Are many people only focusing on the "negative" in religions?

[Deeje]

Yes, who has it right? Christians tell they are right. Baha'is tell me they are. And they all hate all the "negativity" when people don't believe what they say.

To me John 6:65 tells me that it isn't up to us.....God is the one who will draw the right kind of people to his son. They will be just like the Jews in the first century, ostracized and condemned for daring to question the adopted doctrines and traditions of the Jewish leaders. (Matthew 15:7-9)

To me the 'wheat' have some outstanding qualities that stand in direct contrast to the churches....

1) They are 'peacemakers', as Jesus said. (Matthew 5:9) A 'peacemaker' is not a 'peacekeeper' because that kind of 'peace' comes with the treat of a weapon.....a true peacemaker is one who cannot be drawn into conflict under any circumstances. There will never be blood on their hands. (Isaiah 1:15) They will take a bullet for someone, but will never fire one.

2) They will obey God's laws and the teachings of his Christ....all of them. Most will pick and choose only what they find convenient or expedient. The cramped and narrow road is not easy. (Matthew 7:13-14)

3) They will not compromise on their tenets of faith, even under threat of death. (Matthew 10:38-39)

4) They will not adopt false religious beliefs or celebrations that were previously held in honor of false gods. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

5) They will value marriage and family as these were instituted by God and were not negotiable. (Matthew 19:5-6)

6) God's moral laws will never be compromised just because the laws of the land may change to reflect a shift in community values. (Romans 1:26-27)

7) They will never curry 'friendship with the world' in order to benefit from that friendship. (James 4:4)

That small list rules out the vast majority of Christendom's churches IMO. That should narrow it down some.....

 

[osgart]

I have nothing against religious people except for soul judging fundamentalists.

The more religions I see, I can't help but dismiss them as myth sold as literal events.

Concepts I find interesting and worthwhile are things from Buddha, the idea of Dharma, and Brahman.

 

[night912]

Not directed at you by how can a non believer know what is right or wrong understanding of a spiritual teaching without any form of understanding them self of the teaching?

To truly understand the teaching on a deeper lever takes years of daily practice, not something a non practitioner do. Can you answer that?

Years of daily practice, so the understanding is there.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

Yes, who has it right? Christians tell they are right. Baha'is tell me they are. And they all hate all the "negativity" when people don't believe what they say.

I see the choice is entirely yours CG.

Regards Tony

 

[Augustus]

But I doubt people in Nigeria, and earlier in the west also, would be burning "witches" if they didn't have a book perceived as an authority that told them they should burn "witches". Or that witches are even a thing to begin with.

Of course they would have, and very much did. Fear of black magic was present in basically every pre-modern human society.

Christianity was actually an obstacle for the 'traditional' persecution of 'witches' for much of its history (obviously not all though).

Belief in witchcraft has been shown to have similarities in societies throughout the world. It presents a framework to explain the occurrence of otherwise random misfortunes such as sickness or death, and the witch sorcerer provides an image of evil.[5] Reports on indigenous practices in the Americas, Asia and Africa collected during the early modern age of exploration have been taken to suggest that not just the belief in witchcraft but also the periodic outbreak of witch-hunts are a human cultural universal...


The general desire of the Catholic Church's clergy to check fanaticism about witchcraft and necromancy is shown in the decrees of the Council of Paderborn, which, in 785 AD, explicitly outlawed condemning people as witches and condemned to death anyone who burnt a witch. The Lombard code of 643 AD states:

Let nobody presume to kill a foreign serving maid or female servant as a witch, for it is not possible, nor ought to be believed by Christian minds.[23]

This conforms to the teachings of the Canon Episcopi of circa 900 AD (alleged to date from 314 AD), which, stated that witchcraft did not exist and that to teach that it was a reality was, itself, false and heterodox teaching. Other examples include an Irish synod in 800 AD,[24] and a sermon by Agobard of Lyons (810 AD).

King Kálmán (Coloman) of Hungary, in Decree 57 of his First Legislative Book (published in 1100), banned witch-hunting because he said, "witches do not exist".[26][27] The "Decretum" of Burchard, Bishop of Worms (about 1020), and especially its 19th book, often known separately as the "Corrector", is another work of great importance. Burchard was writing against the superstitious belief in magical potions, for instance, that may produce impotence or abortion. These were also condemned by several Church Fathers.[28] But he altogether rejected the possibility of many of the alleged powers with which witches were popularly credited. Such, for example, were nocturnal riding through the air, the changing of a person's disposition from love to hate, the control of thunder, rain, and sunshine, the transformation of a man into an animal, the intercourse of incubi and succubi with human beings and other such superstitions. Not only the attempt to practice such things, but the very belief in their possibility, is treated by Burchard as false and superstitious.

Pope Gregory VII, in 1080, wrote to King Harald III of Denmark forbidding witches to be put to death upon presumption of their having caused storms or failure of crops or pestilence. Neither were these the only examples of an effort to prevent unjust suspicion to which such poor creatures might be exposed.[c] On many occasions, ecclesiastics who spoke with authority did their best to disabuse the people of their superstitious belief in witchcraft.[30][31] A comparable situation in Russia is suggested in a sermon by Serapion of Vladimir (written in 1274~1275), where the popular superstition of witches causing crop failures is denounced.[d]

Witch-hunt - Wikipedia

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

Of course they would have, and very much did. Fear of black magic was present in basically every pre-modern human society.

Black magic, witchcraft, sorcery, whatever you wish to call it.
It's faith based superstitious mumbo jumbo.

You're actually making my point.

 

[tayla]

In discussion we often find people only focusing on what they feel or think is "negative" of any religion or spiritual teaching.

I prefer to first focus on the question of whether or not the claims are true. I don't consider this to be negative. Anytime someone tells me something or I read something in the news, I first want to validate it's truth. Why believe and act on something untrue?