(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

Crossposting to challenging_god.

Is it fair to judge a religion on the basis of actions done by its followers? By this I mean of course weighing the good deeds as well as the bad ones. Or should this judgment be made simply on the basis of the teachings themselves?

Underlying this question is another one: to what extent is a religion defined by the people that make it up?

Comments

[tokyolove.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on the religion. Some religions have actions at their core (like Catholicism), while others (like Zen) focuses more on understanding. You have bad apples in every religion I think, so the people can't always determine the value of the religion. Look at Osama Bin Ladden, he was a muslim, but by all accounts, he didn't act according to the religion. It doesn't make the religion any less accountable just because he was a nutcase.