I had a very very heated debate not argument with my friends over coffee today about religion. I know it is a v sensitive issue but we were very open about it. My friend was wonderin why her sis broke up with her bf juz coz her bf could not accept her sis if she did not convert to christianity. My christian friend (let's call her C), said that christians can only accept 1 God and that's jesus but I retorted and said that if Buddhism can embrace other religions, why can't christianity? Must it be so mutually exclusive? Aren't they discriminating against non christians? Then we got into a debate about why christianity is different from buddhism. Here's the conversation:
C: christianity is different because jesus wants his people to accept him into their life whereas buddhism doesn't.
Me: What makes u think that Lord Buddha doesn't want his people to accept him into their life?
C: Because buddhism isn't a religion, it is a teaching
Me: Yes, it is a teaching but it is also a religion because there have been cases of divine help from Buddha
C: But u pray and therefore buddha helps, u serve him therefore u get ur wishes
Me: Not true, buddha helps when he knows u need him. I had personally dreamt of him myself and therefore i think it is something divine
C: Jesus is different, he sacrificed his life to save mankind. Did buddha or any other religions do that?
Me: No, not in history but the different buddhas reincarnate themselves into humans to descend on earth to help the needy
C: Then have u ever questioned the real motive of why these ppl wana help others? It's because they believe that doing good will lighten their karma, it's not because they really wana help
Me: Nope, doing charity will not help to lighten your karma that much, it's meditation with God that helps to lighten the karma
C: Then what is meditation? How does it lighten your karma?
Me: That's when enlightenment comes in, it frees u and u can see beyond the world and by conversing with buddha in meditation, u learn more and u spread his teachings, that will lighten the karma.
C: Then, buddhism is all about being detached from others. Whereas in christianity, jesus wants us to help one another. He is kind and wants to help. Did Buddha find enlightenment because he wanted to save the world? He simply wanted to find the way to life but he did not save the world. In fact, he is a mortal who is deified, he is not god. He did not create the world.
Me: No, Buddha found enlightenment so that he could spread his discovery of the way of life to others and alleviate suffering. to me, god is one who has divine powers, so there is more than one god. So why can't christians accept partners from other religions?
C: Because we do not believe in pantheism, there is only one god
Me: How would we know? Becoz the old and new testament say so? What proof is there that these embody the truth? We should respect the existence of other gods in other religions and accept other religions. Why must we be so narrow minded and marry only within our religion? There are happy couples from different religions getting together. There is what religious tolerance and respect is all about.

And so, the night went on with this debate among C, me and another gal. Two vs one in favour of buddhism as a peaceful religion. Our main argument was that as long as all religions teach us to be good, we should not see one religion as being more superior or unique than the others. Well, my perception of christianity is not coloured, in fact i was very objective and accepting of my peer's beliefs about christianity and as a result, we had a very satisfying debate about religion (considering the number of eavesdroppers from other tables who were listening to us) as we eventually respected one another's faith. I feel that religion should not be the barrier to our friendship but still, i believe that a couple should not impose their religious beliefs on each other because it is not worth breaking up over religious differences. In fact, we should take whatever we learn abt our religion with a pinch of salt, rather than be so myopic in our beliefs or allow ourselves to be brainwashed.

Don't u agree that it is rather silly for a couple to break up because of religion?

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