Inter-Religion not Inter-Faith

R

Ramaraksha

Guest
To me, the word Inter-Faith is a misnomer similar to saying your God and my God. There can be only one God, and the same way there can be only one Faith.

When man first looked up to the heavens and thought about God, giving him/her a name using their local language, Faith was born. Later this faith has degenerated into various religions, some claiming that only their version of God is the true one.
 
Good point.
Maybe inter-speculation, inter-ideology or inter-theory would be good too.
 
Indeed - a different worth stating, though, is that religion as a term tends to explicitly refer to organised forms of belief, whereas there are many forms of faith that remain personal or otherwise not organised, that would not easily fall under a "religion" banner.
 
Ramaraksha said:
To me, the word Inter-Faith is a misnomer similar to saying your God and my God. There can be only one God, and the same way there can be only one Faith.

When man first looked up to the heavens and thought about God, giving him/her a name using their local language, Faith was born. Later this faith has degenerated into various religions, some claiming that only their version of God is the true one.
Click to expand...
Namaste Ramaraksha,

That may be your belief and mine, but that is apparently not the belief of all. We have many multiple religions all of which have spent millions of dollars and centuries working to define their differences from the other religions, despite our ability to see beyond their respective curtains.

And welcome to the board!
 
so what's your point then, ramaraksha? that individual religions are bad and we should all just chuck our particular heritages and approaches away and join a sort of european union of faith?

i believe the phrase is "tchah!"

b'shalom

bananabrain
 
A matter of symantics, really. I don't think there is anyone who comes here that will not know the intended meaning of "interfaith" as applied to this board. Brian has already changed the forum name once, I don't think he's keen on doing it again.
 
Ramaraksha, thanks for the post and this interesting thread.
Ramaraksha said:
When man first looked up to the heavens and thought about God, giving him/her a name using their local language, Faith was born. Later this faith has degenerated into various religions, some claiming that only their version of God is the true one.
Click to expand...
Some Christian believers are hostile to this theme, so what is the plan? You have not said how to make headway with this inter-religion idea. Fail to plan is plan to fail. If all religions came, as you say, from different people looking at the same sky, then I see only two approaches to a Christian's mind on the subject. Either we study the origins of the religions showing the commonality, or we try to agree that everybody has the same G-d through other means. Perhaps through ecumenical attempts.

The first approach may be destructive to some Christians, because Christians generally do not believe our religion came from looking at the sky, but that it is no mere religion and is better than religions. If it came from looking at the sky, then.... The second approach, ecumenical attempts, may suppress free thinking.

1. What is the benefit to the Christian in seeing the equality of the other religions? 2. Do you think Christianity has the self esteem to take such a step? (Assuming you are right about this whole sky business)
 
Dream said:
1. What is the benefit to the Christian in seeing the equality of the other religions? 2. Do you think Christianity has the self esteem to take such a step? (Assuming you are right about this whole sky business)
Click to expand...

1. Love your neighbor as yourself.
2. I think Christ would, and many Christians do, whether Christianity does or not is a matter of self preservation.
 
Thanks for the thoughts and clarifications.

BB said:
"tchah!" is not hebrew or yiddish. i don't do yiddish. it's an onomatopoeic expression. you know, like "harrumph"?
Click to expand...
Oh yeah like on Doonesbury when they say 'Tch'.

wil said:
1. Love your neighbor as yourself.
2. I think Christ would, and many Christians do, whether Christianity does or not is a matter of self preservation.
Click to expand...
I agree that is what Christianity ought to do under Ramaraksha's circumstances. I think that Jesus would agree that Christianity as it is now is equal to Islam, Buddhism, wicca, etc.

Oppositely, I don't think the tradition is under threat or has to worry about self preservation. You don't have to explain why you think its a matter of self preservation, but Christianity is huge and older than it is huge. Its never going to just stop and die. A lot of moms depend on it, and a lot of children pray for it.

In case the thread end here, thanks for that input. The 'love your neighbor' part was the most important point.
 
Ramaraksha said:
To me, the word Inter-Faith is a misnomer similar to saying your God and my God. There can be only one God, and the same way there can be only one Faith.

When man first looked up to the heavens and thought about God, giving him/her a name using their local language, Faith was born. Later this faith has degenerated into various religions, some claiming that only their version of God is the true one.
Click to expand...

Could you explain how this would apply to pantheistic faiths??

For example, in Britain, before Christianity became all the rage, there was paganism. Or does this statement only apply to monotheistic??
 
Hi everybody!

Many Buddhists say that Buddhism is not a religion, so the term inter-religion would not work for them. (The term inter-faith would not work for them either.) I say that I have a "belief system." Perhaps we should call this Forum by the name of inter-belief-system.org...?
 
Nick the Pilot said:
Hi everybody!

Many Buddhists say that Buddhism is not a religion, so the term inter-religion would not work for them. (The term inter-faith would not work for them either.) I say that I have a "belief system." Perhaps we should call this Forum by the name of inter-belief-system.org...?
Click to expand...
Too good if you ask me. I think we shouldn't take ourselves so seriously. Maybe we ought to build in errors when we talk about interfaith just so people don't start thinking we are some kind of interfaith standard. If the Buddhists cannot be happy & start to complain about the word 'Interfaith', then we must be sure that the new word is at least as faulty in some other way. As it is, the Buddhists are honored by ignoring the insult.
 
Buddhists complaining about the name...I doubt it...if they do, I'd tell them just to suffer it.

Yeah Brian, take all this advice, lets rename the place theinmatesarerunningtheforumandwe'llchangeitdailytosatisfythewhimsofallregardlessofcolorcreedreligionfaithbeliefexceptforthosedarnvocalgayswhoaregoingtohellanyway.org
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top