What They Mean By Child-Like Faith

Written by Eric Engel


Prv:18:2 A Fool Receiveth Not The Words Of Prudence: Unless Thou Say Those Things Which Are In His Heart

So what does that say about us? We all like to be told we’re right. We all like to hear how smart we are. We all want confirmation. Most of us hate it when someone points out when we’re wrong.

If you pick uprepparttar Bible, and don’t come away thinking yourself a fool, you’re not paying attention. Because every book ofrepparttar 149908 Bible is full of passages that show us how foolish we are. The book of proverbs particularly points out our intellectual limitations.

Does God really have a fetish for identifying our flaws? Like a father who can never admit his son turned out all right? Yes and no. It all hangs on that quote from Christ: “Mk:10:15 Amen I say to you, whosoever shall not receiverepparttar 149909 kingdom of God as a little child shall not enter into it.”

A lot of people misinterpret that to mean learning and understanding our faith is fruitless. They confuserepparttar 149910 word “childlike” for “simplistic”, butrepparttar 149911 two have very different meanings. Anyone who has children realizes that they aren’t simple at all. But what about them are we suppose to imitate?

The Father / Son Relationship

Remember that Christ compares God’s relationship with us torepparttar 149912 relationship between a father and son. In this case,repparttar 149913 son would be a child. And a child has to rely onrepparttar 149914 wisdom and knowledge of his father for everything he has (remember that when Jesus is speaking,repparttar 149915 father wasrepparttar 149916 common provider inrepparttar 149917 household).

Is Buddhism A Religion?

Written by Helen Wyre


Buddhism is a teaching which has spread worldwide absorbingrepparttar culture of each country it arrived in, which has resulted in many expressions of Buddhism. Each strand, no matter how varied in nature and practice, holds a common emphasis onrepparttar 149879 impermanence of human life. The worldwide spread of Buddhism means that it is now practiced by over three hundred million people worldwide, and thus, is generally considered to be a world religion. However, its authenticity as a religion has often come under scrutiny by intellectuals inrepparttar 149880 Western world. To explore whether Buddhism can in fact be counted as a religion we must acknowledge thatrepparttar 149881 main problems arise when looking for a definition of what a religion is. Either, definitions have proved too narrow excluding many belief systems which people believe are religious, or they become too broad which means that any structure can be counted. When applying varying definitions of religion to Buddhism we come up with some very contradictory answers; some which say that Buddhism is simply a philosophy or teaching, whilst others will prove that it is in fact, a religion in practice.

To determine whether Buddhism is a religion or not, we must also note that we, as Westerners will have different views and concepts of religion to those practicing inrepparttar 149882 East. We must askrepparttar 149883 question, is it even possible for Westerners to understandrepparttar 149884 religious life of Asia? What we view as Asian religion and religious activity is for most ofrepparttar 149885 people practicing it a natural part of daily life; our ideas and concepts vary so greatly that perhaps someone observing Buddhism from a Western perspective may never truly grasprepparttar 149886 religiosity ofrepparttar 149887 group.

For one attempting to provide a definition of religion these practices would need to be described in a manner which did not exclude one religion fromrepparttar 149888 definition. There needs to be one thing that is attributed to all religions, a common factor. For many,repparttar 149889 common factor is God. However, if we conclude that God isrepparttar 149890 focus of all religion then much ofrepparttar 149891 material found in Asia must be excluded because there is no God here, and occasionally not even Gods. Fromrepparttar 149892 perspective that religion entails belief in a God, Buddhism is excluded from havingrepparttar 149893 title of religion. Many outsiders torepparttar 149894 Buddhist tradition may claim thatrepparttar 149895 Buddha held some divinity and is elevated to a Godly position, butrepparttar 149896 Buddha himself refused to be regarded as divine. Forrepparttar 149897 Buddha, humanity is here to improve ourselves and achieve liberation rather than worrying about ultimate questions. Buddhists would argue that knowledge of a God orrepparttar 149898 afterlife does not matter as neither help inrepparttar 149899 quest for nirvana. If Buddhism is not counted as a religion then what is it? Buddhism can be thought of as a way of life, a philosophy, a psychology, a way of thinking through which we can take responsibility for our present life and lives.

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