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Recently I’ve been receiving queries about the discovery of what is alleged to be the tomb of Jesus et al in Jerusalem. Since one of the people involved was also concerned in the production of the movie Titanic it’s clear that there will be tremendous publicity about it whatever the merits of the case.

Since I have already done four decades of work on the topic of Jesus I am posting a slightly modified extract from the first letter I wrote to my stepson Bill in the early 80’s after he asked me who I thought Jesus really was. The letter writing took two years and eventually resulted in the book Who was Jesus Really, after being published in sections for local pagan audiences. Press the My Books button further down on the right to find out how to get hold of the whole thing.

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Editor's Note: This article offers a concise history of proselytism, showing the good the bad and the ugly of humanity's zealous efforts to lead one another to religious salvation. In the great Commons of Faith, proselytism treads ever so closely to the overgrazing that destroys the commons for all. Please read this article if you believe that coercing others to your religion will "save" them.

The aspect of conversions by various religions has always been controversial in the world. Hatred between certain societies in the world has been the outcome of this phenomenon. Inspite of modernity and dawn of scientific age and growth of scientific education in all corners of the world, the desire to spread the religions across various societies has not been eliminated and is being pursued with vigor too. Out of the important religions that are being practiced in the world today, Christianity and Islam are the active religious groups that are proselyte and are trying to expand their faith. Christianity from the beginning was a missionary religion and Islam did not lag behind either. Buddhism too is a missionary religion while Hinduism and Sikhism did not pursue this policy in vigor and remained passive. In fact Sikhism did not take up missionary activities. Most of the scholars claim that Hinduism has no missionary zeal although in ancient times Hindu princes invaded Malayan peninsula and established Hindu kingdoms.

continue reading "Should Religions Try to Convert Others?"