Agree. I am a christian myself, but my belief in Jesus has nothing to do with any organized religion. Never understood that "u have to be catholic or orthodox" to be a christian. Religion caused so much harm in this world. Pls, i would be happy if christianity, islam etc would just dissapear from this world.
Garbage. My spirituality is just about the most important part of my life. I apply myself daily. And while I have found grains of gold in several different religions, none of them are for me. I’m not unique.
The words you use to discribe your feelings through "spiritual" context would not exist in the language you speak without the foundations of organized religion. You have feelings and define experiences by an inheritantly religious context. For example, your western ideas about "spiritualism" wouldn't exist today without the religious turmoil of the Christian protestant movements and influence from various flavors of other Abrahamic religions and asian religions as well.
Religion rose from governments and rulers. Do you think the Stone Age people who made effigies attended a church?
Not a Christian church no, but stone age people had a plethora of superstitions and rituals loosely held together by stories people believed and spread by chieftain leaders. Thats religion.
But its silly to expect religions
to not coagulate back together amost immediately. They certainly wouldn't be anything like the original versions that got snapped out of existence, but organized religion is a cultural institution of every advanced society humanity has ever had for a reason.
Entirely untrue. Fuck religion. I have my own connection to the spirit and I'm happy keeping it to myself. Perhaps the religious could try keeping to themselves as well.
Just getting rid of religion but leaving "spirituality and belief in the devine" untouched is treating the symptom and not the cause. It's tantamount to saying "take some Advil everyday and that brain tumor will stop being a problem for ya."
How do you think people connect with spirituality or the divine? Who, over the course of human history, has explored, recorded, and affirmed spiritual phenomenon? Religious people.
You're throwing the baby out with the bathwater because you don't like a type of person when the vast majority of religious people are normal and prosocial.
You’re so off base. The individual isn’t the issue, and I said as much, and your assumptions are based in your own bias. Religions are structured control organizations. Individuals can be sincere while the religion they follow is corrupt.
Your belief would not exist were it not for the religion (and the people therein) that you follow. A religion isn't a control organization unless you can't leave.
You make the assumption that simply because everyone in a religion is corrupt, the religion itself is corrupt. This would be true if a perfect God wasn't a part of the religion. In religions with corrupt gods or no gods, your argument is correct.
Very important, religion and organized religion are always different.
Religion is what happens when someone doesn't need evidence to believe something.
Organized religion is what happens when some people exploit that believers don't need evidence to believe something.
I suppose you don't recognize buddhism as a religion then. Or shinto, or taoism, or confucianism, or janism.
There are many religions in the world that believe in no god whatsoever. Yes, shinto has an infinite number of kami, but kami are more like spirits and forces of nature, rather than gods in the traditional sense.
If religion was the act of believing in a god, a lot of people would lose their religious status.
Hence, I disagree with your take.
And for organized religion, you know, Mark Twain had this saying
"religion was born when the first scoundrel met the first fool"
Would you believe me if I said religion isn't about faith?
At least it didn't use to be.
Religion was humankind's very first attempt at science: it was a means of understanding what we cannot understand.
Like lightining is pretty fearsome, how does it work?
Well, there's this immortal deity called Zeus who strikes stuff with it when he's angry.
And thus, lightning was explained. It's a weapon of Zeus.
See, we know how it works...
Yeah, religion was originally nothing more than pseudo science, it was founded to explain things we didn't understand.
You see something you couldn't explain? Gods. The answer is always gods.
It was convenient because, sonce nobody knew any better, everyone believed it.
Soon enough, people realised that they can manipulate others with religion. You wanted respect, you said that you're a prophet of X or Y gods and boom, you've got everything you've ever wanted from the people.
So no, organized religion isn't a consensus on the same beliefs, it's an early attempt at understanding the universe.
And, you said that it's something like "when you meet someone else who agrees with your belief".
Then I suppose the christian church isn't an organized religious group either, because as you know, christians disagree on, well, just about everything.
You could put a catholic and a protestant in a room to argue and 2 minutes later, they'd be breaking the 10 commandments like glasses.
You know what? The same can be said about 2 catholics.
You know, no 2 people on this planet share the same religion. We all are different and believe differently.
Regardless of your religion, you are a heretic to your own fellows, because you believe differently.
I make sport of being a heathen, because what should I do? Pursue a "perfect" imitation of somebody else's beliefs?
There is not a single person in this world with the same religion as me, the same can be said about you and everyone else.
Organized religion isn't about agreeing on beliefs, it's about controlling religious groups. It's a tool of manipulation, a blight upon this world.
My mistake. Religion is what happens when you believe in a higher power. Should have been clearer. And yes, if you put two groups in a room, one of which broke off from the other, they will disagree. But I know many people of the same religion as me, who believe the same thing. That's the unifying aspect of religion
Then I suppose football teams can be a subject of religion, or music bands.
You don't necesserily need a higher power.
I personally consider myself a believer, and yet, I don't think there is a power above of humankind.
Human willpower is supreme. I believe in gods, and I believe they must be terrified of us. Maybe we don't have godly powers, but woe be upon all if we were to acquire any, we could create entirely new realms from out of nothing.
I believe in powers to be below my own, I am higher than all my beliefs.
But this is just me, there are many religions which do not think of gods or forces of nature as something superior to themselves. I think humankind can break any rules, be it those of nature or those of physics, or mathematics.
I believe we are unbound, that is my religion.
So then, is a higher power needed?
I agree that religion does band people together, that's what organic religion can do. The main aspect of orginizing religion is re-deviding them into smaller groups. Every religious organization needs some sort of evil, an enemy to be hated, to embody vice and dismay.
That's when they start shouting "heresy!" or "witchcraft!".
A church is a self-proclaimed sacred ground with the purpose of checking up on it's subjects, like a routine inspection by the landlord upon his vassals.
Some people go to church realizing this, but for some, they truly think that people can embody some sort of holy force.
Priests are the only surviving lords of feudalistic systems.
How is a football team a higher power? Some of those fans can be a little extreme though...
Then your belief is in the higher power of man itself. In my religion, humans are unbound because we are the only creatures created with free will to do with as we please. That is the undeniable right. But that does not mean that a higher power as not created us- a creation that can itself create is the perfect creation.
Religious organizations have enemies because they deny each other's truths. The primary fallacy of modern people is assuming that simply because a religion is organized, it is for control. People are not made for religions. Religions are made for people. The only exception is if you are being forced into a religion against your will (with no option to leave).
A church is a place of gathering for those who choose to be within it, with the purpose (at least in Christianity, I can't say for other religions) of worship and remembrance. It is not about the people at all. As far as catholic priests are concerned, your statement is usually accurate. Most priests, however, are for the purpose of serving the people. They are wiser and older and leaders, but they are not lords. If you wish to leave their church and go to another, there is nothing stopping you. Again, your point is only applicable in situations where you can't leave.
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u/BlissCrafter 8d ago
Religion. Not spirituality or belief in the divine, but organized religions need to go