..so you think Moslems and Christians have nothing in common?

[OmahaBlueDog]

"I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. "
Matthew 19:16-26

"To those who reject Our signs and treat them with arrogance, no opening will there be of the gates of heaven, nor will they enter the garden, until the camel can pass through the eye of the needle: Such is Our reward for those in sin."
Al-Araf 7:40


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_a_needle

[flvegan]

1. Most "religions" share the same sort of premise. It's how believers view them

carry them out, etc. Most are based on the follower lacking selfishness and ego. That's where the disconnect to the teachings begin.

I wrote a paper in college for a class on religion that touched on this. The professor handed it back to me and asked me to rewrite it because she didn't understand it. After a 2 hour discussion on it, I got an A. Yay, me.

[OmahaBlueDog]

6. Yay you.

It always strikes me as odd that those claiming to follow Jesus most devoutly seem to always be the ones complaining that their overtaxed, and that "God wants us to be rich."

[Cronus Protagonist]

2. They both opress gay people and people of other religions

That's something I know a lot about.

[1badjedi]

3. They can both kill

for their beliefs as well. Just sayin'.

[AnArmyVeteran]

5. But Christians have killed millions more in the name of their 'god' than Muslims have.

[Cronus Protagonist]

7. They're sure trying hard to catch up.

A little while back they killed some 16 year old boys for loving each other.

[AnArmyVeteran]

16. Religious laws are primitive & brutal, yet religions keep wanting to hurt more & more people.

I should add that I'm specifically talking about fundamentalists of any religion. They are a danger to society. We have millions right here in this country who love fanatics like Beck, Angle and the rest of the insane Christian right.

[1badjedi]

13. I would never argue that point.

I just pointed out that both are unstable at times.

FWIW I am not religious at all. I find religion a fools game and I choose not to play. I understand right and wrong from trial and error.

[OmahaBlueDog]

9. True..on the other hand, so did the Soviets

...and they were ostensibly atheists. Go figure?

[Cronus Protagonist]

11. Totalitarianism is not a religion

However, the evil will use any excuse, and there's no greater excuse for hatred, bigotry, genocide and mutilation than religion.

[MadHound]

4. Actually the Arbrahmic religions are one of the largest theological ironies going,

So much in common with each other, yet at each other's throats so much.

Same basic godhead, such a large difference in interpretations.

[johnaries]

8. I see little difference between the two.

I've always said that the world would be a lot different if we could see the "similarities" between cultures as strongly as we see the "differences".

[Marr]

10. To an atheist, they seem almost identical.

Well, they do to me, at least. I spent some time Ireland in the 90's and was always amazed at the hard feelings between Catholics and Protestants there. I know you could say it's rooted in a lot more than just religious differences now, but simple in-group/out-group thinking seemed, to me, to be the real center of it. These people are practically identical and here they are, demonizing each another. It's a pathetic window onto humanity's most embarrassing trait.

[handmade34]

12. same geographic area

Muhammad studied Jesus, Moses, Abraham and acknowledged their teachings

really all the same, just different politics

[chollybocker]

14. Yes, they're the same because they're both mythology.

Next.

[smalll]

15. Mohammed's family was a town-based trading family -- when trade throughout the Arabian penninsula

was heavy.

He was very much aware of Judaism and Christianity. So he put some of it in the Koran. Rather like Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, who grew up in the "burned over district" in upstate NY - so-called because of the waves of various evangelists that travelled back and forth across the area sparking revivals.

And, like Joseph Smith (or L. Ron Hubbard) Mohammed wrote his own book. No religion is perfect. But let me put it this way -- it turns out better if your religion's scriptures end up getting written by various sources and then a canon is put together "by committee" later on, such as was the case with Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism. When one man alone gets to found his own religion and die surrounded by followers, well ... absolute power corrupts absolutely. Sure, there's some good stuff in the Koran. But pound for pound, measure for measure, there's a whole heap more bad stuff than there is in the New Testament.