Which religion likes censorship more?

Buddhism likes censorship most...no partying, singing, dancing, sex, harmful speech, drinking and drugs, eating the wrong foods, wearing perfumes, jewerly, etc..., having a luxurious sleeping place, or accepting money...these are the rules...
 
VitalOne said:
Buddhism likes censorship most...no partying, singing, dancing, sex, harmful speech, drinking and drugs, eating the wrong foods, wearing perfumes, jewerly, etc..., having a luxurious sleeping place, or accepting money...these are the rules...
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It's not that simple. A buddhist could argue that non-buddhists, especially overly rational, secular types have internal censors about experience. In other words most people are not allowing themselves to be aware of things (including many things 'inside' themselves) that the buddhists are aware of and are open to.
 
Itseemstome
All religions tend to come in the pattern ‘my man said his God told him this’, and I am now telling you what he meant by that.
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That's bunk on the face of it. Both Judaism and Christianity began when God contacted man. Buddhism began under the tree of enlightenment with no god involved. Most pagan religions started with an attempt to explain natural phenomenon. The claim here is a gross simplification to distort the truth.

Just as a small example, I’ve spent about 35 years musing on the nature of reality and come to the conclusion that most of the world’s religions completely under-estimate the enormity of the truth.
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Another sweeping generalization distorting the nature of Christianity at least. The nature of the Christian God is such that nothing is without His purview. All of time, past, present and future is His 'moment'. All of the Universe – and anything theoretically 'out' of the Universe is His locale. However, the man of man cannot grasp anything more than Hollywood special effects. Certainly a finite mind cannot grasp more than the bare essence of the concept of infinity.

I can, at least, put forward an explanation of how the religions originally came about. I did just this under the topic ‘What is the heart of the major religions’, and even our easy going moderator felt the need to censor such opinions with the comment, ‘’This thread has become erratic. If anyone wants to discover, what is the heart of the major religions, I suggest you turn to more reasonable and authoritative sources of information - like books on world religions.

Thread closed.’’

I rest my case.
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So, is this 'censorship' by religion? Which religion censored this particular thread? Here is the case argued by showcasing a particular incident unrelated to the question and trying to connect the two by misuse of a single word.

Oli
THOU SHALT NOT is censorship at its most basic - it dictates what you can or cannot do.
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As pointed out, laws governing actions of one person toward another is not censorship. He goes on…
And "thou shalt not worship graven images"?
Control: no other gods - no freedom of thought.
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Which demonstrates a serious lack of thought on the subject.

The Decalogue was given to the nation of Israel, after God had freed them from Egyptian bondage and presented them a choice of serving Him. The Decalogue is the basic agreement; If you are to be my people, then you must do this. This also applies to anyone who wishes to be a Christian. It does not apply to anyone not agreeing to the covenant with God.

In like manner, during the period 1939 to 1945, no British citizen was free to swear loyalty or fealty to the government of Germany. Who considers that 'censorship' or a restriction of 'freedom of thought'?
By definition religion seeks to control ideas.
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That's a twisted way of saying, 'if one is to be part of XXX, then one must act as part of XXX'; if one acts, believes and supports YYY, then one cannot be part of XXX.

In China, the first censorship law was introduced in 300 AD.
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I looked at the website you cited. What was censored? (The website doesn't mention it.) Which religion imposed that censorship law? Are you confusing governmental censorship with religious censorship?

I suppose this question is way overdue: What do you consider 'censorship'? I have a feeling you think any law that restricts your choice in anything is 'censorship'. That is a very special meaning.

Grantywanty
The religious idea of the sacred can lead to censorship more directly than non-religious beliefs. God, Jesus, Mary, Allah, etc. must be treated very specially in images and words. Notions of heresy and blasphemy circling around many types of language use flow pretty naturally from religiuos ideas.
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Not exactly. There are many more instances of secular censorship in history than religious censorship. Practically every nation in the history of the word – a few modern republics being the exceptions – have had laws related to "Do not badmouth the one in charge!" Oft times it came or comes under the heading of treason or such, but that's far more common than any religious censorship. Typically, religious censorship only applies to those members of a religion. The Biblical injunction about 'the Lord's name in vain' was written only to the followers of the Lord. It was much later the religious leaders expanded it upon others as well.

Islam, is of course the exception to that one. But then Islam has always been an attempted government in progress as well as religion.

I do see this in secular contexts, but not generally with as much force, not in defense of beings who are (by definition) vastly better at defending themselves than we are them, and not so strictly.
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Gads! Did you miss all the Chinese governments who ever sat; the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Soviet Union, NAZI Germany, Idi Amin and the Global Warming crowd? All those entities most strenuously acted to forestall, inhibit and stamp out any sort of 'opposing dialog'.

I do think religious people have a greater tendency to decide that something should not be said or written.
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If you means on grounds of vulgarity or offensiveness, you're possibly correct. If you're implying censorship to deny discussion or exploration of ideas, that is not true. It also depends on what you mean by 'religious'. To lump Christianity and Islam together in this is error bounding on fraud. To present the 'hucksters' of most anything along with the serious students is also erroneous.

Wisdom Speaker, speaker of my truth
You can easily manipulate an unhappy person, the purpose of religions.
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Not much to say to this. Anyone with this distorted a view of reality isn't going to be reached by facts, reason or logic. That's really, really sad. Especially in light of the name and title used.


To speak to the original question, the religion with the greatest desire and willingness to censor and manipulate everyone's thought and speech is secular humanism. The tools of secular humanism's censorship range from governmental laws and regulations – the so called 'hate speech' laws – to law suits designed to harass and or bankrupt the target to intimidation by ridicule and physical bullying.
 
I don't think this is a fair question to ask. It evokes the assumption that cemsorship is something introduced by the religion or that it is the essence of religion that imposes the censors, while these are not true. It is the human nature that makes some limitations and restrictions necessary. Exposing a child to explicit porn for example is not a good idea, sameways exposing the society to adultery, incest, or lawlessness in general is a bad idea.
What religion does is putting rules by which people regulate their individual and social lives and their relationships with the others.
 
John J. Bannan said:
And why do they feel the need to censor?
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most people and entities who face potential threat feels the need to censor or alter facts... it makes sense, i guess, in the interest of self-protection... i really think it's as simple as that. especially with something like religion, where legitimate threats constantly arise. you'd think morals would play some role, though. but nah.
 
VitalOne said:
Buddhism likes censorship most...no partying, singing, dancing, sex, harmful speech, drinking and drugs, eating the wrong foods, wearing perfumes, jewerly, etc..., having a luxurious sleeping place, or accepting money...these are the rules...
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the rules doesn't make it censorship... these are willing choices. i'd consider censorship if they were doing shady things and leaving you out of it. or like, with the christian bible, how certain books were left out. that seems more like censorship than setting forth clear rules to not indulge in say the wrong foods and then giving people the choice to accept or deny it. if the believer is making a choice to deny themselves of this or that, it is hardly censorship.
 
John J. Bannan said:
And why do they feel the need to censor?
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I think the religion (even being a Christian) that is most guilty of censoring, is the Christians. I think the Bible has been censored and changed so much to fit modern thought that it barely resembles the original Bible. Before the 'King James' version of modern age, the Bible supposedly had named men the dominant race, because the woman was the one who had been tricked into eating the apple that gave the world sin. The biggest thing that we censored is references to sex. Apparantly God is some big ol' pervert (I hope I don't get smited for that!) read this paper for more on that: http://www.totse.com/en/religion/christianity/sexingodswords192134.html

I hope I've helped at least a little.
 
i feel the need to comment
when i was 9 yrs old i saw a magazine of naked 'chicks' with the word that rhymes with that. (it wasn't at my house, i'll tell ya that)
i would rather have had it censored from me

i think jews censor the most and it's great
there are hundreds of laws on watching your mouth (google loshon hara) because one wrong word can really kill people

i think that if i didnt know half the stuff i know from growing up in western society i'd be much happier, yay censorship!

and i don't hold that the Christian bible has anything to do with the Jewish bible except from what it took from us
 
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While all religions censor to some extent, I'm still going to have to go with Islam.
Walk around in a Christian country wearing a T shirt with Jesus on it and see what happens (i.e. probably nothing). Go into an Islamic State country wearing a shirt with Mohammed on it and see what happens.

Who blew up those statues of Buddha in Afghanistan?
 
I don't know which religion likes censorship the most, but it seems that most (if not all) major religions like to do away with things they dislike.

I've read about Christians wanting to get rid of books about gays, Muslims wanting to ban cartoons about Mohammed, Jews whining about Christmas displays in stores...

A few years ago I read about Hindu extremists (I didn't even know such a thing existed) in India threatening violence against Indians who celebrated Valentine's Day.

:shrug:
 
I think the Catholic church like to censorship more than anyone. The pope still insists on no condoms, no birth pills....etc. What next pope ? !.
 
Religious groups usually promote censorship to minimize opposition to their power.

The less arguments against a religion, the more credible the religion seems, as their is an abundance of arguments FOR it.
 
Religion doesnt censor the news, people censor the news. I have never heard of a religion that provides explicit instructions on what to write or not to write. If it is not explicitly written it is probably an interpretation or misinterpretation by somebody powerful enough to censor somebodies writings.
 
Grantywanty said:
There are people who view ideas like viruses - hell, even Richard Dawkins does. They think we are 'really' bad and that if we are exposed to bad things or temptations our early nature will come out. They see life and being good as a successful control of our natures. most religions have a serious split between the holy and the natural, the sacred and the body, the good and desires. Most rationalists for that matter also.
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:scratchin:Viruses are not always best dealt with by avoidance; if we never allowed ourselves any exposure, we would have useless immune systems.

The same goes for religion; if you are not exposed, you can't think about it for yourself! :)
 
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