It’s probably going to become fairly quickly apparent to readers of this blog that I’m not a religious person (in the usual sense of the word). Judged by what I understand to be the conventional meanings of the terms, I am agnostic, but leaning heavily towards the side of the atheist.
However I sincerely hope that no one reading this or any other of my writings will be offended by anything I say – these are only one person’s genuine attempts to make sense of his experience, and my intention is not to argue my point, or do down anyone else’s opinion, but to clarify and develop my own thoughts, and in the process, share them.
I feel that whenever I’ve taken the time to sit down and really discuss such issues with anyone, from whatever faith or lack of it, what I’m struck by most has always been the similarities of our viewpoints and experiences. The differences – which may seem extreme when categorised or described in certain ways turn out often to be more differences in language or culture than funadamentally contradictory views. I suspect we all have a lot more in common than most of us realise.
You may find me sometimes challenging conventional religious or philosophical notions, but I hope only ever to do so in a friendly spirit of enquiry, dislodging dogmatic beliefs where they are not grounded in thoughtful understanding and compassion, and seeking the common ground.
Rich
Xx
Yes, indeed Father Eric is very fond of saying that the greatest irony is that whilst we are all, indeed, unique individuals, that uniquness is housed in something very much less than 1% of who and what we are, and for the balance most people are really very much the same as most others. I’m inclined to agree.
Hi MOC
lovely to hear from you and thanks for those wise words. Its rewarding looking for the commonality in our experience and despite a few key differences in perception generally surprises me in its consistency.
Rich
Xx
A prime problem with organised religion is that, like most things, it is almost totally culturally hijacked. (Almost is an important word there). Let’s look at sport, for example. I’m a sporty sort of bloke – that much is probably in my genes. How do I express that ? I have expressed it by playing and – later in life – watching and following – the traditional team games, primarily cricket. Why might that be ? I suggest it is because I went to a school where cricket was played and encouraged and, because I has some small talent, I did adequately well. And so I acquired something which will always be with me – I’m a cricketer. But if I had been raised in the USA, for example, no doubt that side of my persona would have found its consummation in baseball, or basketball, or whatever came to hand.
By the same token I’m a Christian and, in particular, a member of the Church of England. That comes about in the same way. I’m a spiritual sort of individual – that’s probably in my genes – and I express that spirituality in an anglican sort of christian way because that is the way you do that thing if you are raised in the society in which I was raised. Yes, I think Christ was and is a very important person and I’m inclined to subscribe to the idea of his divinity, but I wouldn’t date to be so blindingly ARROGANT as to suggest that I KNOW the whole truth from a dogmatic / doctrinal / theological perspective, and I wouldn’t give much credence to anyone who said (s)he did. No more would I suggest that cricket is a “better” game than baseball, only that cricket is “my” game, and baseball is not.
You can always tell when a religion is being politically hijacked (and most are, most of the time) because its adherents are generally laying claim to a monopoly on the truth. Sure, I’m a Christian, but when I hear people saying that Christianity is all there is, I start switching off. Even more when I hear them saying that THEIR PARTICULAR FLAVOUR of Christianity is all there is (usually accompanied by words to the effect that God is going to look unfavourably on anyone who does not subscribe to the precise detail of their particularly narrow view of reality).
This is pure tribalism, exactly along the same lines as supporting one football club rather than another. Certainly it has nothing to do with spirituality.
Religion is always open to this. Always. It is such thinking – if the process can be dignified with the term thinking – that leads to mass suicide on the side of a mountain or, worse yet, to people flying aeroplanes into tall buildings in the name of the prophet Mohammed (whose entire teaching forbids violence). Or Northern Ireland. Or the Spanish Inquisition. Or, indeed, the Crusades.
Perhaps the greatest single parameter which draws me to Christianity and to the person of Christ is His own absolute despite and condemnation for the hypocrisy of the “professional” religious of his day. How tragic that most (not quite all) of the “professional” religious of most Christian traditions (and, although I don’t know first hand, I expect the same applies to contemporary Jewish and Islamic clergy also) behave in the exact same way.
And how profoundly unsurprising.
Thanks again for this great comment.
Reflecting on it all I take issue with my own opening sentence – I probably am a religious person in the usual sense of the word – at least to some extent. I attend the Birmingham Buddhist Centre regularly (I dont always agree with the classification of Buddhism as a religion but thats for another discussion) and am definitely interested in ways that people communicate, share, organise and structure their spiritual progress.
Buddhism is not much (if any) less prone to cultural hijacking (to borrow your great phrase) than other Religions, but the Buddha’s exhortation to “be a light unto yourself” – to take things only on the basis of one’s own experience, and not to cling too tightly to any one belief survives well, at least in the context of the FWBO (where I get most of my Buddhism).
To borrow a line from one of my own songs “Jesus was a rebel baby and so are you”. There’s an element of rebellion in every one of us.
Like you I much admire Jesus’ willingness to disregard dogmatic teaching and restrictive regimes.
Hopefully in times to come people will speak more often of Jesus and the Buddha, and Mohammed too, in the same breath, recognising the value and individuality of the teachings, and not falling foul of the tribalism you rightly observe.
There are after all, many paths up the one mountain.
Rich
Xx
Rich,
Thank you for sharing your site with The_Wheel. I’m certain many will visit and welcome your insight, as I do.
I see many aspects of how belief systems have directed the path of developing societies and cultures and how people, while making every effort to become more civil to each other, have shaped or started a belief system that fits their needs. This has been true since we first questioned our place among things, 50,000 years ago? I see evolution as spiritual first and then physical.
Very nice work here,
don’t stop the inquiry.
Only love prevails,
Don
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Wheel/
MOC, please join us at The_Wheel.