I have mixed thoughts on religions after seeing and living in Christian Muslim Hindu and Buddhist cultures
it seems the more I find out about religion as a whole the less each one has a meaning to me. It seems like it is just propoganda to keep the people of each region under control and give them a reason to get out of bed each day
your thoughts if any?
I think you have to use measures of sensibility if you choose to join any religious organisation after all, wherever people are involved mistakes will be made and we have to carve out what is necessary and what isn’t. I don’t feel the need to join a particular religious group on a regular basis and tend to work alone in spiritual endeavours and take what seems right to me and then I practice it.
Religion has its own place on the spiritual ladder. To a person drowned in material life it is a life-line back to sensible living. A religion supplies one for one alternatives to the pleasure-seeking agenda.
The problem with religion is that it keeps the rest of the ladder in wraps. So, one who was a prisoner of the self-serving logic of material life becomes prisoner of another seemingly uplifting but self-serving logic. The institutionalised religion crafts systematic tentacles around the person to completely overwhelm. Access to god is promised but never actually delivered.
The key is to straighten up the warped concept of ‘superman’ god. The word god is the most sophisticated human assault on the principle of god. For understanding this principle we have to become conscious of our own life within. Only then one sees god without a gender, a form or a name.
Free from any misgivings about god, it becomes possible not to hate religions but still to get over them.
Hello HandsOfEye,
Please behold the esoteric and exoteric sides of religion. The former for seekers or mystics, the later for believers or laymen.
It is the later what you criticize, and to some extent I feel for you.
But bear in mind that one has to know to read between the lines, one has to know to decode mythology, and to understand the context and circumstances in which the sacred scriptures of those religions were written.
Examples about Christianity:
?Do you understand now why God “told” Adam he would earn his livelihood through miseries, and told Eve she would give birth to children through pain? (the head of the babies was now too big to pass through the waist of those homo habilis mommas painlessly)
The Flood: It happened. It was the end of the last ice age. A territory tantamount in size to that of the African continent was flooded by molten waters. It did not happen in some few days but in decades. In mythology the original events get “compressed”, the winners become gods, and the losers demons.
Imagine how many families had to craft vessels in order to save their cattle, seeds/crops and livelihoods…
Sex control and prohibition of promiscuity and oral/anal sex: A measure to stop the propagation of sexually transmitted diseases, secure a social-economic order, and to increase the birth rate in an age where out of eight kids you had, three were killed by diseases, two in warfare, and one became monk, priest or nun. The population had to be sustained at any cost.
What’s the problem of all this? The original meaning gets lost through time, and the tenets become dogma. The means become the end.
So one has to know to interpret the scriptures and make them fit to modern times.
Maybe the question could be: Does God have anything to do with religion?
Somehow I just know in my heart there is a God.
I once heard a preacher say that there was more of a chance of putting all the pieces of a watch in a can and assembling it by shaking the can than for the universe to come together the way it is now.
[QUOTE=Hobo;65829]Somehow I just know in my heart there is a God.
I once heard a preacher say that there was more of a chance of putting all the pieces of a watch in a can and assembling it by shaking the can than for the universe to come together the way it is now.[/QUOTE]
That example is flawed, as it does not regard the possibility that there might have been an infinite number of other universes, whose parameters were not the proper, which failed catastrophically, and finally by sheer statistical reasons, an eligible one was formed up. That successful universe is ours, the actual stable combination.
[QUOTE=panoramix;65832]That example is flawed, as it does not regard the possibility that there might have been an infinite number of other universes, whose parameters were not the proper, which failed catastrophically, and finally by sheer statistical reasons, an eligible one was formed up. That successful universe is ours, the actual stable combination.[/QUOTE]
Some people appreciate the stochastic process of how one set of complex combinations out of myriad possibilities has occurred and conclude it is a materialistic universe, while others appreciate the inner intuitive insights that give a glimpse of metaphysical realities (and spiritual possibilities). Both can be right depending on how you look at it. Remember healthy respect for each other’s differences, as our dispositions and experiences give us preferences for how we believe. Why should glimpse of truth result in denigrating other people’s perspectives?
[QUOTE=guitar_yogi;65846]Why should glimpse of truth result in denigrating other people’s perspectives?[/QUOTE]
Well said…
Yes there is truth to that me being kinda a conspiracy nut myself. But i find that religion is more than that it is a dedicated way of living based on a specific belief system. Religion today is bounced around to much and taken out of context. I am not religious but i believe in a number of things. Many from each culture as i posted on a previous topic every religion has something beneficial to offer society and humanity for that matter. So it really boils down to your decision and how you interpret what is to be. Just do your research and don’t take anything people say to heart unless you feel it resonates with you. After all many people will try to pressure you and tell you why there religion is right. Good luck to you on your search.
Peace
[QUOTE=yoga789;74382]Yes there is truth to that me being kinda a conspiracy nut myself. But i find that religion is more than that it is a dedicated way of living based on a specific belief system. Religion today is bounced around to much and taken out of context. I am not religious but i believe in a number of things. Many from each culture as i posted on a previous topic every religion has something beneficial to offer society and humanity for that matter. So it really boils down to your decision and how you interpret what is to be. Just do your research and don’t take anything people say to heart unless you feel it resonates with you. After all many people will try to pressure you and tell you why there religion is right. Good luck to you on your search.
Peace[/QUOTE]
Many will say to much bad things happened due to religion, but there is always two sides of the coin. In most religions you should help your brothers and sisters. What if we didnt have people following this? Probably there would be more suffering.
When people fight over religion they use their ego, the ego always wants to be superior to others, then the ego feels superior and good. If we belong to one religion and think we have the right god and others will go to hell if they dont believe our god , its an indication we have a big ego and need to work on that.
Actually the problem is not the religion in it self it is the EGO that creates misery and pain.
As long as people trying to force religion upon others or trying to fight to convert them there will be problem as they remove the free will of others.
Anyone removing the free will of others cannot call him self religious or righteous.
Also it is not good to use unhonest means to convert poeple to their own religion with the mindset that we help them in the end, so they justify their means of converting others due to a good cause later on. The problem is how do they know they have the right knowledge they try to impose on others?
For longlasting effect it has to be the free will that choose the religion they want to belong to or if they choose not to belong to a religion.
Also if you cant questioning the word of god, it is probably not the truth as truth will still be truth after you have questioned it. It will not change.
Also many things in religion has been changed in interpretation or changes in context so that it can control the masses. IT is written in the holy book so now you must obey/follow it.
I consider religion to be pre-modern science, and hence dated. Religion is an early attempt by humans to understand the mysteries of nature, the laws of the mind, the laws of nature, the laws of society.In prescientific age, the best way they knew was mythology and ritual. When they lacked sophisticated tools like mathematics and telescopes to observe the reason why the sun was setting or rising, they had to come up with the best explanation based on their limited understanding: the sun was a travelling orb, a sun god. In a scientific age, we of course know why the sun sets or rises. Likewise, there are many mysteries of the mind that were not proper understood by pre-modern humans, the biggest mystery was ‘god’ God was of course a very real phenomenon, that people experienced either as a first person, second person or third person account, the experience of an infinite organizing power. A power that if anybody experiences, even an atheist, one would be compelled to attribute divinity to. Today we have a much better understanding of what this power is, but it still is very much a mystery. The experience of this power is rare, because of the kind of attainment it requires. As per Yoga, that attainment is a perfectly clear mind and a nervous system, which only one who is dedicated to discipline can achieve. In the future, however, we may find better, more faster and efficient ways to achieve the same.
[QUOTE=panoramix;65832]That example is flawed, as it does not regard the possibility that there might have been an infinite number of other universes, whose parameters were not the proper, which failed catastrophically, and finally by sheer statistical reasons, an eligible one was formed up. That successful universe is ours, the actual stable combination.[/QUOTE]
atheism is said to be an obstacle to yoga. I’m not saying you are. I’m not saying you aren’t. I just saying.
“Physical Pain, depression, unsteadiness of body, and irregular breath, these distract the mind.” “In addition to the above obstacles, the following are also counted; unregulated eating and sleeping, breaking the rules of chastity, having an imposter as a guide, disregard of one’s true guide, ATHEISM, a desire for physical attainments, the belief that the gain of a few attainments means full realization, having rituals performed by others, and Pretensions to being oneself a guide.”
So you see . . . we may have a problem? Yes? No?
If the answer is yes “i am an atheist” maybe that problem can be overcome?
Perhaps a suitable answer or approach can be had if we were to know your temperment?
In the meantime, while it is quite the thick book, you can find an expanded explanation of Adam and Eve, the Garden and all that - in the Book of Urantia. This can be found online. The wikipedia page for the Urantia book is to me - interesting.
That is not to say that the story of Adam and Eve is without hidden meaning.
[QUOTE=handsofeye;65656]I have mixed thoughts on religions after seeing and living in Christian Muslim Hindu and Buddhist cultures
it seems the more I find out about religion as a whole the less each one has a meaning to me. It seems like it is just propoganda to keep the people of each region under control and give them a reason to get out of bed each day
your thoughts if any?[/QUOTE]
You don’t know anything about zen.
Best religion with no any mind and ideology.