How amazingly fortunate are we

Originally posted by wafflehead: ↑

waffle the religions are fading with their sins exploding and the global movement seems to be toward pantheism.... back to the roots of religion.

I think it a natural state that all religions eventually fade, religions are after all a construct that fit a time and a place, a need and a capacity. The moral codes of Buddhism and Christianity as an example, are mostly intact, but their social teachings simply do not either work, or don't exist to guide this version of humanity as we struggle to become a global society. We are in the midst of a clash of isms, religions, cultures, haves and have nots, etc.

I guest the evolution of religious thought might suggest that we now seem to be moving towards pantheism, but I think this is more a case of coming to an understanding that God is unknowable. We also have a movement towards charismatic religions that elevate the preacher to the level of co-partner with God, when in truth there are no religious experts and no human has a clue about the nature of God.

I think that whatever God is it is reflected in us and the universe, but it must also be something external and other-worldly to physical reality.

Science in a way is religion, so fear not. There is no duality to truth. Any religion that has teachings contrary to proven science is teaching superstition, not scripture. We are all already spiritual, the degree we are influenced by the awakening of our spirituality is more about what we remove from ourselves than any need to add something to ourselves. We are like windows that need to be cleaned to allow or true selves to be seen.

Yes, the major religions have been reduced to superstition and dogma, but they still contain great gems of wisdom. Every religion has a used by date.

Expand

what an excellent and insightful post waffle... what you write accords very much with my thinking.

religion has always seemed to me to be a distortion, a humanisation of what is truly ineffable, unknowable and so open to interpretation.

the Islamic faith, in its roots and maybe mostly in the Sufi tradition, has Allah as a very much personal god. open and inviting, but many Muslim factions seem to be created for personal power relationships with the people, a means of control as Moses was with his tablets and laws.

Buddhism has always attracted me with the obviation of the need for a "god" and placing the spirit as the universal being. so too the Vedic Atman/Brahma.

our white religions too have, as you say, a germ of truth. wisdom is not a singular concept. and this seems to come with the acceptance of the ineffable awareness of the potential for being more than our bodily brain and mind. its only the practice, dogma and rigidity of Religion that seems to damage, if not entirely befuddle or even destroy, the true meaning of spirituality.

thanks for posting, both kam and you - namaste.