Thanks.
And I agree with the bolded.
Religion can be used to justify violence and discrimination and oppression..people will interpret it any way that suits them personally.. whether it is to feel loved or to feel justified in their actions or both..
Religious extremism is the problem--not necessarily Islam--but extremism in any belief.
The more fundamental the view of religion, the more delusionally extreme and violent and oppressive.
I don't think it takes trying to unite with the spiritual to overcome violence and aggression.. Because I I'm not convinced there even is a spiritual, and it seems that religion is just a belief system used to explain the unexplainable.
The problem starts when you stop questioning about the unexplainable or at least being open to other views. It breeds an 'us vs them' mentality and breeds hostility.
As for the
USA... yeah, we're fucked up over here...
I think that religion is just a surface gloss behind which is something far more interesting. Lets call it the 'spiritual'
You say that it is not necessary to unite with 'spirit' so it looks like that kind of language is not really resonating with you
Why not change the language involved? You could say that you are trying to engage with your higher mind or work through your hang ups or iron out any personality flaws or any other kind of language like that because thats what all this stuff is about really....its all self psychology
I think a literal view of religion where people walk on water or turn water into wine is nonsensical when interpreted literally but when viewed as a piece of art then other dimensions can be discearned
I think that spirituality is about looking within yourself and coming to terms with whats there. i think that this form of self psychology (magick) is ancient and that people have been engaging in it since before 'ancient' egypt. i think that the elites have kept the really potent stuff to themselves and have pushed a literal version of it on the populace to dissempower them
This doesn't need any hocus pocus to have validity
I think that religion uses a sort of poetic, symbolic way of looking at things to impact on us a certain way
As an exercise, to illustrate my point....if you want to....please read the following poem by Coleridge and ask yourself what its about as you read it
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced; Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war!
Is it about a mongol emporer building a pleasure palace?
There's many different ways to interprete it isn't there? For example you could see it as actually about sex (this is just one interpretation)
Read it again with this new interpretation in mind
The point i'm making is that there are different dimensions to these things and it does'nt have to be about hocus pocus to have some value to us. it's to help us to new perspectives and new understandings
Did a guy actually come back to life after being crucified or is it just another story like many resurrection gods before jesus such as Osiris, dionysis, Tammuz which are describing a process of rebirth and renewal that can happen to a person when they look within themselves for answers; imo that's the real magick of religion...its transformative power
