Can a christian marry a buddhist or other religion?
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It really depends on the christian that u r with. Some of them r so "devoted", they will force their partners to convert or join christian.
I've got a good fren (a buddhist) who's ex-gf was a christian. They almost got married until the girl's mom said u my fren must convert to christian if he wanted to married her daughter. So my fren (who is also devoted to his own religion) said that if their relation is to be interfere by religion, then might as well they just part before more damage is done in the future. -
Actual fact is, if there isn't any folks around you that threaten to severe all ties with you; remove your name from the will; stop your allowance; send you back to Africa, I'd say you can marry any bloke and lass walking on 2 limbs.
Perhaps it doesn't work in countries that share a common religion, but in a country such as Singapore, where multiracial and multireligion harmony are being practiced, think that is definitely encourageable. Besides, religion is individual. There is so far no teaching from the mainstream religions that mentioned force-joining of the sect, besides the dark crafts.
Thus, any blockhead that still think that a Christian should marry a Christian and so on should go on an isolation trip and only come back when grows hair on the sole. If the situation prohibits you from marrying an "outsider", the more you have to find out why and go get one and find out why he/she is an "outsider".
duh. -
however
if u actually NOTICED the trend...
sgrean christians are taught(preached... whichever...) to marry christians...... and not "non-believers"
so what's it gonna be???
hahaha -
seriously, most true-christians would want to marry christians. simply because they share the same faith and same beliefs.
secondly, about the malay part, yes you can marry a malay, but you have got to convert yourself to islam first. -
Hi everyone, I think most of u pple got your facts wrong, for all the religions in singapore, only Muslim strictly requires that when wed, both male and female must be muslim. Simply meaning, a muslim can only marry a muslim. if he/she wishes to get married to a person of diff faith. There are 2 alternatives: Convert the other party to islam or he/she renounces his/her religion of islam. Its that way cause i am chinese, my uncle is a malay but my aunt is a catholic. They married by my uncle renouncing his islam faith and converted to catholism. Still together after 20 plus yrs, son is a catholic. but my uncle slowly still went back ti being a muslim but he is not officially registered as a muslim cause he didn't bother to officially register his faith. He believed in what he wanted.
The children issues on what religion he should take up? its a mutual agreement betw parents. But i feel its best if the child is introduced to both faiths to know more and finally decides on his own when he is older.
Most of u are blurred with the definition of Christianity. I am a christian too, but more specifically, i am a Catholic. Most of the pple treat christianity and catholicism as 2 diff religions. Its somewhat related. The so called 'christians' used to know? its actually Protestanism. Its not a nice name, but yeah thats their actual religion, they juz prefer to call themselves christians cause it sounds nicer. So branched under Christianity is catholics and protestants. And branched under Protestants: haha, u go do that math... there are too many of them. Dominatant ones are the Anglicans, Baptists, presbyterian, evangelist, etc etc.. many many more with more diff classes being created everyday. Recently in the papers about the Abu Sayaf beheading of 2 protestents? they are Jehova Witnsesses, again thats a branch of protestanism. Each having their own diff beliefs. Hope this gives u all a clearer pic.
Somewhere in the threads, i read about someone saying the christians wun like it if u go and woo some girl in their church esp if u are a diff religion? Well, i like to make it clear that this is to a minimal effect in the catholic church. We take a very much more softer approach in evangelisation than the protestants. Although the catholic church and like all religions would recommend marrying within the same faith, its a very subtle hint and encouragement on my side, i wun know about how the protestants would deal with such matters and wun comment.
So i hope what i have said would aid u all in differentiating the diff betw catholics and protestants, but we are still brothers in christ under the branch Christianity. of course we each have diff marrying cultures. but its good to get your facts clear.
Thanx! -
Really a headache!!....haiz.... my gf is a christian, but i was a devoted Buddhist.. but for her sake... i began to slowly convert to Christianity without letting my parents know... juz scared that my parents dun like it.... some of my friends gave advises, which one of them is "dun worry so much, take one step at a time" -
get our facts clear??
i dun really bother abt the "different sides" of christianity...
i experienced for myself
how a community, can actually STRESS a person by saying this is not right, that is not right
blah blah blah
it's quite common, and it's NOT LIMITED TO MUSLIMS.....
note, ISLAM, is SIMILAR to CHRISTIANITY....
do the history, u may choose to deny, but it's the same..
for ur case, it "may not seem" to be this way, but some times, things are more of a hush hush, perhaps its the watever u call it... "grp" who does the talking, and majority of the time, the steady of that christian, will convert to christianity, to "qian jiu" their steady....
other rare cases, they juz breakup
it's a fact, do the math -
my gf is a christian and I'm a buddhist..... dunno how....
so far it does not matter cuz I think we r stil in the honeymoon period... but I wonder if there wil be any implications in the future... -
y must Buddhist convert to christian ? and not the other way arouund ?? .....
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read up on the bible
"seek and ye shall recieve"
=)
anyways
buddhism practices a MORE "open-minded" way of approach to all religions
=) -
yea baby~!Originally posted by AngelDark:read up on the bible
"seek and ye shall recieve"
=)
anyways
buddhism practices a MORE "open-minded" way of approach to all religions
=) -
Hi eagle,
I'm a Christian also.
God does not allow Christian to marry an unbeliever because the possibility of Christian giving in to their love one(non believer) is very high. That is to say that the Christian may do something against the will of God because of their love one. Also, if both of them are Christians, they won't end up in divorce because the Bible said God forbid divorce except adultery case. True Christian will understand that when they are married, they become one body and must not be separated.
Going to church every sunday, tithing, being baptised doesn't make you a Christian. A Christian should love God. Whatever you do, God comes first. When you have something to rejoice or have problems, share with God. Christian should not look for God only when he got problems.
So friend, don't worry about whether you have to convert to Christian to be with your girlfriend. If your girlfriend is a true Christian, she should worry more than you. You can convert to Christian but your heart is not with God, it don't serve any purpose. What you should do is let things go as it is. If you are touch by the love of God, read up the Bible to know more about Him. Faith only comes by the hearing of the Word, that is written in the Bible. God knows your heart, He knows whether you are suitable for His children.
My 2 cents worth.
Jesus Loves
Raymond Chua -
Hi,
With regards to joss stick, can someone share what is the purpose of joss stick. Why is it that you have to burn joss stick to show respect?
Respect comes from the heart, not by burning joss stick. Filial should be shown when the person is still alive, not burning joss stick after they died.
For those who do not know, Christian don't pray and burn joss stick because we believe God created all man. God is our creator and we are His creation. The creation cannot pray to another creation. The creation can only pray to the creator. When we go to the funeral, we may be standing one side, but our heart is crying to God and we thank our departed one for his/her love in our heart.
Jesus Loves
Raymond -
eh brudder..if i were u i better shut up..u dun understand other religion well enuff..y must hold joss stick to pray?? its to respect the dead in our own way our tradition....a son who will not hold a joss stick to pay respect to the dead parent...is disrespect to the dead in our religionOriginally posted by deu65:Hi,
With regards to joss stick, can someone share what is the purpose of joss stick. Why is it that you have to burn joss stick to show respect?
Respect comes from the heart, not by burning joss stick. Filial should be shown when the person is still alive, not burning joss stick after they died.
For those who do not know, Christian don't pray and burn joss stick because we believe God created all man. God is our creator and we are His creation. The creation cannot pray to another creation. The creation can only pray to the creator. When we go to the funeral, we may be standing one side, but our heart is crying to God and we thank our departed one for his/her love in our heart.
Jesus Loves
Raymond
..so r u telling me tat holding joss stick is a bunch of crap??
den i think Christianity is a bunch crap too...go to funeral standing one side...tsk tsk...
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Just out of curiosity, maybe some christians can point out to me, if God is the creator of man, does that mean he create all living things (including dinosaurs) as well? Notwithstanding, then who is the creator of god? And if there is god or creator of god, then where does Darwin's theory of evolution stands?
I happen to be a free thinker, and I am happy with that. I believe in scientific facts, so my "god" will have to be big bang. I believe in man evolved from mouselike creatures eons ago and that came from tiny single cell organisms that existed further back when earth was newly created. However according to the bible, god created earth and all living things in 6 days. Kind of hard to believe that birds and animals will pop out of nowhere in 6 days. And is anyone able to convince me that the man god created was able to speak and communicate within a shortwhile after he was created when there is scientific proof that the human brain took a long time to become substantially developed to enable speech.
My point of view is that one's belief in his/her religion is entirely his own business. There is no point in forcing another person to follow his spouse-to-be religion. Think of it in another way, maybe we all believe in the same "god", just that it is in different forms. Perhaps it will be wiser to let the individuals believe in what they chose to believe in.
Big Bang loves mfscrewu....
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*knock knock your head*Originally posted by RuthBaby:no lah!!
even malay can marry buddist!
Malay where can marry buddhist???
I know whatever guys/gals wanna marry to a Muslim, they must convert to muslim too~ Muslims can never convert to other religions. -
A free thinker like me is the best~ Save bus $$ and time go church in Sundays. Or save $$ to buy incense and hell notes to burn~. hehe~!
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Hi Nathan G5,Originally posted by NathanG5:eh brudder..if i were u i better shut up..u dun understand other religion well enuff..y must hold joss stick to pray?? its to respect the dead in our own way our tradition....a son who will not hold a joss stick to pay respect to the dead parent...is disrespect to the dead in our religion
..so r u telling me tat holding joss stick is a bunch of crap??
den i think Christianity is a bunch crap too...go to funeral standing one side...tsk tsk...
Why get so worked up? You did not get my question. What I'm trying to ask is what will the dead receive from the burning of joss stick? You said I don't understand other religion, maybe you want to tell me what is your religion and we can discuss. For your information, before I accepted Christ, I played drum for the "tung kee" during the "yiu kuey". I even know how to mumble those gibberish words. Do you think I got some knowledge of other religion. You want to talk about Islam, why there is a moon crest on top of its mosque, why pray facing Kaba. Most young muslim won't know, only their older generation knows the reason.
To conclude, I ask the question of joss stick because many people nowadays just follow what the parents do without understanding the meaning. I think we must know the meaning first and whether to believe it is another thing. Just like buying a product, it is not wise to buy something which your friend says it is very good. It is wise to see and test yourself.
Religion is always a "hot" topic. But I believe sometimes we can share amicably, right?.
Raymond -
Hi mfscrewu,Originally posted by mfscrewu:Just out of curiosity, maybe some christians can point out to me, if God is the creator of man, does that mean he create all living things (including dinosaurs) as well? Notwithstanding, then who is the creator of god? And if there is god or creator of god, then where does Darwin's theory of evolution stands?
I happen to be a free thinker, and I am happy with that. I believe in scientific facts, so my "god" will have to be big bang. I believe in man evolved from mouselike creatures eons ago and that came from tiny single cell organisms that existed further back when earth was newly created. However according to the bible, god created earth and all living things in 6 days. Kind of hard to believe that birds and animals will pop out of nowhere in 6 days. And is anyone able to convince me that the man god created was able to speak and communicate within a shortwhile after he was created when there is scientific proof that the human brain took a long time to become substantially developed to enable speech.
My point of view is that one's belief in his/her religion is entirely his own business. There is no point in forcing another person to follow his spouse-to-be religion. Think of it in another way, maybe we all believe in the same "god", just that it is in different forms. Perhaps it will be wiser to let the individuals believe in what they chose to believe in.
Big Bang loves mfscrewu....
Do you have the feeling of me forcing people to accept Christ? I do not have any intention to force people to accept my belief, neither do I tends to belittle other religion. Religion can also be share, right?
So you are an atheist? Do you believe in devils or ghost etc then? With regards Darwin's theory of evolution, Charles Darwin in the later years saw the error of his ways. In his final days, Darwin returned to his faith in the Bible. At his deathbed, he made this confession to his companions:
" I was a young man with unformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time about everything. To my astonishment, the ideas took like wild fire. People made a religion of them".
You can find this quote in the book "Meyers, Voices From the Edge of Eternity, page 239-240.
To believe in Christianity, one must first believe the first verse of the Bible. If he doubts that first verse, then he will not be able to accept the rest of the Bible.
Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning, God created heaven and the earth.
I believe God created everything. As for who created God, I don't have an answer for you because I believe that if God need someone to create, then he is not God. Frankly speaking, certain things need faith to believe and faith comes by hearing.
Raymond -
Deu65
Yes, to that first question of you forcing people to accept Christ (that's in my opinion, sorry that I sound blunt). Religion can be shared, but it is up to the individual to choose whether if he/she would like to do so.
As to being an atheist, maybe I am. I don't believe in devil nor ghosts either. As a person inclining towards science, I seek the truth through facts that can be backed up by scientific explaination. Even if Darwin went back to his faith, then how do you explain evolution then? There is no denying that evolution did take place and is still constantly happening, can you?
You are right that in saying that to believe in christanity, that one must first believe the first verse of the Bible. So I chose not to believe it. You are not the first person whom I have posted the question of who created god. Like you and many others before you, no one has been able to give me a satisfactory answer. To answer that in a more scientific way, law of conservation states that no energy can be created or destroyed. So assuming that god is a source of energy, so there must be something in the universe that changes from an alternate form to that energy which create god or gave it the power. So I seek that truth behind in what is that alternate energy/thing that does that.
I am not here to argue about christanity and other religions. What I am putting before you is that each of us have his/her own faith/belief and his/her own "god". Just as yours have a name, mine belief happens to be known as Big Bang and Evolution. I respect others' right to their faith and perhaps they will do the same for my belief.
Have a nice day and believe in what you think you should. Cheers.
p/s: To the person who posted this topic, love your spouse for who he/she is and not for what he/she believe in. Afterall, there are other things in life of equal or greater than one's religious faith. -
u sure tats wat u mean?? hmm...nvm denOriginally posted by deu65:Hi Nathan G5,
Why get so worked up? You did not get my question. What I'm trying to ask is what will the dead receive from the burning of joss stick? You said I don't understand other religion, maybe you want to tell me what is your religion and we can discuss. For your information, before I accepted Christ, I played drum for the "tung kee" during the "yiu kuey". I even know how to mumble those gibberish words. Do you think I got some knowledge of other religion. You want to talk about Islam, why there is a moon crest on top of its mosque, why pray facing Kaba. Most young muslim won't know, only their older generation knows the reason.
To conclude, I ask the question of joss stick because many people nowadays just follow what the parents do without understanding the meaning. I think we must know the meaning first and whether to believe it is another thing. Just like buying a product, it is not wise to buy something which your friend says it is very good. It is wise to see and test yourself.
Religion is always a "hot" topic. But I believe sometimes we can share amicably, right?.
Raymond
let me ask u a question..do u believe in Life in Other Planet?? -
Hi mfscrewu
I apologised if I give you that kind of feeling.
Yes, evolution did takes place, but it is the kind of evolution we see everyday: hair color, rose color, dog size, finches' beaks. But they do not change the sort of thing the organism is: the person remains a person, the rose a rose, the dog a dog, and the finch a finch. No matter how it change, the dog cannot change to a man.
Read this:
(((Evolution, as it is commonly referred to, demands much more than this. It demands that there have been enough directional mutations, one added to another, through the ages, to change what was once a unicellular organism into the variety of life we see today. This kind of evolution is lacking a mechanism, however, as mutations are not known to do this. We see single mutations, such as antibiotic resistance, malarial resistance (which, in its homozygous form, confers the deadly sickle cell disease), and such, but we do not see mutations adding up anywhere to produce a new form or function. Instead, the vast majority of mutations we do see are negative, harming the organism involved. Those that do not harm, such as antibiotic resistance changes, have the effect of weakening the organism in any environment except the specific one in which that change helped it survive. Change the environment and the original form, if it still exists, proves strongest and takes over again. What we see, what we can work with, and what we see as the results of tests, is called biological stasis. No matter how many generations of E.coli bacteria are worked with, they remain....E.coli. No matter how many generations of fruit flies are subjects of forced mutations, they remain.... fruit flies. We can get different types of mice for our lab experiments until we run out of names for them. They remain mice. This is biological stasis. Variation seems to exist within what Genesis refers to as the "kind," and that is all. Does the scientific consensus overwhelmingly support evolution? Yes, it does. The question is, Why? First of all, most areas of science don't concern themselves with evolution or creation. Science tends to be so incredibly technical today that it is the science philosophers who have taken over the arguments concerning evolution and creation. The scientists in the labs and in the field are, with the exception of some geologists and paleontologists, not thinking about evolution. But that is what they were taught in university as true. And so they accept it. And they accept that anything else is some kind of weird religious doctrine. But if you ask the scientist to point to something in his own field which verifies the type of evolution that turns bacteria to bears, or even supports it, you will get mostly silence. He may point to another field, but very few are willing to point to something in their own field of study which supports evolution especially if you ask them to support evolution to the exclusion of creation.
Thus, to say that the majority of scientists accept evolution may be true on the surface, but that is about as far as their acceptance goes anyway. If a person wants to really find out which is true, it is best to dig into the evidence and read what has been written on both sides. When one meets those who have done so, one just might find a few more creationists than one expected to find. And an even greater number of anti-evolutionists. *Scientifically*, evolution is not something that has been shown to work. Yes, plants and animals change. They can vary in some possibly startling ways. But no breeder of horses, or dogs, or cattle, and no parent, when they hear, "there seems to be a mutation..." is going to excitedly ask, "Is it a good one?". It has not been proven in thousands upon thousands of generations of E.coli, nor has it been proven anywhere else. Remember we are not talking about simple variations within kind, or type, but actual change away from that type -- the type of change on which another change, or mutation, can build so that something new is produced. We have never seen that happen.)))
Whatever the case, discussion between Creation vs Evolution will never end. You need faith to believe in creation. It is the same as for evolution cos it also cannot be proven.
Something for you to ponder over. Why is it that man always go to their god for help if they are desperate and helpless? My view is that all man are created by God and all man belong to God. There is a link between man and God. The spirit of man knows that there is an existence of a God in the world, only thing is that they do not know who is this God. In Christianity, God is our loving Father and we turn to our Father when we need help and comfort from Him. You may not believe now that there is a God, but your spirit will search for it, if not now, maybe in future, whether Christianity, buddhism or Islam.
I am also not here to argue but to share if there is an opportunity. I respect other faith and religions, if not, I would have said that all gods are devils who come to deceive, right?.
Do you burn joss stick and pray to the dead at the wake? Just curious how an atheist show respect to the dead at the wake. No hard feelings, friend.
Anyway, have a nice day to you also.
Peace
Raymond Chua -
Hi NathanG5,Originally posted by NathanG5:u sure tats wat u mean?? hmm...nvm den
let me ask u a question..do u believe in Life in Other Planet??
Yah, don't mean to condemn other religion lah.
I believe that there is life in a new world, whether same planet or not, I don't know. The Bible said 2/3 of the people in this world will die, whether this generation or next few generations, I do not know. I wonder what will the world become with only 1/3 people around.
Raymond -
yea...simple..we will start to reproduce again
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Deu65
Apologies accepted. Anyway, no hard feelings on my part too.
The evolution which you posted are more in a class of mutation and not the classical ones first conceived by Darwin. Take for eg. a mouse was not a mouse in the first place. It evolved from single celled organism (similar to planktons in the oceans) into mouse millions of years later. The original starting point was a cell and not a mouse. Another eg, will perhaps be the primates. Primates came from mouse like creatures walking on all fours before evolving into bipedal primates which we see today. And of course from my point of view, human evolved from primates and not created out of nowhere.
You are right that it will be an endless debate between creation and evolution. Let's just hope that one day the truth will be discovered. Keep your faith and I will continue to uphold my scientific belief.
I am not too sure why man go to their god when they are desperate and helpless. Through my years of education and thirst for knowledge, I have come upon to rely on myself for answer when I am down in the dumps. I ask myself the usual things, who, what, when, where, why and how. From these, I then proceed to find a remedy for the situation I am in.
I do burn joss stick at a wake. Not praying though, rather more as a mark of respect, just trying to remember the things that in a way brought the deceased and I together. Also the burning of joss stick can be thought of as a form of respect for the deceased immediate family. Just like respecting the tradition of others. Nothing more nothing less. When a person passed away, the only thing that remains will be the memories and not afterlife as the majority of the people will be obssessed with.
Hope that answer part of your questions. Cheers.