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Too Much Religion?
- Thread starter youknowme
- Start date
I'm less interested in the label 'religious' or 'irreligious' and more interested in what sort of behavior that entails.
Ellen Brown
Well-Known Member
I once knew a woman who said, "She is so heavenly minded that she's no earthly good".
youknowme
Whatever you want me to be.
What entails?
youknowme
Whatever you want me to be.
What do you think she meant by that?
It is certainly possible to take presumably religious beliefs too seriously for anyone's good.
That is a major resource for deciding what should count as proper religion, IMO. How good, if at all, are its self-correction mechanisms?
youknowme
Whatever you want me to be.
Does the idea of a "self correction mechanisms" run contrary to "religious faith"?
Not faith at its best connotations, but to stubborn belief, certainly.
Much of its role is to destroy such belief outright.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Most people I know who are highly religious are monks, nun, and priests. They, many, are so devoted that their religion goes from self to others. Many lay people (don't know others but christian) are still working on not having a selfish faith in which many see religious as a benefit from god by how many people tbey spread the word too. I see that as Too religious. Some religious are very indoctrinated it's hard to be friends with those who differ. Personal experience.
I guess there are two types. I see the positive side. The ones who say they are religious (or act it without saying it) I feel are taking their beliefs or abusing their beliefs. But the word isnt bad itself just how people use it.
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youknowme
Whatever you want me to be.
If you believe something is received by a divine source, how can it be then that a mere human can correct it?
You would have to ask that to a theist, which I am not. I would never do or advise anyone to do such a thing as trust divine sources. That would be quite unwise, pointless, silly at the very least.
IMO it is instead for humans to validate the divine and decide whether it is a fair representation of the sacred, on a case-by-case basis... if they decide that dealing with god-concepts is worth the trouble at all, which is definitely not a given.
Ellen Brown
Well-Known Member
For me, it means that we should think of the things of the Creator with the love our heart. However we need to keep focused on the present enough to be able to feed our children and take care of what we should.
Religion can mean pretty much anything which mean a wide variety of prescriptive or descriptive behaviors which could be helpful, harmful or neutral for individuals or societies. Since it's such a huge umbrella, it'd be hard to answer the question with any insight
dfnj
Well-Known Member
The purpose of religion is to answer the four great existential questions:
1. Who am I?
2. Why am I here?
3. What does it all mean?
4. What is going to happen to me when I die?
I no longer think of God as an object. I think of God as a type of experience. God is the essence of the experience of "greatness". God is an experience we are drawn to. We are all drawn to God. God is our destiny. Our destiny is to experience God's greatness. When we die, we go into the light, we stare into the face of God, and we all get to experience God's infinite beauty.
Saying you have too much religion is like saying you are breathing too much air during the day. In my way of thinking, your question does not compute.
It is possible to take any ideology -- religious or otherwise -- to an inhumane extreme. That happens whenever one elevates the ideology to make it more important than flesh and blood, more important than people. You can do that with any ideology, and it is always stupid and immoral.
Faith is life. Thus one should live and breath faith, by always being mindful of what God asks of us.
Regards Tony
youknowme
Whatever you want me to be.
Sorry, but I don't feel it is needed or even worthwhile to try and define something like religion. Just pay attention to what the context around the word means and ask for clarification when needed.
youknowme
Whatever you want me to be.
Is that always a bad thing? Aren't some ideas worth dying for?
youknowme
Whatever you want me to be.
What does that mean?
youknowme
Whatever you want me to be.
Why should I need to ask a theist? Is there something about "religious faith" that an atheist (or other non-believer) cannot understand?