Islam was formed from the same roots somewhere along the line, the most significant difference is Muslims do not believe Jesus was the son of God, they just consider him to be a prophet. I don't know the Muslim stance on the crucifixion, it may well not be mentioned since the Qu'ran mainly focuses on Muhammad's view of the world.
The Muslim stance on crucifixion is that Jesus was never crucified, but instead replaced by Judas (the traitor). In retrospect, Islam is a further continuation of Christianity, with the revelation of the last prophet (Muhammad) and the last holy book (the Quran) the other significant differences with Christianity.
dumb question: if there is only one true religion in the world, and all religion says that they are the "one true" religion, then can we conclude that everyone goes to hell?
dumb question # 2: is going to heaven so important that we would waste our life trying to find this "one true" religion?
Same here, why waste your time pursuing something that might not exist in the End? It's better to just follow the teachings of whatever you believe in & live life to the fullest. I know I've been dumbed down from watching South Park for so long, but the show's views on religion is correct, no not the Anti-Semitist one I'm talking about the episodes where South Park's Jesus Christ tells people things like "God doesn't want you to waste your time worshipping him but instead asks you to live life to the fullest" or "No one man can be the voice of a religion", heck the Atheist two parter jived with me too I feel that religion is something personal, something which is also a part of who one is.
One true religion?! If there is one we certainly don't have it! We can prove all current religions wrong. There may be one super entity that started things off but the ones from 'our' religions certainly can't be true espescially if they all originate from one old one...
Not quite, all mainstream religions have been proven wrong (and some non mainstream ones such as scientology) but few, if any, of the pagan religions have been proven wrong. But maybe that is because they don't make outlandish claims about how the world was created or how such and such happened.
But they still need proof. I doubt humans could ever find out. Not unless we can travel to any spot in the universe...
in order to be proven wrong the religions must first make some kind of statement or claim about something. Pagan religions in general do not make such statements and therefore can never be proven right or wrong because there is nothing to prove.
So basically it's a moral way of life but then they add the belief of magic to it? Well it's not as bad as other religions but I believe we current humans can't use magic
I use magic on rare occasions. there's strict penalties for improper use of it so I try to avoid it unless necessary, as it's often hard to determine if you're using it for the right reasons and that no harm will come to anyone/anything as a result of you using it. Biggest use of it I've ever done was when an elderly friend was dying some years ago I used it to reduce her pain. She died a couple of weeks later, but I've been told she suffered less those two weeks than she had been previously, so in my view that made it justifiable. I have a policy of not using magic for my own needs (personal gain is considered improper use) although I'll use a strength spell when I'm struggling with a stubborn screw, or a defensive (shielding) spell if I feel significantly threatened. (I used to use them at school to become immune to verbal bullying, as a result I'm now very hard to annoy and I never lose my temper any more.)
I have personal experiences with what loony is saying about the use &/or mis-use of Magick first-hand. This happened eight years ago, long before I got my own PC & found RomUlation. I had a terrible argument with somebody I used to know back in college, it was so severe that it grew until both our other family members got involved. In my desire to get one up over the guy, I betrayed the Wiccan code (I just heard of & was studying Wiccan teachings at that time, as I already said in most of my posts in this & other threads, I studied other religions I could learn of), I knew you aren't allowed to harm others as you'll be harming yourself as well but at that time my anger was overwhelming, which is ofcourse bad for someone chanting spells as the negative emotions & energies attract even more negative forces. So bottom-line, I wanted the guy to financially fall (the guy was a little above average financially) & he did, he sank so low that he lost most of his family's posessions. I was ecstatic at his demise but not for long... When I finally finished college in 2001 I was ready to take on the world, I even took Civil service exams to further my chances of landing a good job, then it happened... I know I shouldn't connect things just by mere faith, but the coincidence is just too great. During the last Quarter of 2003, I started to experience signs of Glaucoma on my left eye at the age of 24. The eye specialist clearly explained to me that people who were born with myopia are often stricken by other eye problems earlier than most people as essentially our eyes have problems early on. It is a very clear & logical explanation, but still I can't help but believe that this is all my own doing. And I have learned from it mind you
could well have been the curse backfiring. there's no way of knowing when or how, but what goes around comes around.
