Question asked by Kaung Zaw Han
Dear pastors,
During my recent search I found out a terrible website called www.chiinnature.com It is run two ignorant idiots who bash every other religion but praise their BRANCH of Taoism there Germany offensively rude essays bashing Buddhism Christianity Islam Judaism and even Wicca!Please read through them and tell what you think?
Dear Kaung Zaw Han,
You are right in saying that they are ignorant. Otherwise, they would not criticize other religions and praise their own religion. My advice is, just ignore these websites. You will not learn anything of value from them.
In the 3rd Century, the great Buddhist emperor Asoka said, “One should not honour only one’s own religion and condemn the religions of others, but one should honour others’ religions for this or that reason. So doing, one helps one’s own religion to grow and renders service to the religions of others too. In acting otherwise one digs the grave of one’s own religion and also does harm to other religions. Whosoever honours his own religion and condemns other religions, does so indeed through devotion to his own religion, thinking, “I will glorify my own religion”. But on the contrary, in so doing he injures his own religion more gravely. “So concord is good: Let all listen, and be willing to listen to the doctrines professed by others.” (Rock Edict II)
The Buddha always practised tolerance and freedom of thought. He never encouraged others to leave their own religion to follow his teachings. Once, in Nalanda, there was a wealthy man called Upali, a follower of Jaina Mahavira, who was sent by Mahavira to meet the Buddha and to defeat him in debate on certain aspects of karma. But Upali ended up being convinced by the Buddha and he begged the Buddha to accept him as a lay disciple. But the Buddha asked him to continue to respect and support his old religious teachers as he used to. (Upali Sutra)