Just a variety of interesting comments, not only from Christian perspectives. Just before the comments I have added this image 6th October 2012.
added another pic 2015 May 29th.
did the yazidi kurd copt christian co exist or just dhimmis until a suitable time?
47.Elise on January 6th, 2010 at 6:30 pm:
As Christians, we were created for God’s glory and to love Him; and it’s our job as christians to go forth with the great commission and love others; with that I agree. Love is of God. You cannot know true love unless you know the ONE AND ONLY GOD: Jesus Christ/ the God of the Bible. So how can we say we love others as Christians when we have the antidote for life and for death and are willing to sit back and do nothing about it? How can we say we respect and love others while we sit back and watch people condemn themselves to hell because of their own doing and not try to warn them?
An athiest himself put it this way:
“If you believe one bit that thousands every day were falling into an eternal and unreacheable fate, you should be running the streets mad with rage at their blindness. That’s equivalent to standing on a street corner and watching every person that passes you walk blindly directly into the path of a bus and die, yet you stand idly by and do nothing. You’re just twiddling your thumbs, happy in the knowledge that one day that ‘walk’ signal will shine your way across the road. You’re just going to allow that to happen and not care about saving anyone but yourself? If you’re right then you’re uncaring, unemotional and purely selfish (expletive) that has no right to talk about subjects such as ‘love and caring.’”
Couldn’t have put it better myself….
Also, if there was more than one way to heaven then why on earth would Jesus (God Himself) have died on that cross for us?! Christianity is the only faith that asks you to give up SELF! Jesus asks us to take up our cross and follow Him daily! That means NOT living a selfish life: crazy concept! Christianity is NOT a religion (look up the definition of christianity and religion and find out for yourself). In religion it’s about how YOU can do it yourself and how YOU can reach heaven. Every other “religious belief” calls for you to have to work in order to obtain eternal salvation; Christianity asks for NOTHING but trust in Jesus. Religion is man trying to get to God or achieve “godhood,” Christianity is God coming down to man! Last time I checked no other “religious leader” did that for the people. Muhammad died, Buddha died, Jesus died, but only Jesus came back to life! The beauty of free will is that with this knowledge one still has the right to choose for himself. That’s just how much Jesus loved you, even though He knew people would deny Him (possibly you) He died anyway. I don’t think I could sacrifice my life for someone who hates me. Not to mention the Bible has NEVER been proven wrong! Thousands of thousands of people have tried; each one of them has failed miserably. Jesus DIED so that EVERYONE can go to be with Him for eternity. It’s not that hard of a concept people. You don’t have to do ANYTHING but believe, repent, and trust in Jesus! No strings attached that don’t benefit you; you have nothing to lose but everything to gain! Will life be perfect? Of course not! In fact it’ll be harder but you have an eternity of perfection to look forward to! “Jesus doesn’t get us around our troubles; He gets us through them.”
You cannot tell me you sincerely believe that you’re going to get to heaven and tell the Creator of the universe, the Alpha and Omega, God, that “hey, you tried your hardest!” You can NEVER obey every single command; it’s impossible. You sin without even realizing it; just read Benjamin Franklin’s account on attempting that. How sad that some people believe they can actually do it themselves. Please attempt to be perfect; let me know how that one goes….
48.Elise on January 6th, 2010 at 6:41 pm:
p.s. I think it’s ironic how everyone who is not a christian is so quick to say that “christians are close-minded and judgemental” when in reality it is the non-christians who are being close minded and judgemental. To some extent I do agree that Christianity in this age has unfortunately been watered down by lukewarms and mixed worldviews of this age, but in that same breath we are called to be hard headed but open minded. Meaning, be willing to listen to others beliefs in a respectful way but be hard headed in that you in fact do know ABSOLUTE TRUTH. Try to share that with others. People who aren’t christians aren’t going to read the Bible, they’re going to read you.
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50.Derek Elkins on January 16th, 2010 at 9:09 pm:
I believe we need to clearify terms when one claims that peace is the only way to God. What do you mean by peace? Christians believe in having peace with God, themselves, and others and a peace from god that passing all understanding. How would you define God? Though many religions have similarities, they have more differences. So not every one that says God, means the same thing. Also, how do you know God spoke to you?
The Bible teaches that people came to God through faith before Christ, which is the same way they are able to come to him today. See Hebrews chapter 11. Remember that before Jesus, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, people brought a lamb that was a firgure that represented Jesus. Abel brought a lamb for himself. The families of Israel brought a lamb for their family (Exodus 12), and later they brought a lamb for the entire nation known as the day of Atonement. So the progression was from an individual, to the family, to the nation, and to the entire world. This is all done to forgive our sins so we can return to God and re-establish a broken relationship with Him.
True Christianity is a person; Jesus, and not a religion. It is basically having a personal relationship with Jesus. American does not equal Christian:)
I have friends from other religions, but i do not call them hypocrites. One can find hypocrites anywhere; work, school, politicians, and yes religious people.
I personally do not preach Christianity, but rather I preach Christ who loves us, forgives us, and save us. for example, see the bumper sticker “Not perfect, just forgiven”. And yes i do believe that followers of Jesus should practice what they preach.
I like the bumper sticker. I will be using it during a lesson on world views and religions in an up coming college and career class I lead. I believe we can coexist. We are taught to love one another and our enemies (a revolutionary teaching). The truth is that the whole world was once enemies with God, but he became human and coexisted and died for those of the world.
Awesome topic!
Derek
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51.Bill on January 22nd, 2010 at 10:54 am:
Wonderful discussion! Yes, this bumpersticker has come to simply irritate me, but my take on it is completely different from what I’ve read. First, it’s nothing more than pure capitalism by its retailer Peacemonger (which I applaud loudly) so I don’t overread any great meaning into it. Just like Michael Moore
making a grand living as a leading liberal despite really being a quintessential capitalist. Anyway, I have two issues with the message. First, it’s simply naive or uninformed to preach peace when the “C” wants to kill all the other letters. Perhaps the message should be focused directly at the “C” instead. Most importantly, I think the message is not “freedom of religion”, rather “freedom from religion”. The former IS peace promoting and goodhearted and wants everyone to respect each other, the latter I feel is mean-spirited and judgemental of the religious “morons”. I come to this conclusion by observing the other bumperstickers on the same car. For example, more often than not there will be one of those “Darwin Fish” bumperstickers on the same car. That bumper sticker is nothing but hateful. What do you care if someone simply says they have a love for Christ by putting a fish symbol on their car? It is nothing but mocking and disrespectful to feel you need to show how much more “evolved” you are than the religious simpleton. Watch for yourself and see how many people have some type of hateful sticker next to a COEXIST one - ironic.
A comment I have added is from the Boston bombing and when the 2 Chechen muslims hi jacked a car as this commentator also saw the problem of the "C"
" wonder, when the “Co-exist” car is returned to its owner, whether he or she will keep the bumper sticker in place. One would not expect him to conclude, as the gays of Amsterdam and the Jews of Toulouse and the Christians of Egypt have bleakly done, that if it weren’t for that Islamic crescent you wouldn’t need a bumper sticker at all. But he may perhaps have learned that life is all a bit more complicated than the smiley-face banalities of the multicultists."
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72.tim on April 7th, 2010 at 10:52 am:
Lance, I enjoyed reading your article on the COEXIST bumper stickers and tee-shirts and agree with you IN THEORY. There is one problem with that happy go lucky philosophy that is hard to comprehend in America. One major religion exists whose tolerant followers are breaking the tenets of their holy books if they seek or allow coexistance. The fact that 90% of it’s followers may be into coexistence does not change this truth. The 10% who actually follow what the Koran says are a danger to you if you ignore them. The press tells us that most are followers of a peaceful, serene, non-violent religion. But that is NOT what the Koran says, Lance. There are ~1 billion muslims, so if 10% (= 100million fundamentalists) are sympathetic to destroying the infidel (non believers) by taxing, subjugating, enslaving and smoting him in the neck, then you have a problem. Perahps there is 1% (= 10million radicals) who would be willing to strap a bomb on to themselves or someone they recruit. These 10million need to be dealt with as our enemy. But all of them are suspect. When you put that sticker on your car your intention may be good, but it indicates that you have a naive and rather sophmoric view of the world. The danger here is that it reinforces a blind, no-judgmental, relativistic world view that is intolerant of rational thought. The soft tyranny of political correctness paralyzes the body politic from defending itself. It is a virus that destroys the immune system. That immune system you charcaterize as intolerance is actually sanity, Lance. The right to lawful self defense is a universal idea and people who display this slogan are generally useful idiots for those who seek to destroy us. Fundamental ISLAM wants to convert you, but if they can’t, they are authorized and encouraged BY THEIR WRITTEN HOLY MAINSTREAM DOCTRINE to tax or enslave infidels (non-believers) and even murder you (whatever the faithful can manage to do to conquer resistance to their plans). IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT I WRITE HERE- GOOD! RESEARCH IT FOR YOURSELF. GET EXPERIENCE TALKING TO MUSLIMS WHO ARE RADICAL. BE CAREFUL ! ! !
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82.Jenni on April 29th, 2010 at 7:46 pm:
I am such a Pollyanna sometimes! I had no idea that the notion of “coexisting” would be controversial to people who claim to carry the love of Jesus in their hearts. I proudly display this bumper sticker on my car feeling I was giving a wink and a nod to fellow religious believers and and had no clue that people would be threatened by the idea of tolerance and would be making assumptions about me as a driver that would include discounting me as a Christian. If, like some responders here, I was comfortable cut and pasting one-liners out of context from scripture to suit my purposes I’d have to go with “Faith, Hope and Love–THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE!” Drivers, you can not love and hate at the same time. For Christ sake, LOVE!
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88.Rafa Saenz on June 8th, 2010 at 8:08 pm:
The message is very clear. COEXIST is a message for you, not for different religions. It invites you to live life in peace with others regardless of their religion, sex, place of origin, political views, etc…
Imagine how great our life could be if we were willing to coexist with everyone around us without judging and being judged based on these things.
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89.Davis on June 16th, 2010 at 11:27 am:
The problem with “COEXIST” is in the beliefs of the different Religions on the sticker not the IDEA of coexisting. Lets start with the first letter “C” The Crescent Moon of Islam. Islam teaches everyone age thirteen and older who do not believe in Islam are to be KILLED in Holy War. Furthermore, believers of other religions under the age of thirteen must choose Islam or DEATH at age thirteen. Now. Please explain how to “COEXIST” with Islam! The ONLY WAY TO EXIST UNDER ISLAM IS TO BE ISLAM. That is not “COEXISTING”. That is FORCED CONVERSION!
Ironically at the opposite end of the word “COEXIST” is the Christian symbol, the Cross. Christians believe that one should LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, do good to those who hate you.
Now. You find a way to make KILL your neighbor and LOVE your neighbor COEXIST! That is without LITERALLY LOVING THEM TO DEATH. (Loving them until and while you put them to death) UNTIL ISLAM CHANGES IT’S CORE BELIEFS your dream of COEXIST will only result in a NIGHTMARE OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION FOR ALL WHO ARE NOT OF THE ISLAMIC FAITH!
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94.Chris on July 12th, 2010 at 9:06 pm:
It is a nice idea on a surface level. It also predominates in a culture where everyone says your truth is your truth. Problem is we all define truth somewhere, the only question is where?
What most people don’t realize is that by slapping the major world religions/philosophical outlooks on the back of their car and telling them to “COEXIST,” they are in fact subscribing to their own brand of truth, not standing as the objective judge of religion.
For those who would like a little background and a deeper look at the COEXIST sticker check out the link.
http://engagethe.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/
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97.Christine on July 20th, 2010 at 10:58 am:
You’ve not investigated very deeply if you honestly feel that the COEXIST material is anything that Christians should support. Go to their website; look at the “art” that they are selling. The material is full of immorality and new age imagery. I DO NOT think Christians should support violence or discrimination against any other religious group at all, but I will not support the deceptive concept that we are all equal. Several comments above allude to Jesus as peaceful and loving, but none seem to remember him driving the moneychangers out of the temple with a whip. No one mentioned him calling the Pharisees “whited sepulchers” and “hypocrites”. Christianity is about loving the sinner enough to pull him or her OUT of the sin, not telling them that they are ok. When a person is heading head-long into danger, true love says “Stop! You’re going the wrong way!” not “Oh, it’s ok. I love you, so I won’t tell you you’re wrong”.
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http://engagethe.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/intellectual-suicide/#comments
COEXIST the popular bumper sticker was first designed by Piotr Mlodozeniec, a graphic designer from Poland. He created the image for an art contest sponsored by the Museum on the Seam for Dialogue, Understanding, and Coexistence; an organization located in Jerusalem. The museum now sells products, including shirts and posters, which incorporate Mlodozeniec’s design. The graphic, which cleverly uses symbols of 7 different ‘religions’ (Islam, Buddhism, science, Judaism, paganism, wiccan, Christianity) to spell out the word ‘coexist’ is now widely seen on bumpers as a enlightened expression of how to live in peace and harmony.
Or could it be more a sign of confusion and wishful thinking?
A few lines from British journalist Steve Turner’s poem ‘Creed’ gives us a starting point for illumination:
We believe in Marx Freud and Darwin
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don’t hurt anyone
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,
Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher though we think
His good morals were bad.
We believe that all religions are basically the same-
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.
We believe that man is essentially good.
It’s only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.
We believe that each man must find the truth that
is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
Excepting the truth
that there is no absolute truth.
We believe in the rejection of creeds,
And the flowering of individual thought.
Turner’s take on the post-modern Western mind points right to the evasions, incoherencies, and irrationality of the current zeitgeist (the spirit of this time period).
How many of the owners of cars with this bumper sticker believe in the essential tenets of any of the seven worldviews? And if he or she is a disciple of one of them (by definition to the exclusion of the others, as I’ll explain in a moment) how many of his/her social circle are serious adherents of one of the other systems? Perhaps the sentiment best embodied in the bumper sticker is “we believe there is no truth excepting the truth that there is no absolute truth.” Followed closely by:
“We believe that all religions are basically the same-
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.”
Turner’s point is well taken: few people have actually read the Bible (Old or New Testament), the Koran, the writings of Gautama Buddha, or seriously studied the ideological origins of such cults as Wicca or more general worldviews as paganism. This is what makes it possible to ignore the contradicting claims each makes about ultimate things: creation, sin, heaven, hell, God and salvation. In other words, let us agree that there is no ultimate truth to be apprehended, and upon that foundation build a society based on each individual’s personal view of truth. For make no mistake about it, we all assume truth exists even as we deny it in expressions like the COEXIST bumper sticker. This is true in both the material (physical) and non-material (moral, ethical) realms. We all submit ourselves to nature’s forces (e.g. gravity) out of respect for their ‘truth’ and generally recognize that to do otherwise would be foolish. It is in the ethical realm where we have become confused and deceived. Since the seven worldviews all presuppose some basic ethical principles, it is in this realm that we regularly commit intellectual suicide.
We like that Buddhism ignores any distinction between good and evil (perhaps so we can do what is right in our own eyes) but we are offended when someone cuts us off in traffic and seek justice when someone breaks into our house. Yes, it turns out, there is an absolute standard of moral behavior, not of our own making, imprinted upon all people at all times and places, which all of us fail to keep.
Sensing that there is more to the universe than cold unfeeling matter, some of us like the concept of spirits inhabiting all of life, the oneness of all creation, a mystical experience of the life force that animates our world (paganism). In a rejection of scientific materialism which we believe in just long enough to fly from Denver to New York, we seek enlightenment in drug use, tantric sex, sweat lodges and spiritual retreats, only to be disappointed in the all too human failings of our gurus. It turns out that worshipping the creation is not a sufficient substitute for knowing the Creator.
Since there is no objective truth about the universe, history or ethics, the contradictions between sacred scriptures such as the Bible and the Koran are not contradictions at all. The Biblical truth proposition (God created the world- including man; man sinned, Jesus came into the world as the God-man, He will come again) is a myth on the level of other religious creation-fall-redemption stories. Islam is an alternative telling of the story, with a bit more direct solution for what ails us- the answer being Sharia Law. It turns out that it matters greatly whether God is an impersonal and distant being whose solution for mankind is religious observance and Sharia law to control the unrighteous impulses of sinful man or a loving personal God who humbles himself as a man to identify with us and save us from our sin. Truth matters once again.
Science as represented by e=mc2 (Einstein’s formula for relativity). It is the odd man out in this string, as it would surely say about itself that it represents objective knowledge whereas the others represent some form of subjective belief. It is rational, based on repeatable observations made in the laboratory through application of the scientific method. Since it is the only objective way of knowing, it must stand ‘above’ other less valid forms of knowledge-such as religion or faith, in all matters of education, political life and public policy. This view of the world is entirely consistent with a thorough-going moral relativism, since a worldview based on mind evolving out of matter in a closed system of cause and effect over billions of years does not have a foundation for ethics or knowledge. How do I know that what I am perceiving is true, and on what basis do I call something ‘good’? It turns out that something outside of us is necessary to explain what exists, and it came before us and is intelligent beyond our comprehension. Philosophical naturalism (what is meant by ‘science’ here) is the weakest of the seven worldviews in explaining the totality of what we observe. ‘Science’ of course is a subsidiary concept to the ultimate truth of the One who made everything- the all-knowing knower of all things – who has created the universe in such a way that we can be sometimes knowers of some things.
Our minds have suffered the effects of many real acts of intellectual suicide. The results of living by contradictory ultimate propositions show up in everyday effects that threaten individual lives as well as society as a whole. Don’t settle for a cliché bumper sticker. Truth matters. Seek it.
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