DISQUS

The reddit blog: Ask Karen Armstrong Anything

  • pauldarwish · 2 months ago
    What is the difference between compassion and love?
  • alexis · 2 months ago
  • Joseph Schneider · 2 months ago
    In your new book The Case for God, you discuss the changing understanding of what "belief" means, from commitment and practice to the modern requirement of intellectual assent. Do you see any shining examples in Islam or Judaism or Christianity of groups that negotiate logos and mythos more successfully?
  • alexis · 2 months ago
  • franzoo · 1 month ago
    What do you think is the best way to bridge the gap between the message of religion and the way that message is executed by it's leaders?
  • alexis · 1 month ago
  • theaiberall · 1 month ago
    Each religion has at its basic level a respect for something, usually something meaningful (e.g., Judaism respects the Torah, Islam the Koran, Christianity respects faith). This is true whether the adherents and leaders of the religion practice the morality laid down by their own religions. Can this notion of respect be grown into a common ground that all religions can accept?
  • alexis · 1 month ago
  • pattyhardy · 1 month ago
    Would you consider branding (of products and services) to be the new biblia pauperum of the consumer?


    Background:
    I call devoted consumers the 'illiterati' because there is a willfully ignorant and cult-like aspiration in consumerism - for example, coca cola is a prerequisite at any gathering; fashion drives the choice of clothing, food, holiday and motor vehicle sales, and so on. Fashion has a primary function in consumerism. Fashion is the portal to self esteem.

    Consumerism is so harmful to the planet and to the soul, it cannot be a considered choice. It is the antithesis of spiritual devotion. It is quite simply the replacement of god with mammon, hence the biblia pauperum.

    What do you think?
  • alexis · 1 month ago
    Submit all questions here: http://www.reddit.com/r/religion/comments/9xwud...
  • shackett · 1 month ago
    I've been moved by this idea since the day I read the Dalai Lama's quote, "My religion is kindness." Compassion is something I believe in deeply, too. But how can compassion regain it's place in religion when there's no money to be made being compassionate? How will people see different groups with kindness when they've already been taught that their religion condemns those groups? I wish I could believe that people really wanted a movement towards compassion... but most people don't want to work for their religion, they want something that comforts them and gives them a sense of power, and that they are right and others are wrong. How can compassion compete with that to those who don't already feel it?
  • alexis · 1 month ago
    Submit all questions here: http://www.reddit.com/r/religion/comments/9xwud...
  • Matthew Chrisler · 1 month ago
    What types of relations are being built along religious lines between the people of the United States and Iran?
    Religion, far from causing the original problem, has now been appropriated by both Iran and the United States to symbolize a clash of civilizations that is NOT a fundamental conflict.
  • Edelle Rose · 1 month ago
    Is it possible that compassion reinforces the concept of self and other as separate instead of One? The parts of the body do not show compassion for each other because they do not recognize that they are separate. Self interest encourages us to care for our eyes as well as our feet and teeth. This seems to me to be a good model for care of each other and they Earth. We are really all one!
  • atmosfera · 1 month ago
    I strongly disagree with you linking human values to supernatural beings but I am with you on the idea of multiplying the compassion concept all over the world.

    I think you should include the full rainbow of human perspectives.

    Why don't you frame the charter for compassion under an inclusive, collaborative light that includes Buddhist, Christians, Muslims and non religious people?
  • hopeseekr · 1 month ago
    http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/9yj...

    I have been libelled seriously by a redditor. I have been trying to get in contact w/ reddit admins for many days now. "send a message" via reddit has gotten no response. Please email me. I realy wish I could just talk w/ you guys but I am going to have to escalate this into the court system if I am unable to contact anyone.
  • tpahornet · 1 month ago
    Why in the United States and elsewhere in the world are the fundamentalist of most religions so set at destroying others. i.e. Born again christians who were so supportive to both GW Bush's wars of aggression? This mindset is both scary and how can they justify their beliefs when the bible clearly states in the 10 commandments that it is against God's Law to kill or steal from your neighbor?
  • steveh2u · 1 month ago
    Do you think religion will ever disappear?
  • Jonathan French · 1 month ago
    Do you have any resources to assist in the process of educating our youth in the school system. I am a religious education teacher and realize that many of your words and thought process would be of great benefit to young people. I am looking for ways in which to translate your ideas into 'lessons' for the classroom.
  • Charlie Beggs · 1 month ago
    GOD..........That which gave to us our desires, feelings, instincts and all other perceptions and involintary reactions unavailable to lesser species currently incapable of perception. That is why the Golden Rule works for all religions, and is in fact a nescessary tennant for thier inception
  • birgittaadolfson · 1 month ago
    U talk 2 me – 1 love – lets rewind colourful and invent the wheel again!
  • Birgitta Adolfson · 1 month ago
    U talk 2 me – 1 love – lets rewind colourful and invent the wheel again!
  • Birgitta Adolfson · 1 month ago
    U talk 2 me – 1 love – lets rewind colourful and invent the wheel again!
  • Kirsten Bolwig · 1 month ago
    Could you please forward this plea to Karen Armtrong.
    Dear Karen, I have listened moved to your recent address to the TED audience on the subject of compassion and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. I plead that you consider the Alliance between the Abrahamic religions as the first of a two part program with the second objective being forming a bridge between the Alliance and the spiritual wisdom of the indigenous people of the world namely Central America, Australia and New Zealand. Peace on Earth cannot integrate within the hearts of mankind until there is peace with the Earth and respect for all that co-exist on Her. With the combined spiritual wisdom of both there will truly be the balanced force that can carry us forward through the next millenium. Many Blessings, Kirsten Bolwig kirsten@kirstenbolwig.com
  • Kirsten Bolwig · 1 month ago
    Dear Karen Armstrong, I was moved by your eloquent address before the TED audience referring to the Alliance of Civilizations and compassion. May I make the plea that you consider the Alliance between the Abrahamic religions the first part of two stages, the second being forming a bridge between the Alliance and the spiritual wisdom of the indigenous people of the world namely those of Central America, Australia and New Zealand. Their spiritual understanding of how to live in harmony and respect with all life if combined with the ethos of compassion that is seen in the Great Religions will result in the full expression of the Golden Rule. We will not have peace on Earth until we have peace with the Earth. Many Blessings, Kirsten Bolwig kirsten@kirstenbolwig
  • dizi izle · 2 weeks ago
    thank you
  • dizi izle · 2 weeks ago
    Should be a good one. Thanks!
  • danyoung · 1 week ago
    Karen,
    My question is: Can someone believe in Christianity without believing in Jesus Christ? As background let me say that in my search for what I believe by a process of elimination I have come across the idea that: "God is not what I don't believe in". This is my response to a church that insists that any searching that I may do is a result of an insufficient belief in God. With respect to Jesus I feel somewhat the other way. The church insists that I believe in the person of Jesus as a physical truth. I prefer to believe in Jesus' teachings, and I find the truth of Jesus as a person to be somewhat irrelevant. After all, Jesus said "Follow me". He didn't say "Worship me". Yet the church insiste that worship is the end all of religious experience. I find this discomforting. I find worship of a person to be idolitrous, and I'm much more comforted by a belief in Christ's values and ideas as expressed by the Christian religion than I am by a belief in the person of Christ. Hence I'm toying with the assertion "I believe in Christianity but not in Christ". I would relish your comment.

    Dan Young