To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (510 ) 3/1/2002 1:12:17 PM From: one_less Read Replies (2) | Respond to I never said there were no differences. I asked you to ponder the concept of similarity. Which you've yet to do. Reacting from the security of pat challenges is understandable if you don't want to discuss the premise I presented (remember triangulation). I understand your reaction and have thought through all of those questions many times. If you really want me too I will take a stab at them but this is a distraction and irrelevant to what I proposed as a discussion topic. I am not a religious scholar for any religion let alone for all of them."Oh yeah, about that single god: Do Christians get into Muslim Heaven?" Yes, according to the Quran there are provisions for that. But I am not the judge so a discussion about who or under what circumstances just invites unnecessary contention."Or Muslims into Christian Heaven?" "If so, why are they distinct and why is each group so insistent on the beliefs and practices of its group? And so insistent that the others are wrong?" Differences in individuals allow us to identify each other and make distinctions, same with groups and nations. The members of religions that have been authorized by God are understandably bound to follow the guidelines presented by the messengers and profits of their group. The Quran says that there is no way for us in human form to understand the reasons for the differences and that any debate or contention over the differences will lead to destructiveness, so we are forbidden to debate the differences as far as one being good in comparison to the other being bad. It appears from your comments that you would agree. "And what of Judaism? There is no Heaven in it." Are you sure about that?"And in Buddhism, well, if you come back and tell your teacher you found a god in it, he's going to tell you to go back and try again, you lost your way."
