what is religion?
can we define it?
here's what the oxford dictionary, 9th edition, says about religion.
so? does this definition capture the essence of religion? of what it means to the devout, the doubters, and the atheists? religion affects us all deeply. even those of us who choose to regard it as a mere construct to facilitate social survival.
you know that, more than three decades after my initial indoctrination, i still have a running ticker tape of the apostles' creed in my head? how these things got drilled into our heads as kids! what i really didn't get, though, was being told i had to stay hungry and thirsty going to church so i could be 'pure' to receive holy communion.
does a 5 or 6 year old kid get that? and why should god care if i drank a glass of juice 20 minutes before mass started? does that really make me bad? too impure to receive god? a disobedient little one? (just so you know ... i am not making this up). and yet, i had to go hungry or thirsty because that's what god wanted. anyway, that's what i remember about god. about religion. as a kid. the feeling that we are never good enough. for god. and never will be. the notion that suffering has some sort of redeeming, cleansing function.
ok.
i digress.
back on track.
religion - how to define it?
well, depending on your perspective,
there are 3 possibilities.
1. religion as a social construct
2. religion as progressing toward a higher truth
3. religion as absolute truth
whatever religious perspective you weave into your cultural matrix speaks to your larger view of truth, the universe, humanity, and how we got here.
regardless which point of the star you are coming from ...
its profound stuff, ain't it?
here's what the oxford dictionary, 9th edition, says about religion.
1 the belief in a superhuman controlling power, esp. in a personal god or gods entitled to obedience and worship. 2 the expression of this in worship. 3 a particular system of faith and worship. 4 life under monastic vows (the way of religion). 5 a thing that one is devoted to (football is their religion) (p 1161)
so? does this definition capture the essence of religion? of what it means to the devout, the doubters, and the atheists? religion affects us all deeply. even those of us who choose to regard it as a mere construct to facilitate social survival.
you know that, more than three decades after my initial indoctrination, i still have a running ticker tape of the apostles' creed in my head? how these things got drilled into our heads as kids! what i really didn't get, though, was being told i had to stay hungry and thirsty going to church so i could be 'pure' to receive holy communion.
does a 5 or 6 year old kid get that? and why should god care if i drank a glass of juice 20 minutes before mass started? does that really make me bad? too impure to receive god? a disobedient little one? (just so you know ... i am not making this up). and yet, i had to go hungry or thirsty because that's what god wanted. anyway, that's what i remember about god. about religion. as a kid. the feeling that we are never good enough. for god. and never will be. the notion that suffering has some sort of redeeming, cleansing function.
ok.
i digress.
back on track.
religion - how to define it?
well, depending on your perspective,
there are 3 possibilities.
1. religion as a social construct
- a manifestation of some psychological or moral pathology?
- a pernicious and deliberate falsehood, spread and encouraged by rulers and clerics in their own interests, in an effort exercise control over others?
- seeing religions as marginally useful constructs which encode instructions or habits useful for survival in a society
- seeing religion as 'the opium of the masses'
2. religion as progressing toward a higher truth
- reflections of an essential truth?
- seeing religious truth as relative, due to its varied cultural application and/or expression
- seeing prophets as messengers of god -- individuals given to extraordinary spiritual insight during periods of social decay and acting as purveyors of balance and social survival.
- seeing religion as evolving over time in a thesis-antithesis-synthesis-great awakening paradigm
3. religion as absolute truth
- the exclusivist view
- one belief system ... one holy book ... one supreme being
- seeing all things and individuals incongruent with the one belief system as ignorant, devious, false, misguided
- a sort of arrogant view of truth ("our view is the RIGHT view, all others are wrong")
- providing an unwavering perspective that requires individuals to conform to its truth
whatever religious perspective you weave into your cultural matrix speaks to your larger view of truth, the universe, humanity, and how we got here.
regardless which point of the star you are coming from ...
its profound stuff, ain't it?
did you hear? poetry is the new mini-skirt.. everybody is getting in on it.
Posted by
Anonymous |
14/7/06 13:26
The problem with definitions is that they work in general but not around the margins. I usually try not to be too agressive about defining things. Not defining things seems to work well for me, but I'm not sure that everyone would be comfortable with that.
By the way, is poetry really the new miniskirt?
Posted by
Anonymous |
14/7/06 19:54
is poetry the new miniskirt? yes, yes i believe it is. it's true what chocolate says -- everybody IS getting into it ...
re: defining things ... definition for the purposes of this post, does seem a narrow term, but alas the english language does not seem to have another word that fits as well. and so, i am conceiving of things in a broader sense than one's traditional sense of 'definition' here.
my main point here is (1) everyone human is affected by religion, regardless if s/he choose to believe in any religion or not and (2) one's individual religious perspective is reflective of his/her life philosophy.
Posted by
velvet acid tongue |
14/7/06 23:39
i personally reject religion, i choose relationship, with my spiritual Father who gave himself up for me to live in freedom. my GOD is tender,mercyful forgiving,loving(not like human love),kind, compassionate, gracious,intimate and very real to me. we speak, he shows me HIS truth he leads me to live in victory every moment of the day. without HIM i would just be human being controlled by my emotions and whatever comes my way today. With HIM i always operate in wisdom, in him i always operate in power, in him i can do all things, because the power of GOD lives in me, my problem comes in when i choose not to submit to his spirit and do what my soul wants, then i live as a mere human being tossed back and forth by everyday circumstanses.I AM A SPIRIT HAVING A HUMAN EXPERIENCE, NOT A HUMAN BEING HAVING A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. velvet im sorry that you were trained in deception, GOD does not approve of all that religious. my freind grew up in an anglican church her dad was the priest at the boys school where they lived, she rejected the religion, but found the true GOD,Jesus. later her dad was found guilty of mastubating with boys. guess what? he got community sevice as he was too old to go to jail(so they say). 4 years later he is still being asked to speak at churches, these people have no life, they miss an ingredient, HOLY SPIRIT. which will lead us into all truth. that is why, when i speak the truth it is not for human minds to concieve i am aiming for the spirit of man not the mind, cuz the mind can not concieve......
Posted by
Anonymous |
16/7/06 05:15
/bark bark bark
how are you? and the weekend away? ive been thinking about you...
my approach to faith is as a discipline. i chose it freely as an adult. i dont feel constricted by the order of it i feel liberated.
a dog never trained is forever tethered to the line or kept inside a pen. an animal, jumping up on people, barking incessantly, digging up the flower beds.
the dog of discipline has a hard first year or so. he his pushed and pulled, corrected and rewarded, resentful confusion melts away as he begins to glimpse the freedom ahead.
later, with a sound foundation he is able to roam about, stay in the company of any kind of creature, and is able to become fully what was intended for him.....whatever that is for that specific dog.
/grr
Posted by
Anonymous |
17/7/06 08:31
Hello
I think and feel that there is a major difference between SPIRITUALITY and RELIGION.
Beinf a spiritual person is goo
Being a religious person is bad news ... for everyone.
I think you should change your photo to the one of you laying with the hound...
that is a good one to paint.
Posted by
Anonymous |
17/7/06 09:31
sorry, spirituality is GOOD
D key sticks on old keyboard.
Posted by
Anonymous |
17/7/06 09:32
satan is a spirit, DAVID BLAIN is a profest satanist, where do they get the power to make people levetate???? power of the fallen ark-angle lucifer. define for me what is being spiritual???? for us it's not, to be spiritual or not to be spiritual. GOD is spirit, when you connected to him in the spirit and he lives though you, that is a spiritual life. and about buddism being a life style, alot of people made the adkins diet their life style and clearly saw down the road how unhealthy it was.
Posted by
Anonymous |
17/7/06 10:30