how does anyone believe in religion don't understand
05-01-2017
, 12:44 PM
05-01-2017
, 01:58 PM
05-01-2017
, 05:44 PM
05-01-2017
, 06:22 PM
Alright, got some time in front of me
So this will be long, you don't have to read it, but to sum it up, I have found myself to become more and more religious over time. Starting out as a proclaimed atheist, I am now absolutely convinced about religion, but not in the way one might expect.
I've been raised a christian so this is the vocabulary and cultural references that I usually employ, however my "faith" can be applied to any religious framework (Living where I live, there are tons of moderate muslims I can share ideas with, as well as a good amount of traditional christian -the majority-)
Now I won't go into too much details, but at some point in my life, early adulthood, I had to face a great personal challenge, and I was seriously contemplating suicide. My Grandmother was an extremely devout christian, she believed the bible to the letter, and oddly enough, she was still the one who opened me to the concept of faith and its practical applications.
Using traditional scriptures, she still managed to get through to me at the time with an extremely important concept: faith.
So what is "faith"?
To me, faith is the absolute belief that everything that ever happens, happens for a very specific reason.
It's also the acceptation that said reason, at a given time, will be out of our understanding.
Which brings me to the next question "what is, then, religion"?
Religion is some sort of "manual" on how to behave and how to act, when faced with any given life challenge.
The idea, that I've tested time and time again now, is that if you behave "correctly" through challenges and adversity, you will be rewarded ultimately.
So what is "correct behaviour"?
It's not complicated really
- Speak the truth (this is the most difficult for most people)
- Forgive those who do you harm, and most importantly, forgive yourself (which is one of the reasons why you need to speak the truth, so you realize who you are and fix your issues)
- Give love to others, be compassionnate and empathetic
- Be patient and don't look for shortcuts
- Have faith in yourself
- Realize your life is a gift and attempt to act meaningfully towards yourself and others
- Don't judge others
- etc...
Basically, try to be the best human being you can
The idea of "God" itself is extremely difficult to express. In my opinion, we are very far from the idea of a conscious being watching every move we make.
But scriptures do give us hints about what "God" is, again, I won't go in depth here (I'd be happy to discuss this in private tho), but there is one idea that constantly comes back, and that idea is both "God" and also demons, actually live within us. Again, not as beings, but as a part of our very selves.
God is virtue within yourself, courage, truth, patience, resilience, strength
Demons are all the "short cuts", "easy way outs", little lies we tell to avoid the big conversations, lies we tell to ourselves.
For example, I've worked in sales for many years, and many salesmen admit that if you want to be successful, you kinda have to be a bad person and lie.
This is, if you will, the act of selling out your soul, in that you accept to do something that you know is bad, in exchange of monetary gain. You compromise your own integrity in order to make more money.
On the other hand, if you would want to be honest in sales, it would still be possible, but it will prove to be much harder to succeed.
But in the long run, I know (from experience, being an entrepreneur now) that being honest will pay more and longer than being a dishonest salesman.
When you give in to your lowest instincts, when you lie, when you cheat, and when you hate or fear, you surrender control of your lower self.
And if you keep doing it again and again and again, eventually, you're going to end up in hell.
And sure enough, when you always try to take the easy road in life, you usually end up living a pretty awful life after some time. This can be observed time and again, just by walking the streets, homeless people, drug addicts, or just general losers.
But if you give it your all, if you work hard, be patient, nice to others, honest, speak the truth, and don't judge others, eventually, you're going to make a great life for yourself and also for others around you, again, speaking from personal experience.
Faith is the belief that the above is true. Everything happens for a reason, and while we're oblivious to the grand scheme of things, just by believing this, and following the general guidelines, everything will eventually turn out ok.
But when it gets tricky is that by "turning out ok", I don't mean you're going to be rich and successful in society.
Rather, it means that you will find peace within yourself, and it'll actually all become easier and easier with time, you won't get mad anymore, you will appreciate life more, and you will have great influence upon others.
From there, you can probably work out financial success if that is what you desire but it will become less important as you would probably have achieved a kind of happiness that can not be bought.
But it doesn't mean you won't face challenges and hardships anymore, although it does make going through them significantly more easy as you would then realize and accept that if everything happens for a reason, the hardship ahead holds the promise of future great improvements.
The topic is extremely complex as it is all encompassing.
But we are far from the "god" who looks down on you from his cloud, and the magic jesus that walks on water.
Religious figures, such as Jesus for example, I think too many religious people just believe that Jesus story is scientifically accurate.
I'd rather see it as a story, like a blueprint for being the best possible human being (thus becoming yourself the "son of God"). If I had to take a guess, I'd definitely think that this is a fictional story from top to bottom. Just like most of the scriptures.
Now it's extremely important to realize that due to way too many translations over way too many years, by way too many people and in way too many languages, that most of the bible's original text is most likely lost forever. So I think it would be a huge mistake to take it for face value to begin with.
Where I disagree with traditional religious people is in rituals. For example the confession, christians just have to go in the booth, tell their "sins" to the priest, then say a few prayers and they're all cleaned up.
Now, how I see it, when you do a "sin", something bad, that hurts someone else. Being penitent isn't about saying a few prayers and forgetting about it.
Being penitent is accepting the fact that because of you, someone else's life has become worse. Accepting the fact that you can't do much about it anymore. Ask for forgiveness, and try to forgive yourself, also accept that you will live with that guilt until you die, this is being penitent, it's about accepting that on that occasion, you have been a bad person towards someone else, and there has been consequences. Ask for forgiveness, and try to move on regardless.
To be penitent, you need to be true to yourself, true to others, speak the truth, admit that you have surrendered control of your actions to your lower self, accept the consequences, and move on. And this is much more difficult to do than just saying a few lies to some priest.
The prayer "our father" is pretty cool too, actually. I don't know it in english, but basically, it does give lots of pointers on how to behave in life.
About being grateful if you have enough to eat, a place to live
About forgiving others and forgiving ourselves
These are very important keys to happiness in life, but also if you want your life to be meaningful, you have to learn to be grateful for your life itself, so you can then show others how to be grateful and make the most of their own lives.
So Religion, faith taught me all that, and this is how I try to live my life. And since I started, my life has improved significantly on many different levels, including financial. I have better friends around me, I am a better father and a better person in general, I'm more grateful for the little things, I don't stress out in difficult situations, I'm more patient, I work harder (because I realize how precious life is and how important it is to make it meaningful), I'm not angry or fearful anymore, I'm just more happy.
Now as a side note, I must say I have been blessed (pun intended) by a couple of very profound spiritual experiences and while I don't remember any of them very clearly, I can remember, at that time, the certainty of it, for these short moments, it all made perfect sense. It's extremely hard to describe, but one of these moments I had the chance to share with my girlfriend and I think we couldn't stop crying in utter amazement for nearly half an hour.
So at this point in my life (I'm 39) it's a certainty for me, not only do I believe in some sort of grand design (I actually believe the world is absolutely perfect, but in a way we can not appreciate), but I also believe I have seen, if only a tiny glipse of proof.
Now the tragedy of it all, is that I fully understand that it's not my job to convince anyone of anything here, I couldn't if I tried, I know that.
We all have to cease our opportunity for our own spiritual awakening, most of us will never have it, and that's fine.
But if I learned anything in my journey, is that all religions really say the same thing if you read between the lines.
Another interesting perspective would be the gnostic perspective that, if I understand it well, would stipulate that Abraham's God is actually some sort of "demon" that feeds on humans killing ourselves over it.
As a metaphor, I would tend to actually agree with that idea.
But no, I don't believe God is some old bearded dude shooting lightning from the clouds if we misbehave. It's much more absolute than that (more like some sort of mathematical formula that would explain everything in the universe).
And I don't believe demons are ugly little winged beings that torment us, demons are living within our lower selves, fear, anger, hatred, lazyness, resentment etc...)
And God is what expresses itself when we do good, but also whenever we are creative, art, music, they're all human made universes, and a way to express the divine within by creating whole worlds, characters, storylines.
Especially in music (I must say I'm biased here)
The flaw with my belief is that it tends to work great with confirmation bias. I understand that. But since it significantly improved my quality and appreciation of life, I'm happy to just roll with it. Plus, I've had my own experiences, two of which are extremely hard to deny.
Anyway, I'm done being the forum's crazy guy, thanks for reading, feel free to comment, criticize, appreciate or whatever
not trying to convince anyone here, just telling my story, for what it's worth.
So this will be long, you don't have to read it, but to sum it up, I have found myself to become more and more religious over time. Starting out as a proclaimed atheist, I am now absolutely convinced about religion, but not in the way one might expect.
I've been raised a christian so this is the vocabulary and cultural references that I usually employ, however my "faith" can be applied to any religious framework (Living where I live, there are tons of moderate muslims I can share ideas with, as well as a good amount of traditional christian -the majority-)
Now I won't go into too much details, but at some point in my life, early adulthood, I had to face a great personal challenge, and I was seriously contemplating suicide. My Grandmother was an extremely devout christian, she believed the bible to the letter, and oddly enough, she was still the one who opened me to the concept of faith and its practical applications.
Using traditional scriptures, she still managed to get through to me at the time with an extremely important concept: faith.
So what is "faith"?
To me, faith is the absolute belief that everything that ever happens, happens for a very specific reason.
It's also the acceptation that said reason, at a given time, will be out of our understanding.
Which brings me to the next question "what is, then, religion"?
Religion is some sort of "manual" on how to behave and how to act, when faced with any given life challenge.
The idea, that I've tested time and time again now, is that if you behave "correctly" through challenges and adversity, you will be rewarded ultimately.
So what is "correct behaviour"?
It's not complicated really
- Speak the truth (this is the most difficult for most people)
- Forgive those who do you harm, and most importantly, forgive yourself (which is one of the reasons why you need to speak the truth, so you realize who you are and fix your issues)
- Give love to others, be compassionnate and empathetic
- Be patient and don't look for shortcuts
- Have faith in yourself
- Realize your life is a gift and attempt to act meaningfully towards yourself and others
- Don't judge others
- etc...
Basically, try to be the best human being you can
The idea of "God" itself is extremely difficult to express. In my opinion, we are very far from the idea of a conscious being watching every move we make.
But scriptures do give us hints about what "God" is, again, I won't go in depth here (I'd be happy to discuss this in private tho), but there is one idea that constantly comes back, and that idea is both "God" and also demons, actually live within us. Again, not as beings, but as a part of our very selves.
God is virtue within yourself, courage, truth, patience, resilience, strength
Demons are all the "short cuts", "easy way outs", little lies we tell to avoid the big conversations, lies we tell to ourselves.
For example, I've worked in sales for many years, and many salesmen admit that if you want to be successful, you kinda have to be a bad person and lie.
This is, if you will, the act of selling out your soul, in that you accept to do something that you know is bad, in exchange of monetary gain. You compromise your own integrity in order to make more money.
On the other hand, if you would want to be honest in sales, it would still be possible, but it will prove to be much harder to succeed.
But in the long run, I know (from experience, being an entrepreneur now) that being honest will pay more and longer than being a dishonest salesman.
When you give in to your lowest instincts, when you lie, when you cheat, and when you hate or fear, you surrender control of your lower self.
And if you keep doing it again and again and again, eventually, you're going to end up in hell.
And sure enough, when you always try to take the easy road in life, you usually end up living a pretty awful life after some time. This can be observed time and again, just by walking the streets, homeless people, drug addicts, or just general losers.
But if you give it your all, if you work hard, be patient, nice to others, honest, speak the truth, and don't judge others, eventually, you're going to make a great life for yourself and also for others around you, again, speaking from personal experience.
Faith is the belief that the above is true. Everything happens for a reason, and while we're oblivious to the grand scheme of things, just by believing this, and following the general guidelines, everything will eventually turn out ok.
But when it gets tricky is that by "turning out ok", I don't mean you're going to be rich and successful in society.
Rather, it means that you will find peace within yourself, and it'll actually all become easier and easier with time, you won't get mad anymore, you will appreciate life more, and you will have great influence upon others.
From there, you can probably work out financial success if that is what you desire but it will become less important as you would probably have achieved a kind of happiness that can not be bought.
But it doesn't mean you won't face challenges and hardships anymore, although it does make going through them significantly more easy as you would then realize and accept that if everything happens for a reason, the hardship ahead holds the promise of future great improvements.
The topic is extremely complex as it is all encompassing.
But we are far from the "god" who looks down on you from his cloud, and the magic jesus that walks on water.
Religious figures, such as Jesus for example, I think too many religious people just believe that Jesus story is scientifically accurate.
I'd rather see it as a story, like a blueprint for being the best possible human being (thus becoming yourself the "son of God"). If I had to take a guess, I'd definitely think that this is a fictional story from top to bottom. Just like most of the scriptures.
Now it's extremely important to realize that due to way too many translations over way too many years, by way too many people and in way too many languages, that most of the bible's original text is most likely lost forever. So I think it would be a huge mistake to take it for face value to begin with.
Where I disagree with traditional religious people is in rituals. For example the confession, christians just have to go in the booth, tell their "sins" to the priest, then say a few prayers and they're all cleaned up.
Now, how I see it, when you do a "sin", something bad, that hurts someone else. Being penitent isn't about saying a few prayers and forgetting about it.
Being penitent is accepting the fact that because of you, someone else's life has become worse. Accepting the fact that you can't do much about it anymore. Ask for forgiveness, and try to forgive yourself, also accept that you will live with that guilt until you die, this is being penitent, it's about accepting that on that occasion, you have been a bad person towards someone else, and there has been consequences. Ask for forgiveness, and try to move on regardless.
To be penitent, you need to be true to yourself, true to others, speak the truth, admit that you have surrendered control of your actions to your lower self, accept the consequences, and move on. And this is much more difficult to do than just saying a few lies to some priest.
The prayer "our father" is pretty cool too, actually. I don't know it in english, but basically, it does give lots of pointers on how to behave in life.
About being grateful if you have enough to eat, a place to live
About forgiving others and forgiving ourselves
These are very important keys to happiness in life, but also if you want your life to be meaningful, you have to learn to be grateful for your life itself, so you can then show others how to be grateful and make the most of their own lives.
So Religion, faith taught me all that, and this is how I try to live my life. And since I started, my life has improved significantly on many different levels, including financial. I have better friends around me, I am a better father and a better person in general, I'm more grateful for the little things, I don't stress out in difficult situations, I'm more patient, I work harder (because I realize how precious life is and how important it is to make it meaningful), I'm not angry or fearful anymore, I'm just more happy.
Now as a side note, I must say I have been blessed (pun intended) by a couple of very profound spiritual experiences and while I don't remember any of them very clearly, I can remember, at that time, the certainty of it, for these short moments, it all made perfect sense. It's extremely hard to describe, but one of these moments I had the chance to share with my girlfriend and I think we couldn't stop crying in utter amazement for nearly half an hour.
So at this point in my life (I'm 39) it's a certainty for me, not only do I believe in some sort of grand design (I actually believe the world is absolutely perfect, but in a way we can not appreciate), but I also believe I have seen, if only a tiny glipse of proof.
Now the tragedy of it all, is that I fully understand that it's not my job to convince anyone of anything here, I couldn't if I tried, I know that.
We all have to cease our opportunity for our own spiritual awakening, most of us will never have it, and that's fine.
But if I learned anything in my journey, is that all religions really say the same thing if you read between the lines.
Another interesting perspective would be the gnostic perspective that, if I understand it well, would stipulate that Abraham's God is actually some sort of "demon" that feeds on humans killing ourselves over it.
As a metaphor, I would tend to actually agree with that idea.
But no, I don't believe God is some old bearded dude shooting lightning from the clouds if we misbehave. It's much more absolute than that (more like some sort of mathematical formula that would explain everything in the universe).
And I don't believe demons are ugly little winged beings that torment us, demons are living within our lower selves, fear, anger, hatred, lazyness, resentment etc...)
And God is what expresses itself when we do good, but also whenever we are creative, art, music, they're all human made universes, and a way to express the divine within by creating whole worlds, characters, storylines.
Especially in music (I must say I'm biased here)
The flaw with my belief is that it tends to work great with confirmation bias. I understand that. But since it significantly improved my quality and appreciation of life, I'm happy to just roll with it. Plus, I've had my own experiences, two of which are extremely hard to deny.
Anyway, I'm done being the forum's crazy guy, thanks for reading, feel free to comment, criticize, appreciate or whatever
not trying to convince anyone here, just telling my story, for what it's worth.
05-01-2017
, 10:24 PM
Quote:
Alright, got some time in front of me
So this will be long, you don't have to read it, but to sum it up, I have found myself to become more and more religious over time. Starting out as a proclaimed atheist, I am now absolutely convinced about religion, but not in the way one might expect.
I've been raised a christian so this is the vocabulary and cultural references that I usually employ, however my "faith" can be applied to any religious framework (Living where I live, there are tons of moderate muslims I can share ideas with, as well as a good amount of traditional christian -the majority-)
Now I won't go into too much details, but at some point in my life, early adulthood, I had to face a great personal challenge, and I was seriously contemplating suicide. My Grandmother was an extremely devout christian, she believed the bible to the letter, and oddly enough, she was still the one who opened me to the concept of faith and its practical applications.
Using traditional scriptures, she still managed to get through to me at the time with an extremely important concept: faith.
So what is "faith"?
To me, faith is the absolute belief that everything that ever happens, happens for a very specific reason.
It's also the acceptation that said reason, at a given time, will be out of our understanding.
Which brings me to the next question "what is, then, religion"?
Religion is some sort of "manual" on how to behave and how to act, when faced with any given life challenge.
The idea, that I've tested time and time again now, is that if you behave "correctly" through challenges and adversity, you will be rewarded ultimately.
So what is "correct behaviour"?
It's not complicated really
- Speak the truth (this is the most difficult for most people)
- Forgive those who do you harm, and most importantly, forgive yourself (which is one of the reasons why you need to speak the truth, so you realize who you are and fix your issues)
- Give love to others, be compassionnate and empathetic
- Be patient and don't look for shortcuts
- Have faith in yourself
- Realize your life is a gift and attempt to act meaningfully towards yourself and others
- Don't judge others
- etc...
Basically, try to be the best human being you can
The idea of "God" itself is extremely difficult to express. In my opinion, we are very far from the idea of a conscious being watching every move we make.
But scriptures do give us hints about what "God" is, again, I won't go in depth here (I'd be happy to discuss this in private tho), but there is one idea that constantly comes back, and that idea is both "God" and also demons, actually live within us. Again, not as beings, but as a part of our very selves.
God is virtue within yourself, courage, truth, patience, resilience, strength
Demons are all the "short cuts", "easy way outs", little lies we tell to avoid the big conversations, lies we tell to ourselves.
For example, I've worked in sales for many years, and many salesmen admit that if you want to be successful, you kinda have to be a bad person and lie.
This is, if you will, the act of selling out your soul, in that you accept to do something that you know is bad, in exchange of monetary gain. You compromise your own integrity in order to make more money.
On the other hand, if you would want to be honest in sales, it would still be possible, but it will prove to be much harder to succeed.
But in the long run, I know (from experience, being an entrepreneur now) that being honest will pay more and longer than being a dishonest salesman.
When you give in to your lowest instincts, when you lie, when you cheat, and when you hate or fear, you surrender control of your lower self.
And if you keep doing it again and again and again, eventually, you're going to end up in hell.
And sure enough, when you always try to take the easy road in life, you usually end up living a pretty awful life after some time. This can be observed time and again, just by walking the streets, homeless people, drug addicts, or just general losers.
But if you give it your all, if you work hard, be patient, nice to others, honest, speak the truth, and don't judge others, eventually, you're going to make a great life for yourself and also for others around you, again, speaking from personal experience.
Faith is the belief that the above is true. Everything happens for a reason, and while we're oblivious to the grand scheme of things, just by believing this, and following the general guidelines, everything will eventually turn out ok.
But when it gets tricky is that by "turning out ok", I don't mean you're going to be rich and successful in society.
Rather, it means that you will find peace within yourself, and it'll actually all become easier and easier with time, you won't get mad anymore, you will appreciate life more, and you will have great influence upon others.
From there, you can probably work out financial success if that is what you desire but it will become less important as you would probably have achieved a kind of happiness that can not be bought.
But it doesn't mean you won't face challenges and hardships anymore, although it does make going through them significantly more easy as you would then realize and accept that if everything happens for a reason, the hardship ahead holds the promise of future great improvements.
The topic is extremely complex as it is all encompassing.
But we are far from the "god" who looks down on you from his cloud, and the magic jesus that walks on water.
Religious figures, such as Jesus for example, I think too many religious people just believe that Jesus story is scientifically accurate.
I'd rather see it as a story, like a blueprint for being the best possible human being (thus becoming yourself the "son of God"). If I had to take a guess, I'd definitely think that this is a fictional story from top to bottom. Just like most of the scriptures.
Now it's extremely important to realize that due to way too many translations over way too many years, by way too many people and in way too many languages, that most of the bible's original text is most likely lost forever. So I think it would be a huge mistake to take it for face value to begin with.
Where I disagree with traditional religious people is in rituals. For example the confession, christians just have to go in the booth, tell their "sins" to the priest, then say a few prayers and they're all cleaned up.
Now, how I see it, when you do a "sin", something bad, that hurts someone else. Being penitent isn't about saying a few prayers and forgetting about it.
Being penitent is accepting the fact that because of you, someone else's life has become worse. Accepting the fact that you can't do much about it anymore. Ask for forgiveness, and try to forgive yourself, also accept that you will live with that guilt until you die, this is being penitent, it's about accepting that on that occasion, you have been a bad person towards someone else, and there has been consequences. Ask for forgiveness, and try to move on regardless.
To be penitent, you need to be true to yourself, true to others, speak the truth, admit that you have surrendered control of your actions to your lower self, accept the consequences, and move on. And this is much more difficult to do than just saying a few lies to some priest.
The prayer "our father" is pretty cool too, actually. I don't know it in english, but basically, it does give lots of pointers on how to behave in life.
About being grateful if you have enough to eat, a place to live
About forgiving others and forgiving ourselves
These are very important keys to happiness in life, but also if you want your life to be meaningful, you have to learn to be grateful for your life itself, so you can then show others how to be grateful and make the most of their own lives.
So Religion, faith taught me all that, and this is how I try to live my life. And since I started, my life has improved significantly on many different levels, including financial. I have better friends around me, I am a better father and a better person in general, I'm more grateful for the little things, I don't stress out in difficult situations, I'm more patient, I work harder (because I realize how precious life is and how important it is to make it meaningful), I'm not angry or fearful anymore, I'm just more happy.
Now as a side note, I must say I have been blessed (pun intended) by a couple of very profound spiritual experiences and while I don't remember any of them very clearly, I can remember, at that time, the certainty of it, for these short moments, it all made perfect sense. It's extremely hard to describe, but one of these moments I had the chance to share with my girlfriend and I think we couldn't stop crying in utter amazement for nearly half an hour.
So at this point in my life (I'm 39) it's a certainty for me, not only do I believe in some sort of grand design (I actually believe the world is absolutely perfect, but in a way we can not appreciate), but I also believe I have seen, if only a tiny glipse of proof.
Now the tragedy of it all, is that I fully understand that it's not my job to convince anyone of anything here, I couldn't if I tried, I know that.
We all have to cease our opportunity for our own spiritual awakening, most of us will never have it, and that's fine.
But if I learned anything in my journey, is that all religions really say the same thing if you read between the lines.
Another interesting perspective would be the gnostic perspective that, if I understand it well, would stipulate that Abraham's God is actually some sort of "demon" that feeds on humans killing ourselves over it.
As a metaphor, I would tend to actually agree with that idea.
But no, I don't believe God is some old bearded dude shooting lightning from the clouds if we misbehave. It's much more absolute than that (more like some sort of mathematical formula that would explain everything in the universe).
And I don't believe demons are ugly little winged beings that torment us, demons are living within our lower selves, fear, anger, hatred, lazyness, resentment etc...)
And God is what expresses itself when we do good, but also whenever we are creative, art, music, they're all human made universes, and a way to express the divine within by creating whole worlds, characters, storylines.
Especially in music (I must say I'm biased here)
The flaw with my belief is that it tends to work great with confirmation bias. I understand that. But since it significantly improved my quality and appreciation of life, I'm happy to just roll with it. Plus, I've had my own experiences, two of which are extremely hard to deny.
Anyway, I'm done being the forum's crazy guy, thanks for reading, feel free to comment, criticize, appreciate or whatever not trying to convince anyone here, just telling my story, for what it's worth.
So this will be long, you don't have to read it, but to sum it up, I have found myself to become more and more religious over time. Starting out as a proclaimed atheist, I am now absolutely convinced about religion, but not in the way one might expect.
I've been raised a christian so this is the vocabulary and cultural references that I usually employ, however my "faith" can be applied to any religious framework (Living where I live, there are tons of moderate muslims I can share ideas with, as well as a good amount of traditional christian -the majority-)
Now I won't go into too much details, but at some point in my life, early adulthood, I had to face a great personal challenge, and I was seriously contemplating suicide. My Grandmother was an extremely devout christian, she believed the bible to the letter, and oddly enough, she was still the one who opened me to the concept of faith and its practical applications.
Using traditional scriptures, she still managed to get through to me at the time with an extremely important concept: faith.
So what is "faith"?
To me, faith is the absolute belief that everything that ever happens, happens for a very specific reason.
It's also the acceptation that said reason, at a given time, will be out of our understanding.
Which brings me to the next question "what is, then, religion"?
Religion is some sort of "manual" on how to behave and how to act, when faced with any given life challenge.
The idea, that I've tested time and time again now, is that if you behave "correctly" through challenges and adversity, you will be rewarded ultimately.
So what is "correct behaviour"?
It's not complicated really
- Speak the truth (this is the most difficult for most people)
- Forgive those who do you harm, and most importantly, forgive yourself (which is one of the reasons why you need to speak the truth, so you realize who you are and fix your issues)
- Give love to others, be compassionnate and empathetic
- Be patient and don't look for shortcuts
- Have faith in yourself
- Realize your life is a gift and attempt to act meaningfully towards yourself and others
- Don't judge others
- etc...
Basically, try to be the best human being you can
The idea of "God" itself is extremely difficult to express. In my opinion, we are very far from the idea of a conscious being watching every move we make.
But scriptures do give us hints about what "God" is, again, I won't go in depth here (I'd be happy to discuss this in private tho), but there is one idea that constantly comes back, and that idea is both "God" and also demons, actually live within us. Again, not as beings, but as a part of our very selves.
God is virtue within yourself, courage, truth, patience, resilience, strength
Demons are all the "short cuts", "easy way outs", little lies we tell to avoid the big conversations, lies we tell to ourselves.
For example, I've worked in sales for many years, and many salesmen admit that if you want to be successful, you kinda have to be a bad person and lie.
This is, if you will, the act of selling out your soul, in that you accept to do something that you know is bad, in exchange of monetary gain. You compromise your own integrity in order to make more money.
On the other hand, if you would want to be honest in sales, it would still be possible, but it will prove to be much harder to succeed.
But in the long run, I know (from experience, being an entrepreneur now) that being honest will pay more and longer than being a dishonest salesman.
When you give in to your lowest instincts, when you lie, when you cheat, and when you hate or fear, you surrender control of your lower self.
And if you keep doing it again and again and again, eventually, you're going to end up in hell.
And sure enough, when you always try to take the easy road in life, you usually end up living a pretty awful life after some time. This can be observed time and again, just by walking the streets, homeless people, drug addicts, or just general losers.
But if you give it your all, if you work hard, be patient, nice to others, honest, speak the truth, and don't judge others, eventually, you're going to make a great life for yourself and also for others around you, again, speaking from personal experience.
Faith is the belief that the above is true. Everything happens for a reason, and while we're oblivious to the grand scheme of things, just by believing this, and following the general guidelines, everything will eventually turn out ok.
But when it gets tricky is that by "turning out ok", I don't mean you're going to be rich and successful in society.
Rather, it means that you will find peace within yourself, and it'll actually all become easier and easier with time, you won't get mad anymore, you will appreciate life more, and you will have great influence upon others.
From there, you can probably work out financial success if that is what you desire but it will become less important as you would probably have achieved a kind of happiness that can not be bought.
But it doesn't mean you won't face challenges and hardships anymore, although it does make going through them significantly more easy as you would then realize and accept that if everything happens for a reason, the hardship ahead holds the promise of future great improvements.
The topic is extremely complex as it is all encompassing.
But we are far from the "god" who looks down on you from his cloud, and the magic jesus that walks on water.
Religious figures, such as Jesus for example, I think too many religious people just believe that Jesus story is scientifically accurate.
I'd rather see it as a story, like a blueprint for being the best possible human being (thus becoming yourself the "son of God"). If I had to take a guess, I'd definitely think that this is a fictional story from top to bottom. Just like most of the scriptures.
Now it's extremely important to realize that due to way too many translations over way too many years, by way too many people and in way too many languages, that most of the bible's original text is most likely lost forever. So I think it would be a huge mistake to take it for face value to begin with.
Where I disagree with traditional religious people is in rituals. For example the confession, christians just have to go in the booth, tell their "sins" to the priest, then say a few prayers and they're all cleaned up.
Now, how I see it, when you do a "sin", something bad, that hurts someone else. Being penitent isn't about saying a few prayers and forgetting about it.
Being penitent is accepting the fact that because of you, someone else's life has become worse. Accepting the fact that you can't do much about it anymore. Ask for forgiveness, and try to forgive yourself, also accept that you will live with that guilt until you die, this is being penitent, it's about accepting that on that occasion, you have been a bad person towards someone else, and there has been consequences. Ask for forgiveness, and try to move on regardless.
To be penitent, you need to be true to yourself, true to others, speak the truth, admit that you have surrendered control of your actions to your lower self, accept the consequences, and move on. And this is much more difficult to do than just saying a few lies to some priest.
The prayer "our father" is pretty cool too, actually. I don't know it in english, but basically, it does give lots of pointers on how to behave in life.
About being grateful if you have enough to eat, a place to live
About forgiving others and forgiving ourselves
These are very important keys to happiness in life, but also if you want your life to be meaningful, you have to learn to be grateful for your life itself, so you can then show others how to be grateful and make the most of their own lives.
So Religion, faith taught me all that, and this is how I try to live my life. And since I started, my life has improved significantly on many different levels, including financial. I have better friends around me, I am a better father and a better person in general, I'm more grateful for the little things, I don't stress out in difficult situations, I'm more patient, I work harder (because I realize how precious life is and how important it is to make it meaningful), I'm not angry or fearful anymore, I'm just more happy.
Now as a side note, I must say I have been blessed (pun intended) by a couple of very profound spiritual experiences and while I don't remember any of them very clearly, I can remember, at that time, the certainty of it, for these short moments, it all made perfect sense. It's extremely hard to describe, but one of these moments I had the chance to share with my girlfriend and I think we couldn't stop crying in utter amazement for nearly half an hour.
So at this point in my life (I'm 39) it's a certainty for me, not only do I believe in some sort of grand design (I actually believe the world is absolutely perfect, but in a way we can not appreciate), but I also believe I have seen, if only a tiny glipse of proof.
Now the tragedy of it all, is that I fully understand that it's not my job to convince anyone of anything here, I couldn't if I tried, I know that.
We all have to cease our opportunity for our own spiritual awakening, most of us will never have it, and that's fine.
But if I learned anything in my journey, is that all religions really say the same thing if you read between the lines.
Another interesting perspective would be the gnostic perspective that, if I understand it well, would stipulate that Abraham's God is actually some sort of "demon" that feeds on humans killing ourselves over it.
As a metaphor, I would tend to actually agree with that idea.
But no, I don't believe God is some old bearded dude shooting lightning from the clouds if we misbehave. It's much more absolute than that (more like some sort of mathematical formula that would explain everything in the universe).
And I don't believe demons are ugly little winged beings that torment us, demons are living within our lower selves, fear, anger, hatred, lazyness, resentment etc...)
And God is what expresses itself when we do good, but also whenever we are creative, art, music, they're all human made universes, and a way to express the divine within by creating whole worlds, characters, storylines.
Especially in music (I must say I'm biased here)
The flaw with my belief is that it tends to work great with confirmation bias. I understand that. But since it significantly improved my quality and appreciation of life, I'm happy to just roll with it. Plus, I've had my own experiences, two of which are extremely hard to deny.
Anyway, I'm done being the forum's crazy guy, thanks for reading, feel free to comment, criticize, appreciate or whatever
not trying to convince anyone here, just telling my story, for what it's worth.
05-03-2017
, 06:28 PM
05-03-2017
, 06:36 PM