My (shallow) theory on the popularity of Christianity and how I lose friends.

Here’s why I think why Christianity is so popular.

There’s some statistics showing that 33% of the world’s population are Christians and only 5% and Buddhists.

You know why?

It’s the music.

Would you rather sing and praise the lord or sit and chant/meditate?

Christians have rock bands (e.g. the Planetshakers) that attracts thousands of youth.

What do Buddhists have? A venerable one that teaches you the proper way to sit, breath and meditate

Obviously the youth will prefer to rock out to wonderful music!

Why Buddhists don’t have such things? Well it will be a contrast to what the Buddha teaches, to release oneself from sensual pleasures, and ultimately, released from any desires.

This is just my shallow theory.

And let me let you in on why I don’t have close friends, and how I don’t get very close to any friend in the first place.

*arranged in chronological order*

Step 1: I get to know you, I talk to you, ask you stuff, I respect your views, I think you’re so funny and smart. I like you J

Step 2: As I get to know you, my uber-critical nature identify your flaws and register them in my head under your name. This fellar has so and so flaws that I don’t like (my selfishness), and that person has so and so.

Step 3: The next time I meet you, I take you for granted, I belittle you in my mind, I look down upon you. What we think in our mind reflect ourselves. Even though I don’t let you know that, but my attitude towards you tells you.

Step 4: You realize, hey this dude here has no respect for me, he thinks I’m insignificant, why am I even spending my time with him?

Step 5: Then that person I just knew looks for his other friends. Usually he/she may call me to go out for a drink in the beginning, because I often say I’m busy or give excuses, they stop calling. Because my mind will go, why go out with them, when they are of no benefit to me. See my evilness? But if they have no flaws, then my mind will turn jealous, ahh, this fellar, is so happy always and so positive always, why go with them and feel intimidated and inferior, I better stay at home and correct the people who make wrong statements on the internet to feed my ego and pride.

Step 6: Distance grow between us. Then I start to feel lonely, and then after a long time of loneliness and desperation, I start to miss you. Then when I meet you again, I’m all nice and funny to you again. And then my mind tells me I’m wasting my time and effort because I think you’re insignificant. And the vicious cycle begins.

Step 7: What could be a meaningful relationship in the end is often destroyed and my chances are lost. It’s easier to lose trust than to gain one.

This explains why I have no best friends, or close friends. This explains why my relationships with people are short, and often time’s people think I’m insincere or fake. And distance grows.

That’s also why I always wonder how do people treat everyone they know without discrimination, you know, they don’t talk bad stuff about others and are always positive, looking at the bright side of things. I wish I could be like that.

So if you think you are one of them people in my vicious cycle, I deeply and sincerely apologize to you. I try to change. I respect all of you really, but I’m very critical, negative, sensitive and gets jealous easily.

So I’m sorry if you think you’re insignificant in my life. You’re not! This applies to mr.anonymous, I wouldn’t be humbled without him (or her? O.o)

My trip to the church

So last Saturday, I went to the church, FGA, to attend a seminar/talk on creation, i.e. how the world and the universe came to be.

So I entered the church wearing my chain with the Goddess of Mercy pendant(Kun Yam)
Before the seminar started they started to sing a song, and it does make you feel humble when everyone sing, praising the lord, knowing that there is a supreme entity up there looking down on you and loving you.
So they started singing 'Praise the lord', 'I'm in awe of all of you', etc. etc.
I didn't although the song was very pleasant and I just clapped along.

Basically it's based on the bible. God created the world and all that's in them in six literal days. It is against what human scientists believe.

The bible says the world is approximately 6000 years old.
Human scientists say the world is 4.6 billion years old, calculated by analyzing the oldest rocks found.

So the seminar is basically pointing out that modern human scientists carbon dating techniques, etc. etc. are wrong/inaccurate.

Before the speaker, Reverend Albert, talked about creation, he first gave an overview for the purpose of the seminar, why men rejects God and so on.

Basically, he was talking about what I was.

In the work book he states 3 destructive philosophies.

1. Individualism - Live for myself.

And I do have this destructive philosophy, I remembered once my auntie borrowed me this book, the purpose of life, I didn't know it was based on god first, it wasn't stated on the cover.
After reading a few pages and then they slowly start to say we live for God, our purpose is to live for God, I got discouraged straight away.

My rebellious nature was thinking, why on earth do I have to live for an external factor??

Nobody affects my life but me. I am my own god. This is called individualism.

The second destructive philosophy is Secularism, i.e. God is unnecessary, because at the moment, I do think so that god is unnecessary, again because he is an external factor.

The third destructive philosophy is relativism, that there are no absolutes in life. I forgot what he said about this.

One part of the seminar talks about Christianity being under attack. The real issue is, is there a god??

So what people should do is, begin with God as he is truth. And to reject all lies and atheistic humanism lifestyle.

Now this sounds familiar right my Buddhist friends?
Buddha was a prince, he was a human. He meditated and got enlightened and preaches about his teaching to all.
Buddhists do not believe in a creator god.

So Buddhism is an atheistic humanism lifestyle, and according to Christianity, is not the truth and is not the way to live.

This leads me to another question. If those that did not believe in Jesus, they will perish and be sent to hell.

What about the people that were not exposed to Jesus and his doings at that point if time?
What about the people in India(for example) who know nothing about it, are they going to hell because they are not exposed to Christianity.

Another question, Buddha, where is he now?
Of course Buddhists will know that he is enlightened and has free himself from the cycle of rebirths and has achieved nirvana. He is in peace, eternally.

But Buddha did not believe in a creator god, so according to the bible, Buddha is in hell then?
He with all compassion and has relieved many of their suffering is in hell?
I'm not trying to create a controversy here, I apologize if I do, I'm just mentioning the questions that came up in my mind.

The creation seminar states that evolution is wrong.
Science is:
1) observable
2) repeatable
3) demonstrable

if evolution is true, then why aren't the monkeys in the Zoo turning to humans?
People there were laughing when they heard this statement.

To sum it all up, it's all based on the bible , and the bible is the truth of all things as it is god's words.
At the moment, human calculations, and it's factors and variables may be wrong, hence, contradictory to the bible.

I also found out that Adam lived for 930 years, and then when he ate the fruit he is not supposed to, he has sinned and decay started. Before that, there were no deaths and suffering, after Adam ate it, he sinned so all of man has sinned, and that was the start of decay, deaths arose.


So the things I learned,

According to Christianity, religions like Buddhism, derived from man, are false religions.
They do not like Aethists, because they deny the lord, the creator, the author.
Buddhism, is wrong, because all it's teachings are from MAN, not GOD.

I think it all boils down to, whether you believe in a creator-god.
If you believe him, then worship him and live for him.


I wonder if it is ok to have both.
believe in a creator god but still practice Buddha's teachings.

Since Buddha is man and God created man, he should be proud to see what his child, Buddha brought to the world!

I truly believe in the Buddha and his teachings and the way to end suffering.
The bible does say we are not allowed to believe in other god's as he is jealous of his relationship with you.
You only worship him.

But the thing is, Buddha is not a god, he is a man.

Is this a loophole? can we worship the creator-god, and practice Buddha's teachings?(e.g. meditation)
If can, than that would be ideal.

oh during the seminar, he quotes alot of proverbs from the bible, John what what, Corinthian, Romans something something.
This is all to state things that contradicts to what human scientists believe today.

So at the end of the seminar during the question and answer session I wanted to ask him,

"What if the bible is wrong?"

but of course I didn't as everyone would go *GAAASSSSP!!!* and look at me with huge round eyes.

"YE AVE SINNED!!! THOU SHALL PERISH ETERNALLY!!!!"

Doooooooom~~~

haha.

of course the bible can't be wrong to Christians, but
so are the palis and sutras to Buddhists.

for now my mind is open, I can accept Christianity but I am all for Buddhism. Maybe I should ask a Christian pastor about this.

Worshiping god and practicing Buddhism

and also a Buddhist monk, practicing Buddhism and worshiping a creator-god.

But hey you know what, if I can contribute to mankind by being born into the world again and again and to help free others from suffering, I'm all for it, instead of accepting Christ and go into heaven eternally...I will choose whichever way that is more selfless.

If both doesn't satisfy me, I would have to read the Quran! lol

so what do you think?
I welcome all comments, whether you're a Buddhist or a Christian or a Muslim. But please keep it friendly and respect other religions and faiths.

My younger brother's MSN personal message

JESUS is the key to our life, we would be in hell without him so respect him, give him love and he will love u. LOL=LOVE OUR LORD


My mum's a Christian, My Uncle(yeah the one featured in the 1st video blog post) and his wife, and now my brother... LOL, sorry I mean LtB (Love the Buddha).

Next thing you know, I'm a Christian haha...

I 'll be following my uncle to his Church after my exams to listen about Creation, how the world came to be etc.

should be interesting :)

sorry if I haven't replied to your comments izso and footiam, will tend to it shortly after my papers!

RM2.70/litre

dang it, I just typed a post about the recent price hike of petrol price but the browser hanged up and got deleted.

To summarise,

RM2.70 new price for RON97 fuel.

Fuel price gap between RON92 and RON97 increase from 4 cents/litre to 8 cents/litre

More incentive to use RON92

Found out my Saga 1.3 campro tuned for RON95 and above

Bang head

Mad at people who is blaming the government for increase price hike

They cannot do anything with crude oil prices hitting record high.



Last two weeks read how high fuel price in U.S affecting people lives.
e.g.

Car pooling with three colleagues.

Cycling, jogging to work.

Cutting road trip plans.

Although latest news is that crude oil price fall by 2.7% as oil prices reduces fuel demand. Other news predicts that the oil price bubble will burst. Let's hope for this.

Thinking of getting a motorbike but ditched the idea in the end.

Living in Malaysia is actually not cheap because our income:expense ratio is lower compared to other countries like U.K