I'm really kind of glad that you added the edit, because I often miss the point of your rants. Maybe I can chalk it up to of view difference and leave it at that.
In any case I may mentioned before that I tend to believe that despite Big Religion's (including my own self-identified BR) protestations; a religion is a very personal thing. There are roughly 6 and a half billion people in the world and every one of them follows their religion label differently, because their understanding of the religion and it's related spirituality are different. No two people, despite their self-applied labels, in reality believes in the same shit, and hence where any two people are gathered, so there are two different religions.
My axiom: Religion is personal. And this is where my ecumenicalism fits.
A few bits that I found interesting:
I consider faith beliefs a reflection of the content of character
I find this an interesting statement. Is it that you feel that the very existence of religious beliefs points towards a lack of questioning those beliefs? Or rather is it baggage from your past?
It's fashionable to be all talk, and claim that ancient wisdom has something to offer*, and then totally ignore what it has to offer, while basking in the cost-free glow of superior enlightenment.
I would tend to argue that part of Christianity (short of fundamentalist Christianity) is acknowledgment that we [Christians] are all posers, and being a Christian has something to do with occasionally making a firm effort to restore ourselves to Grace. As for the "Cost Free Glow", in the social circles that I tend frequent, Christianity is near-equivalent to pariah status. If following the scriptures were easy; everyone would be doing it. Lastly, I feel that enlightenment comes in fits and starts and rarely comes about because I studied a religious tome. Even if it is the way that Catholics generally practice. I tend to think the reason I'm still a Catholic precisely because of my thin Bible de-education as the Bible is full of twists turns and contradictions.
Well time to go back to my Patchouli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patchouli). (I was wondering exactly what Patchouli was.)
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Date: 2007-10-03 07:12 pm (UTC)In any case I may mentioned before that I tend to believe that despite Big Religion's (including my own self-identified BR) protestations; a religion is a very personal thing. There are roughly 6 and a half billion people in the world and every one of them follows their religion label differently, because their understanding of the religion and it's related spirituality are different. No two people, despite their self-applied labels, in reality believes in the same shit, and hence where any two people are gathered, so there are two different religions.
My axiom: Religion is personal.
And this is where my ecumenicalism fits.
A few bits that I found interesting:
I consider faith beliefs a reflection of the content of character
I find this an interesting statement. Is it that you feel that the very existence of religious beliefs points towards a lack of questioning those beliefs? Or rather is it baggage from your past?
It's fashionable to be all talk, and claim that ancient wisdom has something to offer*, and then totally ignore what it has to offer, while basking in the cost-free glow of superior enlightenment.
I would tend to argue that part of Christianity (short of fundamentalist Christianity) is acknowledgment that we [Christians] are all posers, and being a Christian has something to do with occasionally making a firm effort to restore ourselves to Grace.
As for the "Cost Free Glow", in the social circles that I tend frequent, Christianity is near-equivalent to pariah status. If following the scriptures were easy; everyone would be doing it.
Lastly, I feel that enlightenment comes in fits and starts and rarely comes about because I studied a religious tome. Even if it is the way that Catholics generally practice. I tend to think the reason I'm still a Catholic precisely because of my thin Bible de-education as the Bible is full of twists turns and contradictions.
Well time to go back to my Patchouli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patchouli). (I was wondering exactly what Patchouli was.)