Religion and a Captive Audience (beliefs, hell, experience, Adam)

[Sanguine]

In a way, are we not a captive audience for our deities, whomever we choose as this figurehead for our life?

The fact is, most religions believe that they/the world/parts of the world/the future/the past/now are and have been determined by their deity. Surely this places us in a quandry - we can not escape matters of religion as otherwise we can not fathom our own existence. In this way, religion can be said to be a crutch for our minds to support themselves on whilst we are in the space between transcendence. Until we pass through to the other side of this 'thing-reality' into the 'it-reality' or 'the Real' (as Lacan puts it) we are unable to look objectionably at religion, 'life, the universe and everything' (to quote Douglas Adams)

Just as we can not understand experiences which happened in the past, as language is merely a set of signifiers referring to another set of signifiers, so the phrases and words we choose to explain our deities and our beliefs can not fully explain them, as they are trapped here, in 'thing-reality', and are trying to transcend into 'The Real', where another set of signifiers could explain what we truly mean by belief.

Really, what I'm trying to suggest is that we can not escape traces of religion in our daily lives, but this is due to the way our brains work and the quizzical human belief that we need someone to follow, not that the belief will guide us to a rightful answer of any sort.

[Sunstone]

Welcome to the Forum, Sanguine! What a beautiful username! I hope you enjoy your participation here.

Originally Posted by Sanguine

...as language is merely a set of signifiers referring to another set of signifiers...

Is this universally so? Doesn't language sometimes refer to something other than a signifier? For instance: when I hear someone say, "the oak tree", meaning a specific tree, where is the referrence to a signifier? (I agree, however, that dictionaries define words simply in terms of other words, and sometimes images.)

Again, it seems to me that some, but by no means all, religious claims are cases where the language used to make the claim is not meant to refer to a signifier, but to an actual experience. For instance, some claims to have had a transcedental experience might fall into this category.

Once, again, welcome!

[sojourner]

so the phrases and words we choose to explain our deities and our beliefs can not fully explain them, as they are trapped here, in 'thing-reality', and are trying to transcend into 'The Real', where another set of signifiers could explain what we truly mean by belief.

Platonism.

[Feathers in Hair]

Hello and welcome! I'm not sure if you've introduced yourself, but if you haven't yet, we have an area for that. We'd love to be able to give you a proper welcome! (Especially since you've got a signature from one of my favorite books!)

For me, I guess it doesn't matter so much what gods I believe in so much as if I try to do what I'd want to do whether they existed or not. I think things like compassion, empathy and kindness override religion. (Or at least they should. )