 |
|
|
|
 The Dalai Lama speaks during a students' gathering at Mumbai University in Mumbai on February 18, 2011.
March 14th, 2011
01:57 PM ET
Exiled lawmakers to debate Dalai Lama's plan to leave politicsExiled Tibetan lawmakers are set to hold a historic debate on the Dalai Lama's offer to shed his political role, the speaker of their parliament said Monday. The statement came after the speaker read to the legislators the spiritual leader's proposals to accord greater powers to their elected representatives. "The essence of a democratic system is, in short, the assumption of political responsibility by elected leaders for the popular good. In order for our process of democratization to be complete, the time has come for me to devolve my formal authority to such an elected leadership," the Dalai Lama said in his message to Tibet's parliament-in-exile, which is meeting at Dharamsala, India. Read the full story
Next entry »Prayers spark scare on airplane
« Previous entryEgypt's military begins rebuilding burned Coptic church
|
  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
|
|
|
Freerica:
I dont know what kind of teacher and Bible you referred to..... you got only bad interpretation of bible you read....... The God you referred to and defined just do not exist and people know it... thats y many Westerners, specially Europeans and Americans are leaving their ancestral religion and becoming atheists..... People do not want to believe but see and observe.... There is no absolute paradise and God.... people know it..... These days number of members in churches are dwindling....... I respect Christianity and also want this religion to remain it one of the most effective religions in the west..... for that it has to reform organically and need to import some asiatic principles and philosophies.......
Frederica, Please do not think I am here to argue your religion or anti God-religion, whatever i m saying here is because nobody gave me convincing reason to believe in God........... From my own little intelligence, I consider God as subjective.... Different people have different notion about God..... For me God is the creation of human weakness.... "you are your own" this adage is from bible..... Where does God reside? In heaven? Does heaven really exist?? For these questions, I have the best answer, 'there is no heaven, because nobody is seen going to heaven', have you?
Truth is always relative, truth for you might not be truth to your friend....... In fact there is no absolute....... Everything under this sun and the Sun itself are relative.......... No exception to god and Gods' follower.......
Rinzin, if Jesus is God, He is God to everyone in the entire universe. Biblical truth is more absolute than established scientific findings. Truth is objective and indiscriminatory. People with Buddhism must stop relying on self and believe in Jesus in order to be saved.
Jesus is God for Christians but not for others. This is the truth that all Christians should know. God is not absolute, god for you might be irrelevant to others. Lord Buddha is the supreme teacher of Buddhist but His teaching does not prevail and relevant to all humans on this planet.
It is just stupidity in alleging short comings of others............
Frederica,
Where you think problem in Buddhism, Buddhists consider it a strength. Emptying everything doesnt mean leaving nothing. I hope you have not considered Buddhist that stupid to empty everything and practice Dharma. Jesus was amazing.......... adovating him to supernatural Good is stupid
Buddhists need Jesus just like everyone else does. Buddhism has some good ethics but no salvation or structured strength to fight back the human evil. Jesus is God. I don't know why you are upset.
The problem of Buddhism is; after emptying oneself, there's nothing worth to fill it. Christianity has the incomparable Christ. Buddhists need Jesus. Emptying is nothing, if it's not refilled with the supernatural Good – Jesus. And the Good will eradicate the evil completely; their co-existence is never permanent.
Dear dieing,
Not just HH. the Dalai Lama, everybody is dying and that is something part and parcel of life..... HH. the Dalai Lama told " I am always practicing dying because it strengthens my spirituality and reminds me of of momentary nature of self". So you also should know that your dying is not far from you.....
Politics need religious and moral compass. Secular politics inevitably lead to annihilation of mankind as they have no remourse for killing unborns and terminalli ills. The world needs Christianity more than ever before.
Religion and politics together have always equaled violence due to the limits and flaws inherent in ALL religions. When someone believes there religion is better than other religions they plant the the seeds of violence. Dalai Lama finally figured it out and did the right thing.
is dieing
Tibetans need Christianity to be freed from the darkest barbarism of human soul.
Tibet might be poor and backward in terms of economic and modern education, but spiritually is very rich and advanced. True Buddhist is atheist and one of the finest atheist in today's world, but that does not mean Buddhist is against other order of beliefs. Inclusive nature and respecting other religion makes it one of the most humble spirituality in todays world.
Wow, what a story. I was curious, but often feel that a rieiglous journey is something rather private so I was hesitant to ask. As for me, I grew up thinking I was Catholic, even did my first communion and related catechism courses... only to find out we were Presbyterians and that I was baptized a Nazarene. Not sure what that makes me since I really like both the Presbyterians and the Catholics. However, I am raising Squink in the Catholic church.
I thought that was you. I like your spunk. You are a dedicated Christian like my dad many of my friends and family . what country do you hail from if you do not mind me asking?
T-party, thank you. In you I don't see the staunch evil antagonism which is visible in many atheists. I think your Christian upbringing is helping you a bit. I write from Asia and I love USA though no one believes I love America. T T Please go back home and read the Bible again and go to church with your father. Truth is hard and it will strike every one of us; truth is neither changable or in humanity's wishful thinking, that's why Jesus came to us. T-party, you must trust in Jesus rather than self. Self is sinful and provides no salvation but only damnation.
@ Fedrica,justina and heaven sent please read Reality's post. Its straight out of history books.
History books say Westerners like you would have been total hopeless barbarians if not for Christianity.
T-party, I'm Justina. My name is hijacked by thugs. I'll post as Frederica for a while. T-party, I will pray for you. I'm sorry for my strong tone, but you atheists and agnostics never get it by American Christians' gentleness, so I will be more straight forward with you. I'm not American and I think your political correctness is immoral and absurd many times.
Religious freedom for Tibet. So we can go over there and convert them to Jesus the Jewish zombie. They can also learn the ways of Yahweh the invisable magical diety whose strength is the same as a unicorn, really bible I think he'd be stronger then that. The world needs more selfish hypocrites who go around stick their nose in other peoples' business. Don't give to help the unfortunate, your church needs a new parking lot and paint job, don't forget the donation plate on Sunday.
X, learn what kind of barbarism Tibetan Buddhism has been locking people in. The reason you are living in a sane civilized world knowing how to read and write is Christianity's contribution. Why don't you immigrate to Tibet if you really believe Tibetans are happy? You big fat hypocrites who wish no freedom or advancement for any other but your own little world – the countries Christians had created for everyone.
Vietnam, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos and Bhutan still need freedom of conscience to be granted. Other Buddhist nations make no apology for their religious atrocities.
@ Frederica if buddhists are going around slaughtering Christians and other non buddhists thats a hideous crime. Of course being agnostic to all religions it dose not surprise me. I find by reading history and watching the news millions ki-ll millions over religions
T-party, but religion(Christianity) saves by billions. Your logic is like calculating the necessity of education by the abuse done by a few criminal teachers. You guys are totally lost. By the way, your religion is pathetic self-reliance.
No massacre and abuse were so great than those done by atheists(communists) and their cowardly agnostic followers throughout the world.
Keeping things historic:
From: http://necrometrics.com/warstatz.htm#u
The Twenty (or so) Worst Things People Have Done to Each Other:
The Muslim Conquest of India
"The likely death toll is somewhere between 2 million and 80 million. The geometric mean of those two limits is 12.7 million. "
Rank Death Toll Cause Centuries Religions/Groups involved*
1 63 million Second World War 20C (Christians et al and Communists vs. Christians et al, Nazi-Pagan and "Shintoists")
2 40 million Mao Zedong (mostly famine) 20C (Communism)
40 million Genghis Khan 13C (Shamanism or Tengriism)
4 27 million British India (mostly famine) 19C (Anglican)
5 25 million Fall of the Ming Dynasty 17C (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Chinese folk religion)
6 20 million Taiping Rebellion 19C ( Confucianism, Buddhism and Chinese folk religion vs. a form of Christianity)
20 million Joseph Stalin 20C
8 19 million Mideast Slave Trade 7C-19C (Islam)
9 17 million Timur Lenk 14C-15C
10 16 million Atlantic Slave Trade 15C-19C (Christianity)
11 15 million First World War 20C (Christians vs. Christians)
15 million Conquest of the Americas 15C-19C (Christians)
13 13 million Muslim Conquest of India 11C-18C
14 10 million An Lushan Revolt 8C
10 million Xin Dynasty 1C
16 9 million Russian Civil War 20C (Christians vs Communists)
17 8 million Fall of Rome 5C (Pagans)
8 million Congo Free State 19C-20C (Christians)
19 7½ million Thirty Years War 17C (Christians vs Christians)
7½ million Fall of the Yuan Dynasty 14C
*:" Is religion responsible for more more violent deaths than any other cause?
A: No, of course not – unless you define religion so broadly as to be meaningless. Just take the four deadliest events of the 20th Century – Two World Wars, Red China and the Soviet Union – no religious motivation there, unless you consider every belief system to be a religion."
Q: So, what you're saying is that religion has never killed anyone.
A: Arrgh... You all-or-nothing people drive me crazy. There are many doc-umented examples where members of one religion try to exterminate the members of another religion. Causation is always complex, but if the only difference between two warring groups is religion, then that certainly sounds like a religious conflict to me. Is it the number one cause of mass homicide in human history? No. Of the 22 worst episodes of mass killing, maybe four were primarily religious. Is that a lot? Well, it's more than the number of wars fought over soccer, or s-ex (The Trojan and Sabine Wars don't even make the list.), but less than the number fought over land, money, glory or prestige.
In my Index, I list 41 religious conflicts compared with 27 oppressions under "Communism", 24 under Colonialism, 2 under "Railroads" and 2 under "Scapegoats". Make of that what you will."
Reality, your list is meaningless because people rescued 7 billions of humans because of religion(Christianity). You didn't exist if Christians didn't rescue your poor uneducated ancestors.
Religion saves whereas atheism only destroys. Russia bounced back to Orthodox Christianity big after liberation from atheism.
Some larger facts to consider: Human population always stayed around or below 200 million until about 200 years ago. It was 2 billion in mid-20th century, 4 billion in the latter 20th century and now 7 billion. The reason is due to the medical and other advancement in Christendom. Christianity has been the conscience of the Western Civilization until a few decades ago. Christian missionaries set up hospitals, schools and orphanages everywhere all around the world. Moreover, Christianity alone taught the revenge-bound mankind fair treatment of enemies. In short, Christianity is the single greatest factor in preservation and expansion of humanity.
Frederica aka Justina,
You continue to make that claim but still have not provided any supporting references.
Reality, no one has any reason to believe in your stupid list because it's only atheists who massacred humanity for the reason of unbelief in God. Others, regardless of their religious affiliations, had always different reasons to conduct atrocities mainly racism, nationalism and the occupation expansion. If there was an atheism as religion from old, none of us would have survived. I'm glad you atheists merged only last century and were quickly taken down as the most evil ideology.
as an agnostic I use science,nature and observation to come to my conclusions and believes. I have put into practice meditation and many relaxation techniques I have learned from buddahism. I have become a happier healthier person in doing so.
Only fools concern about their own happiness as the supreme importance and believe they should be as happy as they can be without caring injustices in the world around them because all injustices are mere fate to be accepted. Pathetic religion for Western losers. Please be rescued by Christianity again, as usual, though serious Buddhists in Asia slaughter Christians and other non-Buddhists.