[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by ClockWorkAngel

@Anh_Minh

We always "laughed" at Buddhism because Chinese Buddhism never occured to us as religious because if you knew anything about it you'd realize that they objectively speaking there is no great worship of a spiritual being (Other than Buddah, whom was an actual guy, but really didn't do much to spread his "religion") Please, whatever you may do, do not try to take out a piece of my sentence in the intent to critize that single part and not at my whole argument, you clearly haven't read through it fully and only seem to enjoy responding to things that jump at you.

Just because I read it fully doesn't mean I have to approve of it. And as a matter of fact, I don't particularly care what you think of Buddhism. I'm just pointing out that if you really intend to avoid being offensive, saying you laugh at people's beliefs is a bad idea. And saying it's not a religion? That's not good either. I mean, I'm not a Buddhist, so I don't care. But if someone were to be a Buddhist, and consider it his religion rather than just his philosophy, well, I can see why he'd be offended.

And how is that criminal? Making a child believe in exactely what you believe in because you think its right, giving them no alternative and forcing them to believe in that thing without a full knowledge and understanding of it. How is that criminal?

Try to see it from their point of view. It's not just "what they believe" to them. It's "what's true". Like "if you go out improperly clothed when it's cold, you'll catch a cold". Teaching kids to say their prayers is like teaching them to eat their greens or look both ways before they cross the street. Only instead of teaching them to avoid diabetes or getting run over by a car, they teach them to avoid the excruciating flames of hell.

If anything trying to brainwash them without their consent is criminal, by your arguemnt you'd be legitamizing parents teaching their kids to be racist, intolerant, violent, or other nasty things; because they believe in those things. How is that anyway to raise children?

I support parents doing their best for their children. I support parents teaching their progeny about the world as well as they can. Of course, it'd be good if all parents were tolerant and rational, and taught that to their kids. It'd be even better if they could impart them with an open mind and critical thinking skills. But if the best they can be as human beings and parents is racist bigots, and they teach their kids to be the same, well, that's unfortunate. That's where society will have to pick up the slack and try to teach their children better. But I can at least acknowledge that they honestly tried to teach their children about the world.

I was being very objective, I've been doing alot of arguments and believe me I have many reasons to put down religion as a whole, but I'm not going to.

No, if you're not going to post those arguments, I really don't have to take you at your word.

I'm not going to try offend people because really, your beliefs are none of my business. But I've always held firm that every person has a right to their own beliefs and its unfair to children to influence them and in the same way block out other influences.

Influencing the children you raise isn't unfair, it's an inevitability. Admittedly, you don't have to drag them to church with you, but not doing so may requires some distance from your own beliefs. It's not something that's particularly common.

And if you read the remainder of my fulfillment thing, I included that other people may gain the fulfillment from a religion which I don't happen to get. Soo good for them.

You don't get it. The problem, if you can call it that, is that "I find the belief in X fulfilling, so I believe X" is the kind of argument religious people use. As if being warm and fuzzy was any kind of proof.

Please, before you go trying to pick out my message of tolerance can you atleast also try to stay objective, or atleast read the whole argument?

And how, exactly, was I not objective?

And by the way, saying that "objectively", you have many reasons - that you're not even going to expose - to look down on religions, but that you're nice enough not to care isn't being tolerant. It's being condescending.