"I saw in the whole Christian world

-
a license of fighting at which even barbarous nations might blush. Wars were begun on trifling pretexts or none at all, and carried on without any reference of law, Divine or human." - Hugo Grotius, On the Laws of War and Peace (1625)

Comments

Anonymous said…
interesting quote!!! it rings true to me, too. i don't really understand why people fight much about which christian denomination is the best, etc.
June 13, 2008 10:59 AM
Richard said…
acey: the problem with Christianity (and all other religions as well, I think) is that they are not discovered, determined and proven, but revealed.

Peace is not possible until people love and respect one another, are tolerant and mindful of others.

Unfortunately, people don't want to be loving. They prefer to be selfish, exploitive, manipulative, coercive and judging; destroyers of all that is different.

The common argument is that resources (land, food, water) are limited and cannot be wasted on those who are unworthy / different.

That may be true for animals, but we are humans and I think we would be better off working together than against each other.
June 13, 2008 4:18 PM
CG said…
The problem with any religion, that the representatives o that religion believe they're the ones that got it right and every other religion is wrong. That is where the problem lies. It's like two hot dog kiosks arguing all the time, saying the other kiosk is selling bad hot dogs. Until the problem of tearing each other apart and trying to deny other religions exists, there will be war over religion, regardless of which path it may be. They need to sit down and talk and found out what was truly lost in translation...
June 15, 2008 9:47 AM
Richard said…
carra: don't you believe that your thoughts, your ideas, your beliefs are right? Aren't those who disagree with you wrong? Or, at best, naively mistaken in their views?

Tolerance is the key.
June 18, 2008 1:49 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chinese Wisdom Concerning Money

-
[19September-2007 @ 17:11 EST: Revised preamble. This page still gets the most search hits: There is no Anthony de Croud. The e-mail is SPAM. I post things that pique my fancy at the moment. I like the 8 precepts, but the rest of the e-mail is junk. However, I thought it fair to post everything in its entirety. I did not write the e-mail. I did not forward the e-mail. I strongly encourage you not to forward it either. (I also encourage you to reply to whomever sent you the e-mail and tell them you don't appreciate getting junk mail.)] Received this in our e-mail (English translation follows): PRECEPTO CHINO SOBRE EL DINERO EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA CASA, PERO NO UN HOGAR, EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UN RELOJ, PERO NO EL TIEMPO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA CAMA, PERO NO EL SUEÑO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UN LIBRO, PERO NO EL CONOCIMIENTO. EL DINERO PUEDE PAGAR UN MÉDICO, PERO NO LA SALUD. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA POSICIÓN, PERO NO EL RESPETO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR LA SANGRE, PERO ...
Read more

Not quite Jacques Cousteau

-
Image
I had bought some frozen calamari (squid) a while back and decided that it was time I actually did something with them. I thawed them out and cleaned them. I have never done this before and I am sure I was horribly slow and inefficient (it took me an hour to clean 2 pounds – 907g – worth). You begin by grasping the body and pulling out the head and guts. Then you squeeze out the guck inside and then peel off the skin (or film) on the surface. As a bonus, most of the skin comes off when you squeeze out the gunk. Finally you need to remove the spine. This was news to me, I thought that squid did not have any hard structure (aside from the beaky mouth). It is an interesting piece, when removed, it looks exactly like a piece of transparent plastic. Still haven’t decided what to make with it, but I will cook it tonight. Photo credits: Richard of Forbidden Planet [Note: today, blogger forced me to change over to the new blogger. When I logged in, I could not see any way to log on to my old ...
Read more

You may spend your life killing,

-
but you will not exhaust all your foes. If you quell your own anger, your real enemy will be slain. - Nagarjuna , a Buddhist philosopher, c150-250 CE He that will be angry for anything will be angry for nothing. - Sallust, Roman historian, 86-34 BCE. When we reject people in anger, or turn on them with the aim of inflicting pain, we damage our souls even more. - Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor, 121-180 CE (Meditations, Chapter 2) [For those who are curious where I've been ... erm ... mixture of a lack of enthusiasm, energy and time for blogging. But not to worry, I have had plenty of time to come down with Strep throat - twice. I am currently on my second round of antibiotics, apparently the first round wasn't wholly effective. Makes me wonder how 10 days was decided upon as the standard treatment duration because this is not the first time a round of antibiotics has failed to cure me and I have ended up going for a second round. I have also been busy reading about photograph...
Read more