When people go overboard on religion...

What needs do mythology and religion serve in today's world and in ancient times? Here we discuss the relationship between mythology, religion and science from mythological, religious and philosophical viewpoints.

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gewamser
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When people go overboard on religion...

Post by gewamser »

It can be very difficult to maintain an objective view of religion, when you see people you know go overboard on their form of blind faith. Right now I have a bi-polar friend who is embracing her religious views with such overbearing fervor that she lives her psychosis within it, and anyone who questions her world view has become "Satan"...three years ago I knew another family who joined the Texas preacher who told them to give away all their earthly belongings, and get ready for Christ to come pick them up on a certain date and time, remember that? He had bill boards all over the U.S. and thousands of followers did just that, gave away their houses and cars quit their jobs...and waited for the rapture...my friends did that too, including having birthday parties for their kids, because that would be there last birthday together on Earth. Course this rapture never happened, and the family was financially ruined, but they learned their lesson and have recovered...I respect religion for what it is: a myth system, and I respect believers, but it is REAL hard sometimes to remain quiet. Also knowing full well that secular myths can be just as harmful.

romansh
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Post by romansh »

It is turning a myth into dogma that is harmful.
"That's right!" shouted Vroomfondel, "we demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!"

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Wandering around the idea of religion and faith, there is a collection of things.

Here are some of these things:

Awareness is a gift, even when it brings pain and loss.

Dreams are the private myths that can guide us, especially when we enter dark places.

Speculation frees the imagination, and it can lead us astray.

Belief can rescue us from hardship, but always at a cost.

Knowledge is power, and it can usher in great sorrow.

Being can be joyous, when it is not challenging.

Death is clearly a mystery.

And life? OMG! It can be a wonder of wonders, even when it places on us burdens we cannot carry.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Campbell said that religion tends to confuse art with facts. Literature is regarded as history, science and law, for example.

Dangerous!

:shock:
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

Neoplato
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Re: When people go overboard on religion...

Post by Neoplato »

gewamser wrote: I respect religion for what it is: a myth system, and I respect believers, but it is REAL hard sometimes to remain quiet. Also knowing full well that secular myths can be just as harmful.
The institutionalization of any concepts or ideas creates a set of by-laws and rules that are concreted into the schema of willing initiates. When this occurs, there is a loss of free thought whereas the individual desires to identify as a member of the "group".

The sad thing is when an individual doesn't even have a choice in the matter because the person has been indoctrinated into a certain stratification since birth. :(
Infinite moment, grants freedom of winter death, allows life to dawn.

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

We think of religions as a set of beliefs, but they are also kinship. When dogma fails and stories no longer resonate, relationships create identities, bonds and mutual interdependence.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

Neoplato
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Post by Neoplato »

CarmelaBear wrote:We think of religions as a set of beliefs, but they are also kinship. When dogma fails and stories no longer resonate, relationships create identities, bonds and mutual interdependence.

~
But when "kinship" is limited based on a select group or a set of cultural and social factors, these selective relationships may foster "Intradependence" instead of an interdependence.

Unfortunately, it appears to me that the machine of religion has become a little rusty over the millennia. I believe it needs a fresh coating of "spiritual oil" to make it operate as it was intended. :wink:
Infinite moment, grants freedom of winter death, allows life to dawn.

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Just watched this documentary, called "Beyond Our Differences". It is well done.

http://www.yidio.com/movie/beyond-our-differences/40722

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Neoplato wrote:... the machine of religion has become a little rusty over the millennia. I believe it needs a fresh coating of "spiritual oil" to make it operate as it was intended. :wink:
It was much worse before now. Improvements tend to be slow.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

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