Answers on religious topics. Obviously this is much more about my opinion than the previous set of answers about Java and programming. But it has also been a chance for me to share what I've learned about Buddhism over the last 20 years.
Buddhism
- How would a Buddhist approach the philosophical trolley problem?
- Why did the Ancient Hindus and Buddhists fail to discover the Scientific Method through their meditation?
- How does Christian nominalism relate to Buddhist philosophy?
- How can the Buddhist concepts of karma, samsara, and anatta coexist?
- What is your favorite quote from a religious scripture?
- What does Buddhism say about if you have done something bad in the past?
- What does the red string in Buddhist tradition imply?
- How is Mahayana Buddhism related to Zen Buddhism?
- Do Shingon Buddhist monks claim to have supernatural powers?
- How can karma be explained, even if there is no actual distinction between the past, present, and future?
- Was Shakyamuni Buddha responsible for the universe?
- How do you pray to Gautama Buddha?
- Why does Buddhism not proselytize?
- Where does the Mahayana tradition of multiple Buddhas come from?
- Buddha was a real person. Was he fat or thin?
- When and how did Gautama Buddha die?
- Which Sutra would be the best representation of Buddhism for a staunch evangelical Christian to read?
- Why are Buddhists happy?
- What is the name of the holy book of Buddhism?
- What does Buddhism mean by "do not misuse your sexual energy"?
- Why is the mind considered a sense like any of the other five senses we have in Buddhism?
- Were Confucius, Jesus, Aristotle, Buddha and Prophet Muhammad, teleological thinkers?
- In his blog, Andrew Matzner writes that according to Theravada Buddhism, only men, by virtue of their sex, can attain Nirvana. Is he paraphrasing historian Jackson, or where does he get that from?
- None of the three religions, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, attaches importance to women. Does this mean that man and woman never should be equally treated?
- How many hours does it take to study Buddhism?
- Is Tibetan Buddhism part of the Mahayana or Theravada branches?
- Which religion requires the smallest leap of faith?
- Are there any similarities between Buddha and Doctor Who?
other religions
A chance to correct some misconceptions.
- Is it a sin to act on homosexual feelings?
- What kind of new religions might emerge in the next thousand years? What might be their basic philosophy and tenets? Which of the modern religions might see a revival and why?
- Did Noah gather specimens from each of the 10,000 reptilian species and put them on his ark?
- Can we make a list of directly contradictory quotes found in one of the world's great holy books?
- Why muslim personal law board and churches in India are opposing homosexuality?
- Why do Christians disagree about whether premarital sex is acceptable?
- Why could Muslims destroy the Buddhas of Bamiyan but the French could not make comics of the prophet Muhammad?
- If the majority believe in a kind of God but there isn't a majority that make the same fundamental claims mutually compatible about God, are the majority of believers wrong?
- Is there any self harm tradition or custom of cutting one's hand or wrist to show respect, reverence, sorrow or appreciation for an event or person?
- Would Christians support the freedom of religion to deny wedding cakes to interracial marriages?
- Is the notion that in the Muslim world, women should be covered up because men can't control their sexual thoughts sexist towards men?
- Can you be a Jew, a Muslim and a Christian at the same time?
People do have some odd ideas. Again, many of these questions weren't ones I sought out, but I got an “ask to answer” through Quora and gave them a go. That's part of the fun of Quora.