Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragonsblood1987
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you say that asking if religion is followed for the sake of comfort, what is the ultimate goal of being spiritual? that isnt really a question with an objective answer. i wouldnt really say that judeo-christian religions are very spiritual, especially not in comparison with eastern religions.
eastern religions tend to explore spirituality as a means of achieving enlightenment. you are a soul, you have always been, just not always in your current physical form. everything that reality encompasses is bound in some way, thus making everything in it small parts of a whole. if you do good, you'll amass positive energy and go up a rung in the ladder when your physical form dies, being reborn a little bit closer to true enlightenment. or at least you'll have more means of becoming enlightened at your disposal. life and death are like the breath of the universe, theres a balance that is maintained, we're all part of a greater consciousness.
judeo christian religions however, are a bit more linear and black and white (though theyre the most frequently openly interpreted). god said "let there be light". bam. we're here. now that youre here, youve been gifted with free will. what you do with it is your choice, but if you dont do what god wants, he, the unconditionally loving creator, will punish you for ever with physical torture (although some offshoots of the big three have varying amounts of penance; its not always forever). if youre good and dont use the free will god gave you, you'll go to heaven, or some plane of positive energy to put it another way. in heaven, theres no pain, no hunger, everyones always happy you get to see dead loved ones again ect. if youre bad, youre barred from heaven, damned to hell or some negative plane where your only company is some chief embodiment of evil, and all the asshole that have ever existed and died before you.
it seems to me like spirituality doesnt play enough of a roll in christianity to even mention it, hence why i asked what i did.
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I'm interested in what you think spirituality is. Do you think its some kind of learning or enlightenment process? The literal meaning of the word, of course, is 'dealing with spirits'.
You mention a bunch of stuff about Christian 'religion'. Its accurate enough according to popular opinion, but doesn't really have anything to do with actual Christianity. If you are a Christian, you are not bound by the old testament. You are not, in fact, bound by anything. Let me give you an alternate take :
In my christian circles, Sin is not a series of bad actions that God doesn't like, and Righteousness is not a bunch actions that he likes. Sin is an environment, and refers to the the fact that you have free will. The meaning of word for 'Sin' is basically 'apart from God', as in He's not directing everything all the time, which is another way of saying we have free will. He's not shooting down airplanes full of babies, we are.
Righteousness is not doing a bunch of good actions till you 'get good enough'. There is no good enough. The most super duper wonderful human you ever met is exactly as sinful as anyone else. The most despicable murderer is exactly as Righteous as anyone else. Hitler and Mother Teresa? Exactly the same from a sin standpoint. Those public Christians talking about how sinful one kind of person is over another? They are seriously mistaken.
Hell and eternal damnation? One way to look at it is that you may simply not recognise what you are being offered in the afterlife, and thus fail to accept it. Nobody sends you to hell, you just don't see heaven when it's in front of you. That applies to this life as well, I think. I personally do not buy the hellfire idea...JC mentioned some things in that regard but they were mostly metaphors for a 'really bad thing', which indeed it would be if heaven existed but you couldn't recognise it.
To me, Christianity means that
a) I believe in the historical Jesus. This is not unreasonable.
b) I think he was God's "son", avatar, representative, etc for us humans. This is unreasonable.
c) I accept the free gift that God extends through him. This is the only way to righteousness. Reasonable given (b) is accepted.
d) I try to be as much like him in my daily life as I can. Reasonable, even if you don't buy the God part he had some damn good suggestions.
Most of the rules that people go on and on about are really just Him trying to give us some clues about how to be happy. Breaking them is not any more sinful that not breaking them, its just usually stupid for practical reasons.