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Name: Yee
Country: United States
State: Washington
Metro: Seattle
Interests: Music. Church. Sports. Exercise. Travel. Eating. Sleeping. Movies.
Expertise: Eating and Sleeping.
Occupation: Engineering
Industry: Engineering
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
12/31/2005
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| Reading Your Bible.
Many Christians claim to have read the Bible many many times from beginning to end, and many Muslims make it their goal to recite the Koran. But how many Christians can claim to have read the Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, Buddhism, and other religious books too? How many Muslims can claim to have read the Bible? Why do we confine ourselves to only study our own book? Are we better off also having read the other books? If for our whole life, all we read is the Bible over and over and over again, how much more do we gain? We see life from one perspective. There's nothing wrong with reading the Bible many times, but we should also be well-read on other beliefs too.
I would challenge all Christians to also read the Koran and the Book of Mormon and make a judgement. And I would challenge Muslims and Mormons alike too. Then, we can appreciate each other's differences more.
When we know more about each other's beliefs, I hope we can get along better too. Sometimes, we make judgement on other religions without knowing much about the basis of their beliefs and traditions. Maybe we can even learn or gain something from this experience. We can learn to respect each other, and love each other more.
This idea that mine is better than yours without me knowing what yours is is a sort of childish behavior. We should take it upon ourselves to education ourselves on other other beliefs. Maybe then, we can truly appreciate the differences among us.
We should have no ill-will against anyone, regardless of faith or belief. If it makes you a good person and you are able to respect and love those around you regardless of their background, then it must be good. Remember the good Samaritan? Who is your brother? | | |
| Religious Brainwashing?
While I was touring Asia, I got my first look at Buddhism, especially in Thailand, where a temple exists in every neighborhood. The bigger the temple, the richer the neighborhood. There are also buddha statues everywhere, for sale, in temples, in homes, on the streets, EVERYWHERE.
My first impression is that they make statues of this Buddha, which may not even resemble the true Buddha's figure. Is it for worship or for luck? These people are making statues of a person they worship or highly respect, and are making statues which may not even resemble the guy! How could they do such a thing? What if Buddha is watching from in Heaven? He may even be worried that he's made out to be this fat, bald fellow. Is Buddha really fat and bald? Did he want people to worship him this way? Is this what he wanted his legacy to be like? Or did he just want to be a teacher to help people live better lives?
Hmmm... then I start applying the same principles to Christianity and Jesus. There have been no real illustration of what Jesus looked like. Seems like everyone is trying to make Jesus look like themselves, or their own people. The Westernized Jesus is white, long blonde hair, tall, good build, blue eyes, and an attractive mustach and beard. This is the most popular picture of Jesus since it is very appealing to Europeans at that time. Most people in Israel at that time do not look like this at all. Yet, this is the image most of us get when we think of Jesus.
Are we brainwashed into thinking this way? Is there a way we can escape from this? What would Jesus think about his looks? Jesus is black, Indian, white, Asian, depending on who you talk to. Does he care at all how we think he looks like? Is it important to have an image of Jesus in order to understand who he is?
What if Jesus looked different? Would we still have the same attraction toward him?
I can think for myself, and do not want the image that society has put into my head. Should we stop teaching the children this 'westernized' picture of Jesus who is shepherding lambs on green pastures? Jesus isn't a shepherd by trade at all. By putting pictures in kids heads, we are in a way polluting their minds. If you ask kids what Jesus did for a living, they would say that Jesus is a shepherd. Or, if you give kids several photos of different Jesus face, they would pick out the westernized Jesus because that's what we are feeding their head.
Is this good? I don't know. Could this be a church-motivated thing? I won't answer that.
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| I listen to the Christian music station while in the car. I remember this jobless single mom called in and explained her situation. Seems like they call in a lot because they need help and peace of mind. She needed someone to pray for her. The DJ prayed for her on the radio. It was all nice and good, but the fact is we are leaving it up to God. "God, please help this woman. Bring people into her life who can help her find a job. I can't do much for her. So I'll just pray for her. I hope she feels better after that. Aw, I feel like a good Christian already now that I prayed." Well, a prayer is better than nothing, right? I guess in these difficult times, that is all we can give. "My good Christian sister, let me pray for you, and I hope that good things will come your way."
Do you ever get the feeling when you listen to someone pray, that their prayers are empty. "Dear Heavenly Father, I want to pray for so and so, and please heal so and so, and help so and so with their homework and tests, and give peace to so and so, and give wisdom to so and so, and forgive so and so for so and so. And by the way, I am very busy, so I can't do much to help them, OK? So forgive me too. Amen." Well, I am not accusing anyone. I'm just reflecting from my own experience.
Often when we pray, we forget what a real prayer is. We say words, and hope God is listening. Sure, God can hear you. But is he really paying attention to you? If your heart is not in it, is he really paying attention? If you are not really sincere, is God paying attention? How do you let God know that you are praying from the heart? Take some ACTION. Prayers are nice, but we can surely do more than just talk. Do we use prayer as an excuse for inaction? What is our real motive? That's something we can't hide from God.
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| Well, for some time now, I've been thinking a lot about faith and religion. It wasn't as interesting when I was younger but now it's something that's on my mind quite often. Most of my thoughts are not connected, so bear with me.
So, to start off the new year, I decided to do some research on other religions. I started with Mormonism. There's a Mormon church in my small town of Carnation, and so I knew some Mormon kids in my school. There are a lot of information on the internet. There are a lot of different opinions too depending on which website you visit. It is fascinating how different kinds of people can believe in different religions. We all have a right to believe what we want. I ordered a free Mormon book from the internet. I also ordered a free Koran too. If the books weren't free, I probably wouldn't buy them. I think it'll be interesting reading though.
Somehow, I've managed to dive into the Christian faith. At first, I thought Christianity is the easiest religion. Why? There really aren't any tough requirements to be a Christian. Just say that Jesus is your Savior and you believe in Jesus and God and that Jesus died and was resurrected and be baptized and go to church once a while and have a Bible at home and read the Bible once in a while and pray once in a while when something bad happens to you and give money when you feel like it. So easy, anyone can do it. If you look at other religions, there are strict requirements on diet, prayer, giving money, fasting, etc. Oooh, these are too tough for me to accept, I'll take the easy road, Christianity. But is Christianity really that easy to follow?
I think Christianity is misunderstood. To be a true Christian who is really walking in faith with God takes a lot of faith and hard work. See, God, who created us, loves us very much, like a father loves his own children. A father doesn't require his child to do certain things to receive his love or he'll disown the child. A father gives guidelines and rules and hopes the children will follow. Once the child realizes the father-child relationship is a healthy and rewarding one, the child will have joy in following the father's rules. I think that is what makes Christianity attractive. Not only that, but once you feel God's love, you will believe that this is the true faith. A faith built on love and relationship. I'm not there yet.
About Islam... Recently, during the Hajj, many people were trampled and killed during the stoning of the pillar ritual. We hear this over the media and we think Muslims are unruly and violent people. But they are not. The images of violent terrorists with their guns taking innocent people hostages also skew my image of their religion. We shouldn't base our opinions on these short snipets of data fed to us by the mass media. The media wants us to see what they want, which usually isn't the right picture.
For someone to leave the comfort of their home and join millions of others who believe in the same religion takes some amount of faith. Especially, when they go to a desert country like Saudi Arabia. If Christianity required all Christians to visit Jerusalem once in their lifetime, wouldn't that be something to see? If Christians prayed 5 times a day, wouldn't that be something? There are five Pillars of Islam which is required for them to achieve salvation. The Hajj, Faith, Prayer (5 times a day), Zakat (giving to the poor, commonly 2.5% of income), and fasting during Ramadan. Is it good to impose requirements for salvation? What about Christianity? Christians must accept Jesus as their Savior. Are there any other requirements?
I would like to put myself on the 'other' side. How do Christians appear to Muslims? Are Christians invasive to their culture? Christians are trying to convert their people. How would Christians feel if Muslims came and tried to convert Christians? What if the Saudis refused to sell us oil unless the US converted to Islam? Just a thought. To most, oil seems more important than God... why not? What if one day, the Muslim nations became the world superpowers and the US and European countries are left in the dark ages because they don't have fuel or electricity? Wouldn't we all be at the mercy of their god Allah? Then, they start sending their missionaries to the Christian nations and converting us all. Wouldn't that be something? Well, maybe they don't want to share their religion with the infidels because we are not worthy in the first place. Who knows?
What qualities make a religion a true religion? A true religion stands the test of time. A true religion remains strong through scientific findings about the physical world and the spiritual world. Has Christianity changed over the years? Has the view of God changed for Christians over the years? A God who is jealous, quick to punish, and strict, changes to a God who is loving and forgiving. Why the turnaround? Is success a good measure for a religion's authenticity? Is a religion's success measured by how fast it grows or by numbers of believers? If one day, a religion dies off, does that mean it not the true one?
Can it be then that a successful religion should be able to adapt to the changing times in order to steer the people in the right direction? What is religion's purpose? Is the purpose to keep the society from being corrupt? As society changes, so the rules of religion change? Or are the laws of religion constant and steadfast in times of societal changes? Is that why some religions die off while new ones overtake the old religions? Is it because the old religions can't change fast enough to the everchanging needs of society? Is that why Christianity is in such a state of flux nowadays? Is the Christian world facing a crisis or crises? I think there is a silent fear among church leaders that this is going on and they are struggling how to react in the right way to keep the church from falling apart. Let's get more Christian rock music on the air! Let's get more TV evangelism. That'll do it. Let's build bigger and bigger churchs.
Hmmm... am I going a little to far here? | | |
| I guess this is a new year, so I decided to let people look inside my head and see all the confusion and frustration. It's not easy being me. | | |
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