Stay a little bit of long time with/in a "Safe" religious group should be a worthwhile experience to understand more about human nature, imo.
Personally, my observation has been the development of interfaith groups that are more concerned about social issues and justice towards the well-being of humans, community, society and the world. Looks like whatever conventional holy books or any self-centered/ inwards-seeking dogmas would be gradually, sooner or later, becoming outdated, perhaps. Hopefully! I don't know anything for sure, but I just guess! lol
1. Monks cannot kill. There are 4 major rules that if a monk breaks it, he is no longer a monk, which are 'killing a man', 'having sex', 'stealing', and 'lying about attainment of superior state of mind'. Therefore, the acts of monks in Myanmar are not religiously driven but instead politically driven. Islamist are religiously driven. 2. Islam propagate violence, there are many places written in the Quran as well as Hadiths. Chopping heads, killing infidels, prosecuting disbelievers, capital punishments on gays, adultery, infidels and so on. Also chopping off hands of thieves. 3. Buddhism has no God but did not deny the existence of a creator/creators. In certain texts, there is a hint that the creator is actually a bad guy, who created the Samsara (endless cycle of suffering). Buddha is a person who discovered the way to get out of the cycle through meditation, and after discovering the path, he taught others about them. He said the knowledge that he told to the world is similar to the amount of leaves in his palm, but the knowledge out there is like the leaves in the jungle. He only said enough to get humankind out of Samsara. The rest could be discovered by our own self through meditation. 4. Also read on Buddhist cosmology and see how accurately it is representing the number of galaxies in our universe. However, in Buddhism, there are uncountable number of Universes. There are small sized universe, medium sized, and 'big' sized. If I recall, small sized = 1, 000 galaxies medium sized = 1, 000, 000 galaxies big sized = 1, 000, 000, 000, 000 galaxies. According to https://www.space.com/25303-how-many-galaxies-are-in-the-universe.html, our universe consists of 200 billions galaxies. In Buddhism, it's 4 times more. Therefore, probably there are more to be discovered. Remember, this is just a cluster of galaxies, which our modern science called the Universe. In Buddhism, there are uncountable number of universe. 5. Also read on how Buddha mentioned about the size of an atom. "Four krosha, each of which was the length of One thousand arcs, each of which was the length of Four cubits, each of which was the length of Two spans, each of which was the length of Twelve phalanges of fingers, each of which was the length of Seven grains of barley, each of which was the length of Seven mustard seeds, each of which was the length of Seven particles of dust stirred up by a cow, each of which was the length of Seven specks of dust disturbed by a ram, each of which was the length of Seven specks of dust stirred up by a hare, each of which was the length of Seven specks of dust carried away by the wind, each of which was the length of Seven tiny specks of dust, each of which was the length of Seven minute specks of dust, each of which was the length of Seven particles of the first atoms." Just say that a finger is 4 centimeters long. The Buddha's "first atoms" are, therefore, 4 centimeters divided by 7 ten times, which is 0.04 meter x 7 to the minus 10 or 0.00000000001416 meter, which is more or less the size of a carbon atom. 6. Would like to includes about aliens. In Buddhism, there are 4 major worlds which have living beings like human. Ours is one of them, so there are 3 more in our galaxy.
https://www.affrenchfilmfestival.org/film/orchestra-class " French Film Festival: ORCHESTRA CLASS (LA MÉLODIE - French with English subtitles) Plucking at the heart (and violin) strings, Orchestra Class is a welcome reprieve from more challenging cinematic fare, ultimately offering an exalting viewing experience that vividly edifies the power of the human spirit. Simon (the teacher in this film) makes a promise to his class to take them to perform at the Paris Philharmonic. But will they make it? " http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1633217/
" https://www.quora.com/What-does-Buddhism-have-to-say-about-the-origins-of-human-life Gautama Buddha Buddhism Religion What does Buddhism have to say about the origins of human life? 7 Answers Rob Ferrin Rob Ferrin, non-practicing Christian & practicing non-Buddhist. Updated 308w ago · Author has 178 answers and 568.7k answer views If you are up for it, give the Agganna Sutta a read: http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/AggannaSutta.pdf I have not studied it too much, but basically it posits luminous beings that descended to the Earth to feast on the vegetation. Over time, greed developed and the luminosity of the beings slowly changed to a ruddier, courser substance... muddy even. The evolving physical difference gave rise to comparative judgements between the beings. The path from luminosity to mortality continues to evolve from there. Taken literally, it seems a rather peculiar account of humankind. ... Rob Myers, 30-ish years as a Buddhist beginner Answered 308w ago · Author has 125 answers and 232.2k answer views Essentially, nothing. Disclaimer: Plenty of multiple-universes, multiple realms, and such can be found in various Buddhist traditions. The traditions vary so much that they often have less in common with each other than they do with Abrahamic traditions. So, of course, I see things through the lens of my conditions, which are colored with too much Zen literature and a deep enjoyment of scientific periodicals. ... "
Through out history there have been accounts where a monk would set himself on fire, doesn't this count as killing?