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For more than 200 years, the persecution of Catholics continued in Japan. During this time, a number of Catholic missionaries tried to sneak into Japan, but all were discovered, and died after frightful tortures or imprisonment.
In 1640, the Tokugawa Shogunate established the "shuman aratame yaku", which was the Office of Religious Inquisition. Each year the "Inquisition" required every Japanese citizen to trample a cross or holy picture under foot. The "Inquisition" also established a census system, whereby every Japanese citizen had to be listed as a member of one of the government approved Buddhist temples.
But Buddhism, like the other great faiths, has not always lived up to its principles - there are numerous examples of Buddhists engaging in violence and even war:
- in the 14th century Buddhist fighters led the uprising that evicted the Mongols from China
- in Japan, Buddhist monks trained Samurai warriors in meditation that made them better fighters
- In the twentieth century Japanese Zen masters wrote in support of Japan's wars of aggression. For example, Sawaki Kodo (1880�1965) wrote this in 1942:"It is just to punish those who disturb the public order. Whether one kills or does not kill, the precept forbidding killing [is preserved]. It is the precept forbidding killing that wields the sword. It is the precept that throws the bomb."
- In Sri Lanka the 20th century civil war between the mostly Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the Hindu Tamil minority has cost 50,000 lives.
Originally posted by Eugene Kononov:
It's hard to connect the belief in the supreme being with the agrression and violence. However, when it becomes an organized religion, the connection becomes obvious. The crowd, united by the common belief, thinks not of God, but of its own power and superiority. They stand (or kneel) side by side, hold each other's hands, pray in unison, all to reinforce their convictions. That's when all hell breaks loose. Anyone not part of their circle is a stranger and potentially an enemy. It doesn't matter who was chosen to be the God of the crowd -- it could be no God at all, such as it was in the atheist Soviet Union. What matters is that the crowd amplifies an idea that is relevant to perhaps one individual mind. The crowd labels the other people as infidels and heretics not because it has the ultimate knowledge of the true God, but to sustain the nirvana of its thinking in the the same uniform way. To survive, it needs to protect its boundaries. The next step is to extend those boundaries, with the same purpose of protection, and here is when the other crowd stands in the way. Invariably, a lot of blood is shed, the victors declare the truth on their side, and the crowd becomes larger with the conquered minds. But then it reaches the saturation point -- when it is too large, the doubts begin to corrupt the unity. Their sense of righteosness and superiority can no longer be satisfied, as there are not many infidels and heretics left. The crowed becomes like a pack of wolves without a prey anywhere around, having no choice but to turn against each other. The crowd breaks and disintegrates into the fractions, each becoming more independent entities, eventually forming their own set of organized religious believes. And so it goes on.
"I'm not back." - Bill Harding, Twister
Originally posted by Richard Hawkes:
I like the idea that rabbits are infidels
13:And lo! The Holy One appeared before the congregation of the holy foxes and spake thus:
14:"Go forth and eat the rabbits, for they are sinners who have lost the love of the Holy One. Their multitude of sins will now be punished by the righteous crusade of the dutiful foxes, who art most loved by the Holy One.
15:"Know now of the source of the rabbit's transgression. When the world was young the Holy One created the rabbits and placed them through out the world. To them the Holy One gave one commandment only; that they should live a life of simplicity and respect. The weak willed rabbits ignored this commandment however. They spent the entirety of their day multiplying with one another and indulging in sinful practices. Thrice the Holy One appeared to them and demanded they cease, and thrice the rabbits rejoined their efforts.
16:"It is time now for the worshipful foxes to remove this blight of sin from the face of the world. No longer can the disrespectful rabbits continue to reproduce in such an insolent fashion, for they are the infidels."
Do you regard all religions as forms of superstition or dogma? Which of the existing religions do you most respect, and why?
All the great organized religions that have dominated large populations have involved a greater or less amount of dogma, but "religion" is a word of which the meaning is not very definite. Confucianism, for instance, might be called a religion, although it involves no dogma. And in some forms of liberal Christianity, the element of dogma is reduced to a minimum.
Of the great religions of history, I prefer Buddhism, especially in its earliest forms, because it has had the smallest element of persecution.
Communism like agnosticism opposes religion, are agnostics Communists?
Communism does not oppose religion. It merely opposes the Christian religion, just as Mohammedanism does. Communism, at least in the form advocated by the Soviet Government and the Communist Party, is a new system of dogma of a peculiarly virulent and persecuting sort. Every genuine Agnostic must therefore be opposed to it.
Do agnostics think that science and religion are impossible to reconcile?
The answer turns upon what is meant by `religion'. If it means merely a system of ethics, it can be reconciled with science. If it means a system of dogma, regarded as unquestionably true, it is incompatible with the scientific spirit, which refuses to accept matters of fact without evidence, and also holds that complete certainty is hardly ever impossible.
What kind of evidence could convince you that God exists?
I think that if I heard a voice from the sky predicting all that was going to happen to me during the next twenty-four hours, including events that would have seemed highly improbable, and if all these events then produced to happen, I might perhaps be convinced at least of the existence of some superhuman intelligence. I can imagine other evidence of the same sort which might convince me, but so far as I know, no such evidence exists.
--Bertrand Russell
Le Cafe Mouse - Helen's musings on the web - Java Skills and Thrills
"God who creates and is nature is very difficult to understand, but he is not arbitrary or malicious." OR "God does not play dice." - Einstein
Originally posted by Helen Thomas:
The Sinhalese are buddhists : and are/were at war with Tamil hindu Tigers.
They fought over land. - around the city of Jaffna
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Originally posted by Paul Wheaton:
Are any of these folks making war in the name of Buddha?
Commentary From the Sidelines of history
Originally posted by Jim Yingst:
For those who liked the example with bunnies and wolves, you may enjoy this treatment of the population dynamics of Sunnydale, California. (Also here but the graphs don't come out as well.) Enjoy...[/QB]
"I'm not back." - Bill Harding, Twister
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