Are Christians afraid of the beliefs of other religions?

Christianity (and many other religions) are basically mental viruses. Over the centuries, it has developed ever more effective ways of spreading itself, and defending itself from attack. The basic methods are:

• encourage belief for no rational reason (faith)
• offer amazing unverifiable rewards for compliance with belief (heaven)
• offer even better rewards to those who spread the belief
• offer horrific unverifiable punishment for failure to believe (hell)
• call the reward into question for doubting (the blasphemy of the holy spirit threat)
• call the reward into question for causing others to doubt
• appeal to antiquity to make it more believable (the Bible)
• appeal to authority to make it more believable (the church)

It’s a fascinating self sustaining belief system, ultimately rooted in nothing of substance. So, Christians are unfortunately victims of this. They try to spread it, because they’re told to. They don’t question that command, because they’re threatened not to. They aren’t interested in other religions becuase they are threatened not to.

truthvixen - A Christian believes that the bible is the truth, and tries to live by it. It is Gods command to us to share the word with everyone. This is not an option, if you read the word.

How we go about doing that, depends upon each individual, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

If we have the truth, and we believe that we do, then, we would be doing a huge injustice, to keep it to ourselves. We would in effect, be withholding the most precious information that could ever come to man.

If we are filled with Gods love, then, it is impossible for us to keep that love to ourselves, we have to share it. It is God will for us to share it. So, as long as you have Christians on earth, the message of Gods love toward mankind, and his plan of salvation will be shared. What each individual does with that message, is up to them. A Christian has to keep his conscience clear between him and God. And most would rather incur the wrath of man, rather, than to disappoint God.

And as far as Christians studying other faiths, I would say, it would need to be a seasoned Christian, that is rooted and grounded in the faith, strong enough to not be persuaded in any way, toward another faith.

Just because a Christian is a Christian, does not mean that they can’t be persuaded in a wrong direction. The bible is full of admonition to stay on the right path. And says that the way is narrow, and few even find it.

I am not religious, so I don’t have this problem. Christians, as stopandsmelltheroses said, begin to have doubts about their own religion when they know about others. Is it the right one? Am I choosing right? It’s the same for many other religions. But, as is easily noticable, many religions have the same views of what is right and what is wrong. Take Christianity and Buddhism for example. Christians and Buddhists both believe that people should all be treated with the same amount of respect and dignity. But not all followers of that religion do that. The majority of the western world are Christians, yet what do they do with their seniors? Stuff them in old folks homes? I wouldn’t call that equal amount of respect. Christianity is considered the accepted religion of the western world. But it is not necassarily the right religion. Neither is any other. They are all equal, in their own rights. But we are all brought up according to that religions views. We are indoctrinated into our beliefs, whether you like it or not. Well, most of us. I hope this helped, from an unbiased view. Britz

I see a lot of Christians telling me why God and Jesus are the only way and that the Bible is Gods absolute word on life… I don’t however see a great many answers to my particular question… Which is in itself very telling…wouldn’t you agree?

I’m a Christian and I’m not afraid. Why should I? If my God is superior then He will show Himself to be. And He most defiantly does. You can see the bible’s truth all over the world. Science, historians and even other religions back-up the truths of God and Christ. Oh, my Lord is not in the grave. Can’t say that for other religious beliefs.

Im not religious at all bigmuma But if I see god with my own 2 eyes… then I may think about it its just like beliving in flying dogs, you’ve never seen it, and it could be written in a book.. so im not beliving it.

To Grasshopper you have not addressed why Christians feel that others should study and covert to christianity but that they themselves consider it blasphemous to do the same to other religions… I hear your beliefs loud and clear but you have not even attempted to answer the question asked…

I say, don’t have a religion, they all promise you to take you to basically the same place, heaven… well I mean all those religions that branched off Christianity

you should ask a priest or father that…and see what they give you for an answer

HAHAHA… arachnid states a very good point rnealw… science in its self is not the devils work… its what you choose to do with it that would make it such… that is of course if you believe in the devil… but science and whether it is evil or not is not the question…

I think that Christians are afraid of other religions… not your typical fear but what it could do to their faith if they were to study other beliefs…I believe they are afraid of recognizing how close their own beliefs are to that of other religions.

What I’m really curious about is why…is it because they will no longer feel superior or that they will feel the need to stop all the intense converting that borders on harrassment to intimidation.

Atheism (at least in its weak definition) isn’t a belief - it’s a lack of belief in gods. I ‘believe’ there is no God(s) with the same conviction (and for the same reason) I believe there are no teapots orbiting pluto - sure it’s possible, but it’s very, very unlikely.

Also, rnealw, if as your previous post indicates, you believe science to be “the devil’s work”, why do you have no problem using the products of science? Pretty much everything we use day-to-day is a result of scientific study, not least of all the computer you used to post your response.

You know peacemakin. . . We could also say Atheist Are a group that succesfully brainwashes individuales into believing their beliefs are true. They try to convince others, because they get insecure that their teachings may turn up to be wrong. They get all fussy at the Christian concepts of Creation, because they can’t convince a strong faithful christian they are right. Every ‘’Atheist’’ is different the only thing they have in common is the theorys.

If you’re convinced you’re right about something, and you think it’s important, and that others are wrong about it, would you not try to convince them of what you see as the correct view? When it comes down to it, this is a basic principle of any debate or disagreement.

What bothers me about religions is that the arguments they use to do so aren’t based on reason, so there’s no way to prove any of them are correct. When it comes down to it, the arguments all come down to either “believe it because it’s nice” or “believe it or else Bad Stuff happens”.

Some are afraid of other beliefs and some aren’t. Some insist that all should convert and some don’t. It’s like in any other religious organization - you have your ordinary believers and you have your zealots. You can’t really paint them with the same brush.

That said, I agree that the zealots who despise other religious beliefs and want to see us all converted are victims of fear and ignorance.

I’m a Christian and have never been told by any church leader that it is wrong to study and learn about other religions. In fact, my own personal belief is that when you learn about other religions you deepen your own faith and you realize that no religion is better than another. What is the right religion for each person is the one that gives them joy, makes their life easier and gives them comfort through the tough times.

I think that fear comes from ignorance. Therefore, an informed Christian should know about other beliefs, and respect them. That doesn’t mean that the informed Christian will go off and convert to one of the other faiths - I’ve taught Religious Education in English schools and worked with Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Rastafarian colleagues. Those experiences really strengthend both my faith and my respect for other faiths.

I agree whole-heartedly with stopandsmelltheroses that I did find a big difference between the other faiths and my own - the difference is Jesus, who Christians believe to be the Way to God directly, without the fear, formality and uncertainty that I felt inherent in some other religions’ approach to God. The other religions I’ve encountered are great, and reverent, and spiritually enlightened, but I remain grateful to Jesus for what He has done for us.

The ‘fear’ that you mention is presuambly due to the concern that Christians will convert to other religions, or sort of mix them up with their own beliefs (called ‘syncretism’, I think). That is possible, but shouldn’t be countered by ignorance, but by better understanding and practice of our own faith (as stopandsmelltheroses said, again!)

Actually it is to our advantage to study other beliefs if we have a good solid foundation in our own faith. . . .

* The Devil wants people to put there focus on anything but Christ.

Like maybe science.

I’m a Christian and we follow the Bible word for word, but most other religions don’t follow the Bible.