all worship the same God, if even only one group is right. Since Abraham is portrayed as purely human, he couldn't have decieved the omniscent God that he prayed to, the same one which "governs" all three of these religions. If he could, then obviously Abraham isn't human.

Of course, the athiest would say that they are all wrong and there is no God. It is also impossible to disprove the existence of a God or their place in this world. From what we can see in animal intelligence, we know not the reasoning or capabilities of higher beings if they exist. How do our pet fishes know how fast we run or how we swim? In the same way, we cannot determine the ways of an upper being through what may be a limited window into the timeframe of their existence.

And if you were Christian, you'd know that they believe that their God is, through the Trinity, three parts of the same God. So no, under their beliefs, it doesn't contradict itself.
To answer the question at the bottom of my post, that would be Deck Knight.
I am just going to say that every religion has to start from somewhere, one or a group of people. In order to be accepted as a respected member of society, they must uphold the rules and carry the values of said society. Thus, by creating these holy books, the writers must have still worried about conforming to society, as their main goal of writing the book was to spread their religion. People are less apt to embrace the non-mainstream ideas due to how they conflict with currently held values. Since the books have become massive hits worldwide, they must retain some of the values of what was mainstream society. That is, no one would have accepted holy books unless they conformed with early society. Since society at that time was less forgiving towards women and their ability to live a life similar to a man's (which was considered to be the benchmark), the Qu'ran/Bible/Jewish version of this were changed in order to make them sucessful. The entire truth cannot be preserved because if it is what our society has come to (from a racism/womens rights standpoint alone), then the holy books would never have been adopted.

In a nutshell, in many cases there is religion in politics- in even more, there is politics in religion.

And Arcaseven, on paper and in theory are pretty much the same thing.

As for the original topic, I don't agree with the condescending view towards any established religion. If RobertM managed to establish his religion, I'd applaud his attempt. But in no way is Christianity > Islam or vice versa. There are people who, quite frankly, act like dicks on both sides. This doesn't apply to the vast majority of either. The attention-whores of one religion give the other 99% of the religion a bad name. Now who are the terrorists on the Christian side? I'll leave that for you to figure out. :)

 

[Bozo]

I want my tonsils removed because they inconvienence me by giving me a sore throat.
I want this zygote removed because it inconveniences me by ruining the next 18 years of my life.
What's the difference here?

is that a sick joke? or an attempt at irony?

or are you seriously saying that an unborn baby is to be considered the equal of a cancer which must be removed?

man....... feel free to have your views, but think up a better way to let yourself sleep at night.......

 

[Blln]

is that a sick joke? or an attempt at irony?

or are you seriously saying that an unborn baby is to be considered the equal of a cancer which must be removed?

man....... feel free to have your views, but think up a better way to let yourself sleep at night.......

It is really not that far from the truth, and sorry if that disturbs your sleep, but fetuses are not conscience, and they are not in any strict sense "alive" Most of the anti-abortion argument in general seems to be about preserving some people's ability to "sleep at night." =/

Anyway, I agree that it is really terrible that Muslims have to put up with so much unwarranted hate in America. The extremists who make up terrorist organizations are so so SO in the extreme extreme minority. In the end it really comes down to Americans believing that what they believe is unquestionably and indisputably the best, and that anything else is wrong and threatening. But then again I don't really know what religious Americans really believe, being 150% atheist myself.

My loophole is that I view Scientology as a cult rather than a religion, not to offend anyone who has taken a liking to it or even follows it.

Hmmm, that really is an interesting loophole. What if I were to tell you that I view Christianity as a cult rather than a religion? How is that any different? As far as I know, neither is any closer to being remotely proven whatsoever, so what is the big difference here. Is it because more people believe in Christianity than Scientology? And what difference does that make, really? When you get down to it, why is Christianity any less silly than Scientology, or any other belief at all for that matter. I personally believe that some giant entity sneezed out the universe a billion years ago. There isn't really any proof or anything, but something tells me that's just the way it happened, and hey, it makes about as much and has about as much evidence behind it as any other religion, so who's to say I'm wrong?

 

[umbarsc]

What forces people follow rational beliefs? So they believe an all-powerful being created everything, so what? As long as they're not trying to cram it down your throat (in other words, as long as they're not Fundamentalist Christians), and as long as they don't act in any negative, irrational way, what's the harm in them believing in what can't be explained? Irrational maybe, but silly? That's a really negative connotation.

Also, about

In the end it really comes down to Americans believing that what they believe is unquestionably and indisputably the best, and that anything else is wrong and threatening.

How is that any less stereotyping or discriminating than the belief that all Muslims are terrorists?

 

[Blln]

What forces people follow rational beliefs? So they believe an all-powerful being created everything, so what? As long as they're not trying to cram it down your throat (in other words, as long as they're not Fundamentalist Christians), and as long as they don't act in any negative, irrational way, what's the harm in them believing in what can't be explained? Irrational maybe, but silly? That's a really negative connotation.

Well it does become a problem when the Fundamental Christians you mentioned actually have sway in American politics, so much that in some states, in science classes, evolution must be taught as "just one possible theory" and then creationism taught as "an equally plausible theory", which I have a serious problem with. Otherwise, yeah, I agree that if people want to believe something, they should have the full right to believe it.

And I don't think silly is at all the wrong choice of words. I would venture a guess that most people would view my sneezing God universe as "silly", but I fail to see what makes it any less credible than any other organized religion.

But again, if people want to believe something, that's competely fine with me, they can do whatever they want and who am I to tell them what to do, people should do whatever makes them happy. I'm just trying to give my personal opinion.

How is that any less stereotyping or discriminating than the belief that all Muslims are terrorists?

ok, well I will happily amend my statement to "SOME Americans believing what they believe is unquestionably best". I obviously don't believe that all, or even close to most Americans (I myself being an American) see Muslims as threatening.

 

[Altmer]

I like Deck Knight because his opinions are so lol it makes me crack up with the idea of "hahaha you're a retard anytime"

I think we should judge people on their individual qualities and not to which fictional mythology they profess to.

 

[Tangerine]

I believe Deck Knight and akuchi's behavior in this topic answers the OP's question adequately.

Okay, and nearly everyone who got involved with this argument too.

Oh, and "John 14:6-7" should be a factor too.

Have an amazing day

Edit: also I never knew people could have such interesting interpretations of the Bible - akuchi's interpretation of that Deuteronomy passage is almost as good as the Futurist interpretation of the book of revelations

 

[RobertM]

Is it because more people believe in Christianity than Scientology?

Wrong. Christianity (attempts) to teach morality and the catholic church does alot of charitable things. Extremist Christians cause issues. In Scientology they teach "give us money" and "you're better than non-scientologists. Act as such". Go ask a scientologist about Xenu. He won't respond. Go ask a christian about Jesus. He'll answer.

I despise religion because of the way it divides people. I despise scientology especially because of the immoral things it preaches.

or are you seriously saying that an unborn baby is to be considered the equal of a cancer which must be removed?

No, I'm saying it's like your tonsils or appendix. It can be removed with no harm done if you so desire. (Technically its more like a parasite but saying that will get me nowhere)

 

[akuchi]

I'm sorry, feel free to offer an alternate interpretation if you wish.. admittedly it could be 'if they fuck before marriage then as long as he marries her it's all good'.. but it specifically states 'rape'.

It's all to do with this ridiculous obsession with female virginity. Stupid stupid.

 

[cyberzero]

Tangerine, I have reread both of their posts, and I'm sorry but I don't really understand what you have meant by the OP being answered adequately.
I must also commend Kingdrom on his in-depth and unbiased commentary on this topic.

 

[thecrazylazyguy]

Well as it was explained to me by someone who knows ancient greek. There basically were no other words for a young female in ancient greek besides the word we translated to virgin.

 

[RobertM]

They don't have the words female, woman, or girl in greek? No way.

 

[akuchi]

If that's the case, how do you know Mary was a virgin and not just a young woman?

 

[Trax]

Is it me or does Deck Knight post a hell of a lot of walls of text with zero substance and some generic insults aimed at groups that aren't in his own..

 

[Iraff]

Is it me or does Deck Knight post a hell of a lot of walls of text with zero substance and some generic insults aimed at groups that aren't in his own..

No, every group that he isn't a part of is wrong. Duh?

 

[Zathura]

in deck knight's defense, I thought his commentary on islam was excellent

Judges 21:10-24 NLT
So they sent twelve thousand warriors to Jabesh-gilead with orders to kill everyone there, including women and children. "This is what you are to do," they said. "Completely destroy all the males and every woman who is not a virgin." Among the residents of Jabesh-gilead they found four hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.
The Israelite assembly sent a peace delegation to the little remnant of Benjamin who were living at the rock of Rimmon. Then the men of Benjamin returned to their homes, and the four hundred women of Jabesh-gilead who were spared were given to them as wives. But there were not enough women for all of them. The people felt sorry for Benjamin because the LORD had left this gap in the tribes of Israel. So the Israelite leaders asked, "How can we find wives for the few who remain, since all the women of the tribe of Benjamin are dead? There must be heirs for the survivors so that an entire tribe of Israel will not be lost forever. But we cannot give them our own daughters in marriage because we have sworn with a solemn oath that anyone who does this will fall under God's curse."
Then they thought of the annual festival of the LORD held in Shiloh, between Lebonah and Bethel, along the east side of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem. They told the men of Benjamin who still needed wives, "Go and hide in the vineyards. When the women of Shiloh come out for their dances, rush out from the vineyards, and each of you can take one of them home to be your wife! And when their fathers and brothers come to us in protest, we will tell them, 'Please be understanding. Let them have your daughters, for we didn't find enough wives for them when we destroyed Jabesh-gilead. And you are not guilty of breaking the vow since you did not give your daughters in marriage to them.'" So the men of Benjamin did as they were told. They kidnapped the women who took part in the celebration and carried them off to the land of their own inheritance. Then they rebuilt their towns and lived in them. So the assembly of Israel departed by tribes and families, and they returned to their own homes.

yeah, the bible condones rape.
personally, I'm against all sorts of conpensatory programs (affirmative action, verious permutations of the equal rights amendment) but i suspect that's more out of selfishness and jealousy than anythign else. asians get cut out of everything :P

 

[Tangerine]

Tangerine, I have reread both of their posts, and I'm sorry but I don't really understand what you have meant by the OP being answered adequately.
I must also commend Kingdrom on his in-depth and unbiased commentary on this topic.

They both think they are right and would be unswayed even at gunpoint