Is being Religious a part of being Successful

I apologise unreservedly if I caused any offence to anyone and @sanj. Though it's not really a defence (unless it's a murder case but I digress) but I was baited especially in the more recent exchanged and the mods must had agreed as well otherwise @sanj's post would not had been either deleted or edited. It was infuriating that I was accused of supporting someone who covered up an abuse. I'm quite assertive and combative and don't let anyone bully me ever and had this mindset ever since I was young and the only Asian kid in school. Once I learned martial arts I was never bullied again

 

Just did some reading on the basic beliefs of Sikhs and it's actually very similar to Judaism in many ways. Also I didn't know Sikhs believe in reincarnation which is very interesting. Jews also do btw.

 

Apology accepted @Pentanol. No hard feelings mate.

 

Just to add another view point here.. and i have never been too religious or at all against it as i dont believe what i know is enough to state it as an absolute fact.. but are we saying that our knowledge at this point on what science can lead to is absolute? We dont know yet what we dont know.. What is possible today must seem magic to ones before us and who knows if science tomorrow leads to a proof (or not) of what we now call religion?
Would like to add that i have always found your respect for people, their beliefs, their backgrounds very admirable and you are of course entitled to your views.

 

You will be surprise how much we are all similar.
For example i was talking to a Christian colleague how Christ is one of our highly regarded Prophets (as a Muslim) and virgin Mary a deeply respected and very important religious figure for us.. basically sharing the limited knowledge we both had on what our religious teachings have been and found so many similarities. I was surprised she didn't know that. and she was surprised that muslims revere Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary the way we do. Another close friend is Hindu and i seriously love how humane and kind those teachings are.. they aspire not to harm/eat animals, anything that can hurt and feel pain.. the concept of reincarnation and reincarnating into any living thing not just a human, imagine how much respect you would have for every living creature.. Then another close friend doesn't believe in God and shes never needed a religious compass to be an extremely awesome person.. to me she gets double the kudos for just being a naturally good person without the "support" system that calls for her to be one..

Fact is that we can choose to admire something in every faith or the way those without belief lead their lives with principles just as easily as we question it.

 

Yup, in Quran, God has no gender.. Infact instead of a man the love of God is compared to a mothers..
Also Moses is another respected prophet for muslims..

 

Jews and Muslims really pray to the same source.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself!

 

Hilarious and scary at the same time.

 

Contrary to popular belief Hinduism has only one true God: Brahman (the Absolute, the Unknowable). All other Hindu deities stem from this one God and are only perceived by us humans due to our illusion (Maya). For example the most well known of them – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva – are only the manifestation of Brahman in its 3 aspects (the Trimurti).

Strikingly enough, in Christianity too, God is expressed through a Trinity as well as the work of heavenly hierarchies such as angels, saints and patrons.

In another point of confusion, Buddhism is almost universally viewed as a godless belief system. Indeed there is no personal God in Buddhism, but central in Buddhist teachings is Buddha-nature, the pure, unmanifested, formless consciousness from which all forms come into existence eg. physical things, thoughts, feelings… It isn’t too far-stretched to talk about “creation” here and Buddha-nature can be to some degree viewed as “the one creator”.

Enlightenment happens when Buddha-nature is realised as our true nature – not unlike in Christianity where salvation is realised through our union with the true God.

And there is this: Buddhism has a huge pantheon of buddhas with various orders of deities and saints… and a trinity too (the Trikaya or 3 aspects of Buddha)!

So lots of parallels to be drawn if one is willing to go deeper than the usual banalities.

And sorry if I’ve caused offence. Just trying to express a perspective that for some people could be worthy of consideration.

 

I cannot imagine how these posts could ever cause any offense. Thank you to all the writers for adding to the discussion.

 

Some are so arrogant and ignorant to think science explains all, even when countless physicists et al have said much cannot be explained by science and we cannot discount alternative/joint theories of how nature came to being and operates.

 

This is not what the Buddha taught. Later developments - the Mahayana.

 

im going to go against the spirit of your post

but there are so many things that religion accounts for, obviously as its 1000s of years old , only to be proved scientifically, eg thunder/lightening, many cultures say its the gods getting angry, however science over the past years has explained it, and its not a phenomenon of any sort,

but it doesnt go the other, something that cant be explained by science is often attributed to religion or act of god, but not explained, eg a terminallly ill cancer patient suddenly recovering,
science at present cant explain it, or it could have been pot luck,
but then often religion/god is attritubed as a miracle,

scientists cant to this explain why magnets have north and south poles, but it doesnt necessarily mean its an act of god, in a few 100 years it would surely be scientifically explained,

I think there is a statistical term to describe the above

back to the original question from post #1, is being relgious needed to be successful,
i believe absolutely not, it can help some to excel , but it may mean nothing to others , im sure there are millions of successful people who are not religios

 

Nice to see people can agree to disagree, respect ...

 

It's all good. what's fantastic is we are free to have our own beliefs and even openly share them in this country and be safe from persecution.

 

Disclosure: I haven't read the quran, just passages.

Religious people always talk about the love of god in their religious text and completely ignore their god's vengeful hate. I know that in the quran Mohammed commits genocide on the orders of god. That alone is enough for me to not wanting anything to do with a god like that.

But I do have to concede your point that your god is not too dissimilar to the (old testament at least) christian god. He also sends plagues and kills the first born child of each Egyptian just because he had an issue with one Egyptian bloke.

 

Old testament is actually the Jewish bible. With regards to the other stuff well it's pointless to debate .But far simpler things in life are rarely black and white so not sure why ppl think infinitely more complex issues could be. At any rate, this is a great land where we are free to worship as we like. So grateful to live in Australia.

 

Watched an interview with Tyler Perry, awesome guy, amazing what he has achieved considering his back ground etc.

Tyler Perry

The only problem is once he got onto religion I just switched off.

I don't care what people believe in but I just don't want people to preach to me.... such a turn off. I think I can make my own choices in life

 

I would be the last person to justify any of that. I also dont have enough knowledge to tell you what happened or didnt. I mean, i wasnt there!

Besides that lack of knowledge, I have my own issues with my belief system to worry about, to even attempt to decode yours. When one of my very close friends died of brain tumor at 23 i questioned why a merciful loving God would let her suffer how she did. I have questioned the whole concept and i have passed through the stage of being uncomfortable with questioning it. I have also passed through the stage of wanting to justify why i believe or dont believe in something, and the only thing that truly deeply makes me uncomfortable now is questioning what other people believe in or coming across in any way like i am trying to influence them, cz i really am not. I genuinely only try to look at the positives of what they believe in and why, and i dont support anything horrible that is done in the name of that belief or lack of it. My faith is as simple as that.

The only thing i would question in all that you have said is: you know nothing about my relationship with "my God" or lack thereof. What you are talking about is your own belief system and people should respect why you feel the way you do, which is easy to do when you see what forms the basis of how you feel.