Pluralism - or the acceptance that many traditions have good ideas or valid approaches to life and living - is prevalent in English-speaking cultures today. However, in spite of relatively tolerant and pluralistic attitudes, it seems there is still a very persistent prejudice against polytheism. This is very sad to see, and I can't help but wonder why. Perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising when there's still very persistent prejudice against, say, atheism, but the prejudice against...

People can behave either goodly or badly - we can usually tell a good person by the good actions they do and a bad person by the bad actions that they do, as well as by examining their motives…

Claim: if a person starts acting differently that means that they have revealed their true nature, it doesn’t mean they have changed

For instance if a person who has always been considered truly good starts being bad that doesn’t mean they have changed, it means they were always bad but had been...

I think it is a great problem when all socail contacts, family and friends, can be found in one and the same church.
In this video* (German language), a Jehova Witness explains that she is convinced to have been sexually abused by her father.
Yet she stays in that church (minute 6:50). She says, in case of leaving the church, she would lose everything: family and friends.
I can understand that.
However, in my opinion, there is no environment that's more toxic to a victim of sexual abuse......

in recent discussion I noticed

participants here would not know a Catholic if he slapped your face

so......where do YOU draw the line?

Or are atheists more violent than theists?

How can we know? Can we know?

What is the evidence one way or another?

If you join a religion because it says that it teaches the truth, but continuously updates or outright changes its official beliefs, is the religion then contradicting itself?

Also, if you join the religion because of its current beliefs, but then those beliefs change, is it logical for them to accuse you of rejecting the truth if you leave because of the changes?

Why can that not be?

Immigration, intermarriage and education making U.S. Jewry larger, more diverse

Thoughts? Are you intermarried?

This is a question for Muslims mostly but anyone is free to add to the discussion.

As far as I know, Islam teaches that it is the original religion as practiced by Adam, Noah, Abraham, etc. and I'm wondering how can this be, since Islam includes the sunnah of Muhammad, which surely could not have existed at the time of the Patriarchs, since Muhammad was thousands of years after them? How did they, in your belief, practice Islam?

Thanks.

There are a few well-known quotes I've read awhile back from the book Zen Mind Beginner's Mind about spirituality (in this case Dharmic practice) and being in the state of a beginner's mind:

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”

“The true purpose [of Zen] is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes... Zen practice is to open up our small mind.”

“The goal of practice is always to keep...