Spirituality is a beautiful thing; believing that science can't answer everything either by filling out science's many gaps or simply disbelieving science from a believe that humans can't see how the world really is...or anything in between. What bothers me though is organized religion; the Bible has throughout the years been translated, rewritten and reorganized several times and it's nothing like it was a couple thousand years ago. The Bible claims Jesus to be the last prophet, where Judaism rejects the new testament of the Bible. The Christian Bible is sort of an "updated" version of the Jewish Bible. Islam claims Muhammad to be the last prophet; the Quran is kinda like "The Bible v. 1.2" in that matter. The Jewish Bible is really based on ancient Egyptian religion, Greek mythology and even Norse mythology. My question is why believe in any of those? Why believe specifically in God and Jesus? Because it's in a book? Because many other people believe in those? I thought the whole point of religion was that humans don't have the answer? Yet many people follow a religion simply because it's the normal thing to do, like trusting the weather-man when he says it's gonna be snowy tomorrow. I'm not saying that all religious people are like this but many people seem to believe the Bible almost word by word simply because it's a society norm and not because they're truly spiritual. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" says the Bible. It also says "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them". It seems like the Bible is trying to tell us that we're gods ourselves; if we were created in God's image and his spirit is inside us that could only mean we're gods.. That's one out of a million ways to understand the Bible. Each group in Christianity (Catholicism, Protestantism, Baptism, Presbyterianism etc.) seems to be a different way of understanding the Bible. Why limit yourself to one of those? Why limit yourself to any organized religion when basically every religion is about exactly the same thing? I'm not trying to be mean or rude, it's just my opinion and honest questions about what might be yours.. Peace
Ah! I just posted about this in another topic. I completely agree. I think that people like organized religion because it's just that, organized. People like order. But the churches like organized religion for the power and money it brings in. Everybody wins...but everyone loses. Originality is more important than organization. Free thinking is what advances humanity.
I can't seem to find your post though. But yeah I agree: free thinking is necessary in order to develop properly mentally; when we go through puberty and have to find ourselves wey're faced with revelations about ourselves, some of which are unwanted as society has installed a lot of taboos in our minds which makes us unable to think freely. That results in the negative revelations getting rejected by our minds and an important part of our development is lost. Also, thinking freely makes us develop positively all the time. It gives us mental purpose in life. Our physical purpose is already set in society and nature. It is to be a natural part of Earth's biology but even that has society ruined.. The only purpose we have left is mental purpose and most people aren't thinking freely enough. Thinking freely is really the same as thinking clearly, as all the filters of the mind is removed and filters clouds our minds; most of the roads are closed which makes millions of different destinations unreachable. The sooner you start thinking freely, the larger is the number of possible outcomes of your life - think about.. Ganja has made me think freely. And on top of that it has made me realize that I'm still able to think more freely. It has opened my mind completely. If my mind before was a yarn ball that had been unraveled and stuffed into a box it is now a knitted sweater.
Good thread, hope it keeps going. I have a question, how does one get more spiritual? I know you can get more religious just by going to church but how do you get spiritual without an institution?.
You can't get more religious by going to church. You become more religious when you learn more about the religion you're part of. To become more spiritual, basically all you have to do is open your mind. Listen to all the ideas you didn't know you had. Spirituality is relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material.
"Spirituality is a beautiful thing; believing that science can't answer everything either by filling out science's many gaps or simply disbelieving science from a believe that humans can't see how the world really is...or anything in between." Science will probably never be able to fully understand the universe. The human species will probably die out far before the thermal death of the universe. Another species in the universe may understand the universe far more than us, who knows. How is the fact that we are ignorant a *proof* of spirituality? There is a major flaw in your thinking.
The fact that we're ignorant proofs that there's a lot out there which we don't understand (obviously) and that's what spirituality is all about. However, some religious people rapes spirituality by claiming that their explanations for what we don't know are the truth, thus eliminating spirituality in their religion. As I see it, science seeks to find as much truth as it can where spirituality seeks to cope with what we can't find to be true. Religions are like science, except religions seeks to explain the truth where science seeks to find it and test it first. Religion is dead; there's no room for updates. Science is living; it's being updated constantly. Spirituality? True spirituality is inside you. It's being constantly updated...or not, that's your choice... Science is from the people, to the people. Religion is from people from a long time ago to the people. Spirituality is yours..
I don't think you are using the term "spiritualism" correctly. Perhaps self-discovery is a much better term? By saying that spirituality exists, you are saying that a spiritual realm and/or spirits exist. That is a ridiculous assertion. It's like saying that this pencil in my hand has a spirit. OK... where's the evidence? Ignorance proves that we do not know, it doesn't prove that we are spirits (again, which we do not know). The religious mind is just as irrational as the spiritualist mind. The basis of their thinking remains grounded in superstitious cowardice.
Everybody has a spirit. Spirits exists. You think of spirits as physical things, which science debunks. One's spirit is simply oneself; that is what "spirit" has always meant. Christians goes to one extreme and claims that the spirit is an object of its own, which can travel independently of the physical world which makes science go to the other extreme and claim that spirits doesn't exist. That is all bullshit, both science and religion fails to explain what the spirit is. One's spirit is everything that makes one feel like one, no matter if it's a magical force which we can't see or if it's electrical signals in our brains.
It's so true. What made the dark ages dark? The power of the Christian church not letting anyone think on their own. It was only towards the end of the dark ages, 1500-1600's that people did start thinking on their own and look what happened to them. Galileo came up with some of the most brilliant ideas in history and what happened to him? "he was tried by the Inquisition, found "vehemently suspect of heresy," forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest." Similar things happened to Thomas Hobbes. Imagine, we could have possibly been 500 years more advanced in science and technology right now if the church didn't exist in those days.
Very much true. But we're going to repeat ourselves with science. Since we can't explain everything, we make theories. We prove these theories enough times, we believe them to be true. And then everything else is defunct. Besides, technology and science aren't always good things. Look at the shape of the world in the Dark Ages, and look at it now. Humans using technology and inventions discovered by science are destroying the world. We're compensating for our lack of physical capabilities by creating weapons, and cars, and everything else. We need to strike a balance. But until humans can evolve enough to see how fragile, ignorant, and inconsequential we are, that won't happen. In my opinion, we've been doomed since we developed the ability to think. Our appetite is voracious, in all regards, and it's going to be the end of us.
In this sense, I completely agree. One definition of spirit: "An incorporeal but ubiquitous, non-quantifiable substance or energy present individually in all living things." We're all made of energy. Because all particles, atoms, protons, neutrons, quarks, and everything else, is energy. The entire universe, is energy. It's just shaped. Shaped into cannabis, and shaped into neurons, water, rocks, titanium, gold, carbon, and everything else. Energy. In that sense, we are all the exact same thing, and we're all connected. Nothing is every created or destroyed, only changed. You know, upon reflection, that above paragraph didn't have a lot to do with the spirit, at least not in a way I can articulate. But it's true nonetheless, and I can't bring myself to delete it.
I dig what you're saying and at first it looks that way, that spirituality is different in that it seems like more of the backbone to religion; the foundation without all the ornamentation. But it's still the same thing. Given a mass following it will be open for abuse, and I wouldn't be surprised if sometime in the future people are going to the Church of the Third Eye, or some crazy shit like that. In terms of gods and souls and spirit, nobody is right. The athiest IS the christian IS the satanist IS the scientologist IS the buddhist IS the muslim. Bind that up, call it spirituality, and you still have a polar opposite that is equally as accurate. We're talking about shit we can't see, we can't prove, only feel. When there are no answers it's all the same.
I completely disagree. You are looking at only the negatives of science and technology. The positives FAR outweigh the negatives. The current advanced civilizations are extremely better places to live than in the past. You take science and technology for granted. You can see the world, 500 years ago most people never left their town unless it was to go die in a bloody hand-hand battle. You get sick you go to the doctor and take pills and you'll be better in a couple days, 500 years ago you would have died. It doesn't rain for a month or two? Your local grocery store will still be fully stocked, 500 years ago famine would have wiped out whole populations. Refrigeration, heat, cars, food, clothes, beds, education, health, long distance communication. There are so many things that are amazingly awesome in your daily life that didn't exist even 100 years ago. I also disagree that we are doomed. I think humans will to survive far outweighs its apatite. Soon enough, humans will move on from the Earth and there may be nothing that could wipe us out. With the way technology is going now, I give it 100 years for humans to be wiped out or they never will.
I view religion as more of a means of getting to that spirituality. One doesn't necessarily need religion to become spiritual, but these religions are hundreds some thousands of years old, and I believe are meant to be a model or a guide to getting to that spirituality. Different cultures = different religions. With so many different cultures and ways of thinking, there are bound to be more ways to get to that spirituality then just one. Notice how people are normally affiliated with the religion that most other members of their cultural group are. It's often a decision not many individuals make themselves. You mentioned Jesus in the original post. I think the Jesus figure is a perfect model. It seems Jesus is not concerned with whether you believe he is the son of god or not, but more about the development of the spirituality within you. Jesus practiced and preached nothing more then unconditional love. Opening up yourself to others, and as John the baptis would say, producing good fruit. I'd like to think that this world would be an amazing place if we just practiced this undconditional love towards others. Unfortunately, mankind is too selfish to do such a thing. You may know of some of these selfish people yourself. Give them a taste of unconditional love one time and maybe their minds can open up too. The world can be a devastating place if you're all alone in it. Kind of like that hell place the bible is always talking about. it starts with you. We alone hold the key to freedom from our afflictions. Why hurt or be angry when you canlove and understand. It is in our power to do so. Make the effort to love unconditionally and your spirituality will respond.
ok i have friends who have tried to convince me to believe in god but some things dont seem logical.. i was wondering if you could point me in some directions to find what you call spirtualism. thanks
There are still some people like me that don't subscribe to either the spirit or religion. I've been finding that the word Religious has a more negative connotation and people think that saying they're religious detracts from their message. Saying your spiritual is just another way to get out of being boxed into a belief corner. Also it is more politically correct to say Spiritual. I find both modes of thought distracting to accomplishing my goals as an amateur cook and personal trainer. No amount of wishing, hoping, praying, scrying, tarot reading, or any amount of faith will spontaneously make that shit happen. I am the ruling force in my life/existence, therefore I do not adhere to any of these practices short of a little bit of hoping for calmer days, when life slows down enough to take it easy.
I agree. If you speak of spirituality, you speak of nothingness. Prove me wrong, otherwise, you sound like a superstitious ig'nant.