every religion has its ups and downs: christianity: go slavery, love thy neighbour. Hinduism: caste system, respect for the living world. Buddism: finding inner peace, sorry dont know enough for a negitive... each religion has its ups and downs. if man kind were to take bits and pieces from each religion, we would have a better understanding of the worlds peoples and would eventually lead better lives.

I think you have to look past the traditions and other differences between religions and look to the basic truths, ideas etc. expressed to really evaluate.

I feel that all religons (and everything)have a bit of truth in them. Put it all together, and you've got THE truth. Only problem is, we have to figure out what the bit of truth is in each one. Some have more than a bit, some a lot, some a little. But everything has at least a grain of truth. Also, anyone who practices any religon should feel free to practice their religon without feeling pressured or punished. They should not be pushed into any religon by force. After someone says no to your trying to get them into your religon, don't keep pushing. Once they say no, you're done. So I don't believe that if there is a God, or even if there isn't, that there is a hell, for God could not be mean enough, for God is all loving, to condemm ANYONE to a sentence of fiery pain and agony for eternity. Soooo this is what I think.

I dont believe that all religions are wrong.. take Buddhists for example. their religion is to stop suffering and basically find inner peace. it is possible that they believe in the same god i do, they just have a different way of getting into his good graces. It is mostly the same with other relogions also. I believe that some religions have different names for their One and Only Father.

No religion is perfect or can be perfect. Also, very few people are ever true Christians/Muslims/Pagans etc. The only thing you can do is believe in yourself and do what your heart and gut tell you. That is the foundation of true spirituality.

Religion is about worshipping God or respecting nature etc. The way people do it doesn't matter as it is just customs and traditions that each person thinks is the right way to do things. Even if there is one right religion, God can't condemn you for living the way you think is right even if that involves worshipping something completely different from what may be the truth. It's what you believe is the right way of living and as long as you don't do 'evil' He/She can't get angry about it.

Can some be right and some wrong, some yield partial truths and others none? Is the definition of what a religion is invariant, set, and well-known?

***

Were maps of the high arctic's northwest passage invariably true when explorer's filled in the gaps in there knowledge with speculation, an did partially correct maps always get people through the islands and ice successfully, or were they crushed by the abominable weight sometimes too such as were the Erebus and the H.M.S. Terror?

***

If one wants to do comparative religion surveys and not just get off easily with a summary judgment that they are all equal, with the error that a captain approaching all routes through the northwest passage might do to his mortal prospects/substitute immortal prospects for the former, it is requisite to approach the articles of faith with reason and examine the scriptures with the heart as well.

***

Buddhism is not a religion, but a philosophical and rather stoic approach to addressing life's challenges. Time has permutated its content greatly.

***

Christianity has stood the test of time, its prophetic messages fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ in part.

***

The false prophet Mohammed is a maladroit syncretism of Judaism and Christianity made into a warrior creed with more expansionist vigor than Wal-Mart or McDonalds.

***

Judaism is the record of the foundations leading to Jesus Christ, a natural branch as the Apostle Paul wrote, that must not be disrespected by those gentiles grafted on through the grace of God.

***

Hinduism has many interesting points, and since it was created initially perhaps as early as 2000 B.C. as a syncretism from Aryan invaders of India from Afghanistan offering an end to the ancient Indus civilization and a caste system, many of the good points about God have been obscured by sundry accretions of a pagan variety.

***

The maya or temporal and contingent nature of the Universe underlying the sources of Hinduism can be considered a theological point with some useful instructional paradigms of a true nature, later inferred and refined by Plato and especially the neo-Platonist philosopher Plotinus in his Enneads. It is important to remember that even though some philosophers have inferred or intuited plausible and useful paradigms about the nature of God and of the Universe, that God is a personal and not an aloof God, whom has worked with mankind intimately and 'expertly' throughout history culminating in His personal appearance to renormalize humanity unto himself--Jesus Christ.