How does the Baptist religion stack up against other religions?

It shares some interesting differences and similarities with other religions such as Catholicism, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism.

I wonder about Buddhism, it really does preach and practise peace, without the mystic band aids trying to prove the unprovable claims.

Oh wow, I love that thought. I've kind of wondered the same thing. I know a little about Islam, Catholicism, Judaism, and some of the other Protestant denominations, and have done quite a bit of research into some of the more obvious cults, but nothing at all about Buddhism other than they're represented by a statue of a fat guy (I have little room to talk here, but I'm working on it).

Just Me is the scholar around here. I know she's done some research on other religions so maybe she can shed some light. If I have anything to add I'll do it after she's had a chance to respond. I have to get back to work.

I'm not sure what you mean by mystical band aids.

Just Me is having a very busy day, but said she'll tell us about Buddha later (all I could do is find something on the Internet and put it here). Here's my two-cents on the different denominations.

As for Baptists there are lots of flavors. Generally Baptists believe in once-saved always-saved, although the Free Will and General Baptists disagree with that and believe you can lose your salvation. Most Baptists groups that I'm aware of are strongly for freedom of religion, primarily because when you know the Truth and are willing to share it, you will find converts and God's Word will flourish. Baptists believe in immersion by dunking, not sprinkling, and tend to not believe in infant baptism (Presbyterians are all I know of who believe that). The Southern Baptists are grouped together as the Southern Baptist Convention, and some other Baptist organizations are grouped together also. The Southern Baptists, Northern Baptists, and I think the American Baptists have organizations that send out missionaries, meaning each church contributes to the organization which recruits and trains the missionaries, then sends them on their way. The Independent and Missionary Baptists believe that a missionary should go to a church and solicit the funds himself, and report back to the church on a regular basis. These missionaries are supported by several different churches. Baptists are strongly decentralized. This is a strength in that non-Biblical ideas will not spread and take over the entire denomination as has happened to some extent with the Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presbyterians. The property these denominations have is owned by the organization, so if individual churches wants to break away from an organization because of teachings that are clearly NOT Biblical (i.e. homosexual Pastors and marriage, condoning abortion, etc), they have to leave the building and its furnishings behind. As with everything there is a downside. As Arthur is well aware, some churches tend to stray from the mark, such as Fred Phelps in Kansas. Since each church is independently run, the Pastor can only be expelled by the congregation. Since Phelps's church is made up primarily of his family, that's unlikely to happen. If I were an Atheist I'd be donating money to him. He's done a lot of damage to the body of Christ.

Judaism is special in that the Jews are God's chosen people. Christianity and Islam both sprang out of Judaism, in that Islam is a perversion of it and Jesus Christ was Jewish. The Old Testament is the Jewish Bible, with the first five books of it being the (I can't remember what they call it other than the Books of Moses).

Islam as I said is a perversion of Judaism. There are a couple of main divisions, and are probably one of the strictest of religions in terms of tolerance to others. They have almost zero. Wahadaism (I don't know the spelling) is a radical form of Islam that's been around for quite a while. This is where the terrorists are coming from. To my memory the first big act by them was the killing of the Jewish athletes during the Munich Olympics. Islam is dangerous, but only because it can lead people away from the Truth. Those who want to blow themselves up are a minority as I understand it. That said, it IS NOT a religion of peace.

It's always possible I'm wrong on some of the above. If so, feel free to correct me. I'm always willing to learn.

My understanding of Buddhism is that they do indeed practice peace, but not in the sense you'd think. Their objective is to attain peace inside. They search for the "middle way," meaning they want to avoid extremes.

I agree that Islam is far from being a peaceful religion. It spread throughout the Middle East by conquest. Either you converted to Islam or you died. They were stopped in Europe in the Middle Ages (can't remember when exactly, although to be fair they do a great deal of good for the poor in their communities, as long as you're not a woman). The Barbary Pirates in America's own history were Islamic raiders. The "Shores of Tripoli" immortalizes one of the first fights our Marines and Navy were engaged in after the Revolutionary War, and that was against the, you guessed it, Islamic Barbary Pirates. There were two wars actually, not just one fight. Look it up and learn about it. It's fascinating.

Do Christians start wars and do bad things? Sure we do. We're still human after all. Besides, sometimes war is necessary. I heard a quote one time that "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." If I see a woman or a child being beaten, or a man for that matter, and do nothing, aren't I part of the problem? If I have the ability to make someone's life better and say it's none of my business or, this is mine they can take care of themselves, aren't I being selfish? What would the world be like if the United States, Great Britain, and others hadn't combined their forces to defeat Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese, or after WWII communism, Kadafi, and Hussein? Evil must be confronted. To turn our backs on it will only make it stronger.

Thanks for listening to me. I've had a stressful day and my tact isn't...intact right now.

Sorry if I came across as militant yesterday. The "unprovable claims" remark got under my skin a little. Exactly what proof could you possibly need? Look around you for goodness sake. It's like asking how do I know grass is green in the Spring or that an American football is usually brown. It's self-evident.

Jesus Christ fulfilled over 40 prophecies during His life and death, made at the minimum 300 years before He was born. The Old Testament has other prophecies that were made and fulfilled also (aside from Jesus). The 11 original Apostles, aside from Judas, and Paul, also an Apostle, lived hard lives and eventually died as martyrs for the most part. They went from cowering in their rooms after His death to proclaiming Christ without fear. You must at the least admit that THEY believed it was true. If they had made it up all that would have been necessary was for one of them to recant and deny what they had said to save their lives and the Jewish Sanhedrin or the Romans would have paraded them around all over the place to break the back of Christianity. You might say well how do we know that they didn't; There are surviving records from that time other than the Bible. In the works of Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews I believe which Infilled has here (I included a link), Christ is mentioned. This was written around 93AD, so if one of the Apostles had denied Christ it would have been known by then. There are others also.

How much of the Bible is literal and how much is figurative? I don't know, but I'm an intelligent, educated person and the only reason I can see somebody wouldn't believe is either they haven't been told or they think they'd have to give something up. You don't give anything up when you come to Christ. What you want changes and you GAIN everything.

I'll get off my soapbox now.