Go to God as The Universe as an Organism
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Re: Re:
We are all born with the capacity for faith. Like every organ we are born with has a function, and it WILL do it's job. The human spirit is an organ, so to speak. And it has a very real function and all humans exercise it. We cant help it, we must BELIEVE. And we all will believe in something that is beyond this natural world, something that is bigger than us and is unreachable. It is what makes us like God, and it is how we connect with Him. And like any physical organ, it must receive nourishment, which are the Words of God. Without proper nourishment, it becomes dysfunctional and evil, because the human spirit cannot and never will die, in the sense that are bodies die and cease to function. The spirit will live for eternity, either in darkness or in light. A spirit living in darkness will still reproduce whatever is placed in it, just like a spirit living in light will do. A spirit is like ground, it grows whatever is placed in it, that's why many of Jesus's parables are in referance to seed, time, and harvest.
Thanks Xeno, for the inspiration, something your posts always provide.
posted by
calmcantey75
on August 25, 2008 at 4:19 PM
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Re: About Our Beliefs
tis true
posted by
Xeno-x
on August 25, 2008 at 4:05 PM
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About Our Beliefs
They only have to be true to ourselves, hence the saying "Be true to yourself". If you believe in sin then the greatest sin is to sin against your own beliefs, thats where one truly comes unstuck.
posted by
WaterKat
on August 25, 2008 at 4:53 AM
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Re:
you were born with faith?
posted by
Xeno-x
on August 25, 2008 at 4:47 AM
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Faith.
posted by
calmcantey75
on August 25, 2008 at 1:59 AM
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Xeno-x - I think it is safe to say that what an individual believes is in
most cases a result of where they were born.
Those that move away from traditional beliefs generally do so over the maturation process and after a great deal of examination and questioning. But for the most part everyone on this planet believes what they were taught when they were children until a time comes in their lives where they either reconcile what they believe as they mature, or move away from what they were taught because they cannot reconcile it. I think that conversion in the sense of moving from one religion to another is a very small aspect. The life reclamation you describe in this post as conversion is probably more prevalent than switching religions but still a small aspect pertaining to why people believe.
Personally; I cannot say with absolute certainty that what I believe is true. I have much more certainty in the fact that what I was taught growing up is nothing more than a pail full of man made whoppers. Surviving into the modern era due to factors that have little to do with its validity as a belief system but moreso to do with other influences. Things such as indoctrination from birth, pervasive social conditioning, ongoing communal pressures, attainment of critical mass and human currencies. The funny part of all of this is that most people will say that they have examined all possibilities, then relate verbatim beliefs that have been clung to for generations in their part of the world.
posted by
gomedome
on August 20, 2008 at 10:22 PM
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This can be a difficult question to answer if we define "belief" as "holding something unprovable as true to be true", in which case I don't have beliefs. I have strong opinions and a view with room for adjustment and an unshakable conviction of the practicality of this view.
I went searching in various directions and ended up dissecting every point of view I came upon until I came to seek only one question and its attending implied questions' answers: What is Truth? Along with "What is Knowledge?", "What is real?", etc this question has been thought about by a great many thinkers for a long time. In my search I found that these questions were a central theme of not only western philosophers but also in some Buddhist traditions in which a long series of lifetimes of relative seclusion and concentrated effort has been devoted to such questions and possible answers in extraordinary detail. I also found that sayings by Sufi Masters, Zen Masters, and various other thinkers, mystics, sages and saints had so much in common that there had to be an underlying reality that they all experienced the same, but had different words to describe their experiences, dependent on the culture around them and that it coincided a lot with the view that was shaping in my own mind. So I did some formal training in psychology and comparative religion to gain insight into the academic approach to this subject of truth and lived through experience. Combined with this, I had a series of experiences that convinced me that there is more to life than the world ruled only by Newtonian style linear laws of Physics and that we cannot neglect our imaginative and emotional faculties as irrelevant to our journey in life. In fact, these are more relevant than the world of form. To make a long story short, my "view" (as opposed to a strongly held belief) has grown out of many varied experiences in my life.
posted by
AardigeAfrikaner
on August 20, 2008 at 2:08 PM
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I have come by my beliefs in various ways, from thinking, reading,
experimentation...etc.
I question my beliefs all the time...and they are constantly changing as I learn and grow.
I don't believe in "salvation" (or any being needed).
I believe in what feels right to me, and it doesn't matter if others think or feel the same.
I think that for most people...if they have found something that is satisfying and fulfilling in their life...then it is right for them...with the exception of harming others, of course.
posted by
Afzal_Sunny7
on August 20, 2008 at 1:41 PM
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The problem with a faith is ...
... that ... it's a faith -
- genio
posted by
ggXpress
on August 20, 2008 at 1:08 PM
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