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Can you fail in a religion?
- Thread starter Remté
- Start date
Sure, you can start laughing out loud in a church or whatever when they start talking of airborne prohets, horses, and stuff.
I don’t think you will get good ratings for that.
Ciao
- viole
Depends what you mean by "religion." Personally, I take a religion to be (in part) a community of shared belief.
What does it mean to fail at community?
Remté
Active Member
Laughing out loud in church doesn't sound like failing to me.
InvestigateTruth
Well-Known Member
I think It really comes to beliefs in the religion.
It depends how the particular religion defines success and failure.
In Quran, the aultumate goal is to meet the Lord on the Day of Resurrection:
“He ordereth all things. He maketh His signs clear, that ye may have firm faith in attaining the presence of your Lord.”
But being successful in that goal, according to Quran, is dependent upon how one has been following the guidance of God:
“Let him then who hopeth to attain the presence of his Lord work a righteous work"
Therefore according to these verses, what a failure would be, not to meet the Lord when He manifests Himself in the World!
Pediphilia seems a common failure among the Catholic priests.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Remté
Active Member
I wouldn't, but you can. Turn away from certainly changes the question entirely. The first one limits it a lot. And one would have to go about defining the teachings of the religion.
Absolutely. In religions that are more about practice, failing is routine and part of the usual conversations we have about our traditions. You can fail to do that ritual correctly, you can stumble over your invocations to the gods, you might be unable to reach that state of focus in your meditation, you might not get any insight from your divination, and on and on. Tons and tons of examples.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Going by how @Quintessence understands it, spiritually, you could fail as in not meeting up to the expectations your religion asks you to follow. Fail from what your sousce asks of you. Some people feel guilt because they feel they failed altogether. Of course, the rituals as Quen mentioned.
Samantha Rinne
Resident Genderfluid Writer/Artist
You'd fail, because you'd get kicked out as surely as someone who fails all courses gets kicked out of school.
Honestly, though, I don't believe it is possible. While the organized temples might boot you, ultimately the religion is about your spiritual growth. You only fail if you stop trying.
Oh, and there's also failing to really grasp your theology when you're a polytheist stuck in a morass of classical monotheist theological norms. There's failing to find a local community when you're a minority scattered across the globe. As ethics intersects too, there's also failing to embody your chosen virtues in honor of particular gods. If you've got a really strong dedication to a particular god, you can fail to serve them adequately in your eyes and in theirs.
Honestly, I don't understand what gives folks the impression that religion is easy or un-failable. In fairness, 'fail' might be too strong of a word for some of these instances depending on what one means by it.
Honestly, I don't understand what gives folks the impression that religion is easy or un-failable. In fairness, 'fail' might be too strong of a word for some of these instances depending on what one means by it.
Remté
Active Member
Why would get kicked out - unless of course you're unable to stop laughing which causes diturbance. But that still has nothing to do with failing a religion.
Sure people fail or succeed from a religion's theological frame-of-reference. But in a larger sense, it's quite difference as my signature asserts.
MonkeyFire
Well-Known Member
Imo people can fail at church and go to hell... but there are some who don't sin but choose to go to heck anywho.
One can fail to achieve an authentic existence in some religions, living instead in a state of isolation from and contempt for the world, while waiting to be whisked off to a better place as if living life in some kind of cosmic bus stop waiting for it all to end in the hope of being transported to someplace better. One would not be failing the religion as much as failing himself within the religion.
PureX
Veteran Member
We certainly can fail to understand a religion, and thereby fail to achieve the gifts that the religion offers to those who follow it's precepts.
In the Baha'i Faith the twin duties for us all is to recognise the Manifestation of God for this day and to follow all His Teachings. As none of us is perfect. We all fall short and rely in the mercy of God.
Pedophile priests are definitely failing at community.