Don't bother. He'll probably do it himself, considering he thinks science is a crock.

Wu: "I have a clogged artery?? I will use my all-powerful FAITH to get better! Those doctors and their science will never get their hands on ME!"

LOL! Guys! Lutheran Catholic whatever, are just denominations under the same religion........simplifying the whole thing. Just like Zen, Jodo Shinshu, and Nichen, are denominations of Buddhism.

I can imagine my mom's expression if she saw, she was in another category as a Lutheran! LOL! It is ok you didn't know that though EK.

And LMFAO Stingy!!!!!!!!!!!!! The above joke is hilarious!:D

If I was forced to choose a religion, it would probably be Buddhism. But, is Buddhism really a religion? It doesn't have any dieties which, I think, is a requirement if something is to be termed a "religion." It is more of a "way of life" as they say.

Make jokes if you want, but my grandma was diagnosed with cancer about 20 years ago. Being extremely religious, she refused treatment, saying 'If this is how God wants it, so be it.' She did, however, go in for a prognosis check up every couple monthes. She had cancer for about a year and the only type of medicine she was taking was the power of her own prayer. Well, one day she went in for her check up and the doctor was baffled. Her cancer had miraculously disappeared. No operations, no chemo, no medicine, yet her cancer was gone. The doctor said he 'had never seen anything like it' and he could only describe it as a 'miracle'.

I'm sure skeptics would call it a mis-diagnosis, but she went in for almost a year and they were watching the cancer grow every time she did. It was not a mis-diagnosis.

I believe that would be more of a case of extreme willpower than extreme faith. My stepmother has done the same thing. 3 times. Yes, she's beat cancer 3 times. No drugs or anything. She was convinced that her herbal remedies would cure it. Sure enough, through sheer willpower, the cancer went away. It all comes down to the power of your mind.

Really you are right You can be any religion any practice Buddhism, it is a way of life.

There are no Deities, and everyone will eventually be a Buddha......just means enlightened being. Those statues are just symbols for the idea, and Siddhartha Guatauma was just a regular person who became enlightened about his true nature , as many other people have in many other religions.

Buddhism 101 in a nutshell LOL! :)

I love discussing religion, and hearing a lot of different ideas. Even ideas from people who don't believe in anything! Cool!

Well ... if that story is true (and yes, I am very skeptical), then anyone who prays needs to rethink the whole "everything that happens is in God's plan" thing. I mean, if she got cancer, it was in God's plan. So ... if she didn't pray, does that mean the cancer would have killed her? Would not have gone away on its own, like you claim? Or, did her prayer convince God to change his mind about the whole thing?

God: "Well, she seems nice. I guess I've tortured her and her family enough. Begone, cancer!"

Also, it seems to me that God wouldn't perform "miracles" like this. You could argue: "He answered her prayer to strengthen her faith." Sounds like she was already pretty faithful (refused treatment based on her faith) ... why not answer the prayers of people whose faith is wavering? Then you could say: "He answered her prayer to strengthen the faith of the doctor and everyone else who witnessed this." But, wouldn't that be sort of like God providing evidence of his existence? I thought that in order to have true faith you had to believe without any evidence.
I mean ... faith is blind belief. Belief without any rational reason or evidence to support it. I mean, if you had evidence, then it wouldn't be faith. It would be belief based on something.

So, I'm sure that there is a natural explanation for what happened to your grandma. If that story is true. I mean, we don't everything yet, and are particularly ignorant when it comes to the human brain. I am sure the brain has natural powers over the body that we haven't even considered yet.

Yes, "power of the mind". That last post that Ege made. :D

Speaking of which (powers of the mind), I have a good friend who is a total skeptic (and atheist). He subscribes to The Skeptical Enquirer and all that. But, he told me a story about the only thing that happened to him personally that he could not explain - and that was the death of his father. My friend woke up with a start at 3:00 in the morning, with a very uneasy feeling ... only to find out the next day that his father passed away about the same time. Now, my friend and I are very alike in our views about things, so I tended to believe him when he told me this. We discussed it, and agreed that there may be an energy of some sort connecting all of us to each other and everything else. This energy may be stronger in terms of bonding people you are close to, which may explain the sudden wake-up my friend experienced. This is why I say I may become a Buddhist, if I was forced to. Stephen Hawking is working on this idea of a universal energy, which is very exciting stuff. But, I would never go so far as to say that this energy is "god." I think that, if it existed, it would be a mindless energy ... not cognizant of anything.

That is EXACTLY what I believe. I actually got that belief from my father. It is so non-standard that I consider myself agnostic, as there is no word assigned to these types of beliefs. If anyone is interested in the rest of my beliefs, go here http://technologicalwasteland.com/links/session2.html

I may sound nuts in there, but those are my beliefs.