The Retreat

Its a program the BBC have filmed following 9 people who have gone on retreat to an Islamic centre in Spain. It looks an interesting experiment and something that should give Christians a better understanding of the Islamic faith.

The similarities with my religion is very surprising to me.

How long do you think it will be before the muslims decapitate the Christians?

Islam is very similar to Christianity. It is quite suprising.

If you look at it Islam is actually more "Western" than Christianity.

all religions are similar no matter what people say they all want to control the masses and generally for people to express things they have to break away from their religions

Aahh. Please provide a detailed discussion of "all religions" (which you must know about) and lots of examples of how they're all similar. I guess the religions of atheism and humanism and hedonism don't want to control the masses? They just exist to make people's lives better. Honestly, how long will this ridiculous myth of "all religions are the same/similar" keep going?

Example 1: Christianity says you die once and that's it. Hinduism says you're reincarnated. Atheism says eat drink and be merry because once you die there's not accountability or anything...slightly different...

Example 2: Islam says Jesus was a prophet but not God. Christianity says Jesus was God in the flesh...slightly different...

Example 3: most religions have a god, but Buddhism doesn't...slightly different...

Thinking about similarities and differences between religions generally gives people a far better understanding/structure to what they believe...Saying generalised statements like "all religions want to control the masses" is neither true nor helpful.

I think what he meant was all major religions have pretty much the same basis and the reasoning behind them is the same. For example Christianity is nothing like what it was supposed to be, but it was used as a tool to supress the working class and so peoples perceptions of it changed. The same has happened with almost every single major religion with the possible exception of Buddhism.

The fact that Jesus is God (in acordance to Christianity) doesnt make a difference to it's purpose, or much of a difference to how a Christian would live their life. On the whole Islam and Christianity are pretty much the same, but with the details differing.

Certainly Christianity has been used in the wrong way in the past (inquisition) and even more so now (Bush and his genocide in the name of the Christian God: I think at present God pukes at what Bush is doing in His name...) So no argument with that.



This however is not true. The fact that according to Christianity, Jesus is God, makes ***all*** the difference. There's no inbetween here. If He's not God, then He's either a pathological liar or a completely deluded nutcase. But there's no way He's a "good moral teacher" if He thinks He's God but isn't, or if He knows He's not God but claims He is. The only other option is that He is who He said. And so the entire "purpose" of Christianity hinges on the claim that Jesus is God. Thus whether He is God makes a huge difference to how Christians would live their lives.

Honestly, if He's not God, Christians have been sold a lie and are without doubt the most deluded people on the face of the planet. (Many people already believe this!). But if He is God, then everything changes. There's just no inbetween here.

I watched some of it, actually its very interesting.

The war in Iraq is about God? That's odd, up until now I thought it was about oil.

I thought it was about Donald Trumps hair ....dang, I am so confused

Maybe it was because Bush was jealous of Saddam's mustache?

Yeah well the war is confusing, but it's definitely not about Donald Trump's hair; as Earl said (My name is Earl...), Donald Trump is only a cartoon character...

But anyway, I don't think I said/meant that the war was about God. I was saying that Bush was using his faulty conception of God/Christianity to justify something that everyone knows is about oil.

Yeah, thats got to be the reason

Jesus being God makes very little difference to the lifestyle led by Christians. If jesus was merely a prophet of God then the belief system doesn't differ greatly. Jesus being God is just a detail, and the religion itself would work just as it does now even if Jesus isn't God.

It's worth remembering the Christianity followed by people today differs greatly from the Christianity followed by the first Christians. All religion pretty much is a tool to opress the people and to try and controll people. That includes Christianity. The basics of it are very similar to Islam.

Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.