Josephus, I hope you aren't suggesting that those who lived before the amazing Jesus Christ, or all those non-Christians in the world past and present, are not able to care for young people or the disabled? That would be a lie wouldn't it?
Not to mention the fact that we all know some "Christians" who couldn't care less about others.

There are also many Christians who support women's choice for abortion, and the right of people to decide whether they want to die at a time of their own choice.
This universe, thankfully, has room for people of all types, and no one group should take precedence over any others, no matter what they believe...

Susie, You had better decide what you believe.

Quote: "Luckily, the majority of the community DO support euthanasia and same-sex marriage, so, like abortion, contraception and homosexuality, they will soon be accepted as law in our country. And not before time".
Posted by Suseonline, Saturday, 28 May 2016

"This universe, thankfully, has room for people of all types, and no one group should take precedence over any others, no matter what they believe"...
Posted by Suseonline, Sunday, 29 May 2016

Do you believe laws should override others beliefs? Or are you confused?

As should any thread even remotely related to Christianity, Josephus.

<<This thread has deteriorated into an attack on Christian belief.>>

I wouldn’t say “deteriorated”, though. It makes it sound so bad.

<<The atheists here have not posted one intelligent purpose of what life is and why.>>

Purpose is an individual and personal thing. There is no objective purpose independent of our own personal preferences.

<<[Christ’s] mission was to improve the health and well being of the people in his day.>>

Then why couldn’t he do something as simple as inform them about bacteria and the benefits of bathing once a week to prevent illness? Instead, he perpetuated superstition with his talk of demon possession. An oversight that no doubt perpetuated hundreds of years of fear-inspired torture and burnings.

Josephus, of course laws should override some others beliefs.
Otherwise, wouldn't we have the radical Christians in our society madly stoning the adulterers amongst us in the streets, or the radical Muslims cutting off the hands of theives as they tried to steal an apple!

Thank goodness we don't let the beliefs of some people stop laws that govern how we live, and how or if we get punished. Even someone like yourself would surely be thankful our laws don't allow the beliefs of some Muslims to override our laws, let alone some of the old superstitious Christian beliefs?

Dear O Sung Wu,

The community of Taize is ecumenical, which means that it is not only tolerant of other religions but in fact embraces them all. The community around the monastery of Taize was hiding hundreds of Jews during the holocaust and I am fully accepted and feel an integral part of this community despite not being a Christian myself. Nobody there, in many years that I am involved, has ever tried to convert me.

As a Hindu, it is obvious for me that "There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, there is one God who is father of all". I often sing this and other Taize songs in my Hindu community. Among our saints we have an image of Buddha and an image of Jesus - we garland them all with flowers.

While we do not at present have members of Muslim background, they would be more than welcome - in both in my Taize and Hindu communities. Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba exemplified the inherent unity between Hinduism and Islam: he included many Muslim chants in his Hindu community. Watch this amazing amalgamation between Hinduism and Islam, where "Allah Hu Akbar" receives a very different meaning than what you see in the news: http://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sai-babas-arabic-islamic-flavour
While I personally cannot be everywhere at once, I would find myself at home in this hybrid religious community just as well.

Let us continue to build bridges: cultural differences are not a barrier for religion; religion is one, we should not be bothered at all that its external and superficial expressions are coloured by the various cultures of the devotees.

To quote from http://scriptures.ru/sb_mm.htm :

"I have come Not to disturb or destroy any Faith, But to confirm Each in his own faith So that, the Christian becomes A better Christian The Muslim a better Muslim A Hindu a better Hindu"

"to each is given a goal to which God turns him; then strive together towards all that is good..." (The Quran II:148)

Yuyutsu,

A nice post. I always thought the Taizé community was physically bound to the place in France of that name. Or do various Taizé communities, with membership lists etc, exist in different places throughout the world? Or is there a “virtual” (via internet) global Taizé community?

Toni Lavis,

Did you mean to say that “believing in fairy tales of invisible gods” is NOT a caricature of Christianity’s basic tenets? Would you also say that “believing in fairy tales (referring to e.g. superstring theory) of invisible entities (referring to elementary particles and fields)” is NOT a caricature of what theoretical physics is all about?

If not, what benefit would this selective disrespect for alternative views of reality (that “ordinary people” cannot understand hence have to resort to uncritical beliefs or unbeliefs) achieve?

Please disregard this post if I misunderstood you and you did not mean to justify the phrase “you believe in fairy tales of invisible gods”.