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If you, like me, believe spirituality is not the same as religion, how did you separate your spiritual path, your seeking, from your religion?
For me personally it was easy. Hinduism already offers a spiritual path that is not based on the scriptures.
It is also not organized the way other religions are, in the sense you don't belong to any organization from which you can be dismissed. On the other hand there is an orthodoxy that observes castist and sexist practices but it is waning and more importantly is illegal. There is also a mild social pressure to conform but easily ignored.
This thread is not about anti-religion rants.
It is about how you are following your spiritual path.
Did you feel you have to make a clean break from your religion?
Like me, dose you religion allow for seeking in your own way?
Do you fear you are doing something wrong, or censure, even if it is irrational?
How closely does your path parallel what you religion already has divised?
Certainly, spirituality is not the same as religion. Christianity, for example, accepts the reality that many people may engage in ostensible Christian worship without actually knowing Christ. Religion may have an entirely earthly - primarily social and economic - appeal.
But there is no reason to suppose that there is any inherent disconnect between religion and spirituality. Because I have come to regard Christianity as True, I don't find it spirituality confining in the slightest. It allows for the full spectrum of worship, communion, prayer, mystical experience, Spirit indwelling and expression- what else can any ostensibly spiritual path offer?
The question for me isn't whether a religion is "spiritual" or makes me feel that way. The question is whether it's True. If have a conviction that it's True, then the spirituality will inevitably follow.
I find that "I'm spiritual, but not religious" seldom means much more than "I want to feel like I'm connected to the Great Unknown and to live according to my own notions of morality." Which is fine if someone has thoroughly investigated the major religions and concluded they aren't True, but this free-floating spirituality is, in its own way, really just another religion.
Certainly, spirituality is not the same as religion. Christianity, for example, accepts the reality that many people may engage in ostensible Christian worship without actually knowing Christ. Religion may have an entirely earthly - primarily social and economic - appeal.
But there is no reason to suppose that there is any inherent disconnect between religion and spirituality. Because I have come to regard Christianity as True, I don't find it spirituality confining in the slightest. It allows for the full spectrum of worship, communion, prayer, mystical experience, Spirit indwelling and expression- what else can any ostensibly spiritual path offer?
The question for me isn't whether a religion is "spiritual" or makes me feel that way. The question is whether it's True. If have a conviction that it's True, then the spirituality will inevitably follow.
I find that "I'm spiritual, but not religious" seldom means much more than "I want to feel like I'm connected to the Great Unknown and to live according to my own notions of morality." Which is fine if someone has thoroughly investigated the major religions and concluded they aren't True, but this free-floating spirituality is, in its own way, really just another religion.
How have you decided that what you believe about Christianity is TRUE? How can others make the same determination you did? What is your standard of validity?
How have you decided that what you believe about Christianity is TRUE? How can others make the same determination you did? What is your standard of validity?
How have you decided that what you believe about Christianity is TRUE? How can others make the same determination you did? What is your standard of validity?
Well, I believe this will be the third time today that I've addressed essentially this same issue.
My Christian beliefs are the end-product of a long and diligent quest. That quest proceeded along a continuum of essential questions relating to the nature of consciousness, the nature of reality, the origin of the universe and similar matters. In reaching convictions on many of these matters, science was highly relevant.
My quest could have ended with a conclusion that convictions about the essential questions were simply impossible to reach - but it didn't. It could have ended with a conviction that naturalism and atheism provide the best explanation - but it didn't.
I instead reached a conviction that deism or theism provided the best explanation. I then proceeded to the question as to which species of deism or theism provided the best explanation. I could've reached the conviction "None of them" - but I didn't. I could've reached the conviction "It's impossible to decide" - but I didn't.
I instead reached a conviction that Christianity provided the best explanation. At this level of inquiry, the epistemology is necessarily quite different from the epistemology at the lower levels. Science has little if anything to contribute. Convictions are reached on the basis of philosophical and theological reasoning, life experience, mystical or anomalous experiences in some cases (including mine), and intuition.
As I have evolved as a Christian, my conviction has deepened through my experience of God to the point that I can speak of an inner "knowing."
And so, this is how I have decided that Christianity is True - or, more accurately, that it is the closest approximation of Truth that I have been able to find. This doesn't mean that it is, in fact, ontologically True or that my "knowing" is epistemologically superior to the "knowing" of a Jew, Muslim or Hindu. It doesn't even mean that atheism or some alternative yet to occur to humans isn't ontologically True.
My standard of validity is that Christianity best accords with the other convictions that I reached as I proceeded along in my quest, as well as with the best philosophical and theological reasoning, my life experience, my mystical/anomalous experiences and my intuition.
Where we differ is that, if my quest had led me to conclude that the core tenets of Christianity were false, I would've been honest enough to say "Christianity doesn't provide the best explanation." I would've moved on to the New Age or wherever the best explanation was to be found. I would've seen no point in reinventing Christianity. If Christianity seemed to provide the best explanation but some mystical experience seemed contrary to the core tenets, I would've questioned the validity of the experience.
Certainly, spirituality is not the same as religion. Christianity, for example, accepts the reality that many people may engage in ostensible Christian worship without actually knowing Christ. Religion may have an entirely earthly - primarily social and economic - appeal.
But there is no reason to suppose that there is any inherent disconnect between religion and spirituality. Because I have come to regard Christianity as True, I don't find it spirituality confining in the slightest. It allows for the full spectrum of worship, communion, prayer, mystical experience, Spirit indwelling and expression- what else can any ostensibly spiritual path offer?
The question for me isn't whether a religion is "spiritual" or makes me feel that way. The question is whether it's True. If have a conviction that it's True, then the spirituality will inevitably follow.
I find that "I'm spiritual, but not religious" seldom means much more than "I want to feel like I'm connected to the Great Unknown and to live according to my own notions of morality." Which is fine if someone has thoroughly investigated the major religions and concluded they aren't True, but this free-floating spirituality is, in its own way, really just another religion.
is it like:
Mind body spirit. people religion spirituality. religion can be thought of as muscle memory for some. A set of rituals that we deploy just to remind ourselves to try and live a little more for others than ourselves. A set of rituals to help us connect to the system around us.
in that context, I guess its fine.
I find people that say "I am spiritual and not religious" realize that religion can have really stupid rules and any one religion alone is not the only path to the, "oneness", if you will.
Well, I believe this will be the third time today that I've addressed essentially this same issue.
My Christian beliefs are the end-product of a long and diligent quest. That quest proceeded along a continuum of essential questions relating to the nature of consciousness, the nature of reality, the origin of the universe and similar matters. In reaching convictions on many of these matters, science was highly relevant.
My quest could have ended with a conclusion that convictions about the essential questions were simply impossible to reach - but it didn't. It could have ended with a conviction that naturalism and atheism provide the best explanation - but it didn't.
I instead reached a conviction that deism or theism provided the best explanation. I then proceeded to the question as to which species of deism or theism provided the best explanation. I could've reached the conviction "None of them" - but I didn't. I could've reached the conviction "It's impossible to decide" - but I didn't.
I instead reached a conviction that Christianity provided the best explanation. At this level of inquiry, the epistemology is necessarily quite different from the epistemology at the lower levels. Science has little if anything to contribute. Convictions are reached on the basis of philosophical and theological reasoning, life experience, mystical or anomalous experiences in some cases (including mine), and intuition.
As I have evolved as a Christian, my conviction has deepened through my experience of God to the point that I can speak of an inner "knowing."
And so, this is how I have decided that Christianity is True - or, more accurately, that it is the closest approximation of Truth that I have been able to find. This doesn't mean that it is, in fact, ontologically True or that my "knowing" is epistemologically superior to the "knowing" of a Jew, Muslim or Hindu. It doesn't even mean that atheism or some alternative yet to occur to humans isn't ontologically True.
My standard of validity is that Christianity best accords with the other convictions that I reached as I proceeded along in my quest, as well as with the best philosophical and theological reasoning, my life experience, my mystical/anomalous experiences and my intuition.
Where we differ is that, if my quest had led me to conclude that the core tenets of Christianity were false, I would've been honest enough to say "Christianity doesn't provide the best explanation." I would've moved on to the New Age or wherever the best explanation was to be found. I would've seen no point in reinventing Christianity. If Christianity seemed to provide the best explanation but some mystical experience seemed contrary to the core tenets, I would've questioned the validity of the experience.
In short, You just decided that a God who needed the scourging and crucifixion of an innocent human as a blood sacrifice to appease His anger and enable Him to forgive His children for "whatever" - is the most theologically believable God and is the one revealed and demonstrated by Christ. You just decided that a God who would torment ANY of His children in Hell for eternity for what they did in this short finite life - is the most "Just" and theologically believable God and is the one revealed and demonstrated by Christ.
CB, do you even consider a non religious path of spirituality?
My sticking point is how do we define religion. I dont follow the Hindu scriptures, but I study the Upanishads which are philosophical inquiry of creation, the universe, and our relationship, and why it all matters. The too are coonected and yet different.
So my answer would be yes. But perhaps it is not possible in other religions.
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