Fear based religions (ritual, moral, punishment, Kingdom, salvation)

[(Q)]

if you follow your dharma and do well and earn good karma, you will be happier. thats obvious.

Yet, bad things happen to good people, so its not so obvious afterall.

but when you fall to sin and vice, earn bad karma, you will obviously suffer. heaven is happiness, hell is suffering.

And if they don't exist, then the criminal who gets away with his crime and goes on to lead a long happy life with his stolen loot has suffered how?

God wants us to be happy

But does everything in his power to make people suffer. How then is one supposed to be happy?

all we have to do is build up good karma and follow our own dharma

Sorry, your god sold the fharma, hence good people still get harma.

[Ceridwen018]

I thought there wasn't such thing as good or bad karma. I thought it's just supposed to be straight 'karma'...

[Ardhanariswar]

Originally Posted by (Q)

Yet, bad things happen to good people, so its not so obvious afterall.

but when you fall to sin and vice, earn bad karma, you will obviously suffer. heaven is happiness, hell is suffering.

And if they don't exist, then the criminal who gets away with his crime and goes on to lead a long happy life with his stolen loot has suffered how?

God wants us to be happy

But does everything in his power to make people suffer. How then is one supposed to be happy?

bad things happen to good people. ? why? because they proy did soemthing bad in thier previous life. also, God is ultimitly testing us. like in the book of Job.

what is heaven and hell. when i do something bad, the consequences come back to me, im suffering i am in *hell*. when i do good things, im happy, and im in *heaven*. those arent literal places of fire and clouds, they are simple states of mind.

God wants us to be happy. but we make ourselves suffer by desire.

[(Q)]

bad things happen to good people. ? why? because they proy did soemthing bad in thier previous life.

Previous life? What happened to the eternal afterlife? And if they did something bad in a previous life, don't you think they already would have been judged for that?

those arent literal places of fire and clouds, they are simple states of mind.

What about when you die? Your brain is dead and therefore cannot possibly have any other state.

God wants us to be happy. but we make ourselves suffer by desire.

We desire to suffer? Explain?

[Ardhanariswar]

the four noble truths:

1. Life means suffering.

2. The origin of suffering is attachment.

3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.

4. The path to the cessation of suffering.

this site contains a good amount of info on WHY: http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/fourtruths.html

To live means to suffer, because the human nature is not perfect and neither is the world we live in. During our lifetime, we inevitably have to endure physical suffering such as pain, sickness, injury, tiredness, old age, and eventually death; and we have to endure psychological suffering like sadness, fear, frustration, disappointment, and depression.

The origin of suffering is attachment to transient things and the ignorance thereof. Transient things do not only include the physical objects that surround us, but also ideas, and -in a greater sense- all objects of our perception. Ignorance is the lack of understanding of how our mind is attached to impermanent things. The reasons for suffering are desire, passion, ardor, pursue of wealth and prestige, striving for fame and popularity, or in short: craving and clinging.

The path to the end of suffering can extend over many lifetimes, throughout which every individual rebirth is subject to karmic conditioning. Craving, ignorance, delusions, and its effects will disappear gradually, as progress is made on the path.