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Religion is a useless concept, there are no religions

Vinayaka

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Marcion said:
I have no objections to anyone's beliefs or practices.
It is the concept religion I have objections to, or rather I dislike it and don't see the need for it.
Sufism is not a religion, it is a way of life, just like Buddhism or my tantra-yoga path are.
I have more in common with a Sufi than with a fundamentalist Hindu or Christian, people who stress the differences between so-called religions are going against the unity of humanity and causing all sorts of troubles in the world.
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When Ananda Marga builds a center somewhere, do they take advantage of land that is zoned 'religious' or do they build it on land zoned 'multi-use'?
 
M

Marcion

gopa of humanity's controversial Taraka Brahma
So, religions are just illusionary divisions created by all too fallible people.
There is only one single human Dharma, just like there is only one human race and one human culture (customs may differ).
People may approach God (their higher Self) in all sorts of ways perhaps not even being aware that they are doing so. But this has nothing to do with any religious context they may imagine themselves to be in.

Every living being so also every human being is caught up in the same cycle of life, death and reincarnation and subject to the exact same system of action and reaction (karma).
No imagined religious dharma or atheist attitude will be able to influence that, we're all in that same system together just like we are all breathing the same oxygen in order to keep ourselves alive.

Vinayaka said:
When Ananda Marga builds a center somewhere, do they take advantage of land that is zoned 'religious' or do they build it on land zoned 'multi-use'?
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I have no idea. I didn't even know such distinctions in land use were made.
In practical life, you have to adjust with the limited vision of the authories or you would get little done, given that you stick to following the Yama's and Niyama's of course.
I have to stress that the way I express this rather universal stance is very personal. It is more or less in line with the ideology of Shrii Sarkar, but the way you express things matters in how people react to it.
 
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actsfourthirty

Member
Marcion said:
In a different thread in a DIR I described why I don't feel attracted to (the concept of) religion.
I'm not interested in them and people who insist that they are in one and that "it" is superior to everything else are in my eyes funny or ignorant people.

In India for thousands of years people had all kinds of spiritual practices, more vedic (extroversive) ones and more tantric (introversive) ones and these were organized in all kinds of cults with an endless stream of newer ones building on what went before. The new cult started by Gautama the Buddha was not a religion although it was quite revolutionary and the same for the spiritual cults started by Mahavira (Jain) and the Sikh guru's. There was no awareness of leaving "Hinduism" because there was no concept of a religion called Hinduism. The whole idea of religion was absent.

Then came the Christian cults and the Islamic cults that became increasingly intolerant declaring others to be "non-believers" or "heretics" which led to the ridiculous idea of "different religions" that were not compatible or "fundamentally different" from each other. Also the Bahai's continued carrying this idea that it was the religion and not the spiritual cult that was the organizing principle, religions were supposedly started by prophets and the latest prophet had the more complete message for the modern age more or less replacing the need for older "religions".

From the West even the Indian and other groups of spiritual cults were declared to be religions which makes no sense at all. And all the rest of the spiritual cults in the world were simply declared to be primitive (and irrelevant)

For me there are no religions, there are just people practising (or not practising) spiritual cults (whether of the vedic type or the more tantric type).
So I hesitated long whether I should be on this forum. But I thought 'what the heck' there are also atheists here and people who in other ways don't feel they have anything to do with religions. So it's more the name and the set-up of the forum that is the problem and not my presence here. The name of the forum is biased towards the Western concept of religion(s) and implicitly discriminating the other half of humanity.
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how do you have a sacramental covenant without religion?
 
danieldemol

danieldemol

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Marcion said:
Anyone who bashes Christianity and Islam for their proselytizing fundamentalism and dares to pat themselves on the back for having another "better religion" is in fact a hypocrite.
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That is an ironic comment given that it seems to assume freedom from hypocrisy is better
 
M

Marcion

gopa of humanity's controversial Taraka Brahma
danieldemol said:
Better than hypocritical religions.
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As I explained elsewhere, the whole concept of religion is tied to a sectarian or fundamentalist attitude.
So if you attack fundamentalist religions you should reject the whole concept of religion.
 
Kooky

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
@Marcion
So what makes your belief in Human Dharma different from all the other "religions"?
Aren't karma and rebirth the same kind of "imaginary stuff" that you criticize in other people's beliefs? If I don't believe in them, aren't you going to castigate me as an "unbeliever" just like all the others?
 
M

Marcion

gopa of humanity's controversial Taraka Brahma
@Kooky
If you don't believe in spiritual emancipation and liberation which is in fact what you are saying, then that does not make my view (the opposite) a belief or even religion.

Spiritual growth can be experienced in real life, there is no need for any belief (even in reincarnation) or any religious context. Human dharma is different from the dharma of animals or plants, it can be experienced, you don't need any type of belief.
 
Kooky

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
Marcion said:
@Kooky
If you don't believe in spiritual emancipation and liberation which is in fact what you are saying, then that does not make my view (the opposite) a belief or even religion.
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Since you do believe in "spiritual emancipation and liberation", that is in fact exactly what it is - a belief.
Spiritual growth can be experienced in real life, there is no need for any belief (even in reincarnation) or any religious context. Human dharma is different from the dharma of animals or plants, it can be experienced, you don't need any type of belief.
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There is no dharma that exists outside of your imagination.
 
M

Marcion

gopa of humanity's controversial Taraka Brahma
Kooky said:
No, it is not.
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Then what is it, a statement, a declaration, a thought?

Kooky said:
Since you do believe in "spiritual emancipation and liberation", that is in fact exactly what it is - a belief.
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I don't believe it, I have experienced it in real life, in many ways.
If you have no desire to experience it, that is your choice, spiritual practice should never be forced on anyone.
 
Kooky

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
Marcion said:
Then what is it, a statement, a declaration, a thought?
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My statement is an observation, and a statement of acceptance that the need for spiritual growth comes from inside us and our own imagination, not some external law of nature*, or dharma**, or other kind of universal truth***.

You are free to believe what you like, but in claiming that your beliefs reflect a fundamental truth where others do not, you are in fact doing the same thing you are criticizing all other believers for; you are even masking your belief in the same rhetoric of naturalism as they do: Your belief is "natural" and self evident, all others are mere "beliefs" or superstitions. So you are falling into the same emotional-intellectual trap: To assume that your personal desires are reflected in the universe, that your ideas are reflections of a greater cosmic truth, rather than your own creation.

To call this out is not a belief, and it is not a dogma. It is a simple expression of what is, and what is not.
You are free to deny this observation, of course. Many people need the idea that their spirituality is not their own creation - if that serves you better than my view, then be my guest; as I'm wont to say, I'm not the boss of you.


*) All laws of nature are human claims.
**) The dharma is our own creation.
***) All universal truths are man made.
 
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