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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (188431)	6/5/2006 5:52:33 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Not really. You may not know this, but I am a Buddhist. I consider Buddhism to be the most pacifist and the most logical of religions. I also think it is one of humanity's best hopes. I wrote a blurb about why Buddhism is so different here Message 20768835 if you are interested. But even Buddhism has had its moments of violence by those who certainly should have known better. I've seen Israeli settlers citing the number of times "revenge" has been mentioned in Torah compared to "forgiveness" to support their insanely violent positions. And I have heard some of the most humane arguments from other Jews. Historically Jews were not "nice" people when they were in power (and this is putting it very mildly)...but you could argue that was a very long time ago and the world was a different place then...such arguments would be in my favor <vbg> Ditto for Islam. When Muhammad first started, Islam had a distinct message of live and let live. When the Muslims were forced to leave their homes and families and their possessions were confesscated and they came under boycott, the message changed. Again when Muhammad returned to Mecca in victory, he refused to settle scores and let everyone, including the murderer of his uncle go unharmed. During the Islamic conquests and in subsequent dynasties, the message kept changing accordingly. Along the same lines, Christianity has not been so peaceful either. Today Christians see their God and their religion as a forgiving loving God. But even a cursory look at its history shows that this perception has not always been true or at least has not always been fallowed. I can make the same argument for nations and civilizations. There was a time that stealing a loaf of bread would get you hung in London. I think we can agree that Britain is a much more civilized place now.