Is it possible for us to examine spirituality without rehashing thRC Church debate? Are you a spritual person? Do you believe in a higher being? Do we possess an imortal soul? Whjat are views on life after death? Practice religion? Pray? --- Me? I'm agnostic. Which means I don't believe or disbelieve in the presence of a deity. Some might say that's a cop out. But I'm a scientist by trade and nobody will ever prove/disprove a God using science. And for now, I'm not too concerned either way. Am i a spiritual person? We all like to say yes but the fact I burn lavendar candles and meditate doesn't make me spiritual! I do reflect a lot... sometimes I even find myself "praying"... not in the conditional sense... I find it hard to describe... I think nice thoughts... When I'm tired, and in that fuzzy place between wakefulness and sleep i do feel... special. Most of the time I feel i'm an organism like any other... a collection of carbon molecules whose thoughts and feelings of importance are nothing more than elctrical currents in my brain. I have a strong sense of morality... most of which I feel is innate but a lot has been conditioned by my Christian upbringing. Life after death? I'll see when I get there. I'd be inclined to think we're no more concious of our rotting corpses than rats or frogs but I might yet be proven wrong. Was baptised and confirmed a Roman Catholic. Go to Mass at Christmas, Easter and for family occasions. Used to be very involved in the Church as a lay person and still vlaue the enormous work that can be achived through organised religion. In the long term however, I see most organised religion as a way of enslaving humanity. As a socialist, I do think people should be encourgaed to think for themselves and not be subject to doctrine. Am very interested in buddhism however. ugh, messy response to my own topic. I'll have a think and clarify later... hopefully others will have more coherent and interesting views!
I'm a confused religious person. Don't know if there's life after death or not. Do believe in the existence of God in a way these days (for various reasons). As for the thing of everyone tending towards some form of spirituality, scientists have actually found the part of the brain associated with religious belief, somewhere around the temporal lobes. Whatever way people interpret this would be interesting - feelings of connections with God throughout the ages being a simple result of biology or deliberate programming by a creator being to keep us connected... Remember hearing about the diaries of Mother Teresa and I thought those were interesting. Despite being one the closest people from God and being visited by Jesus in visions etc., she suffered from terrible crises of faith just like ordinary people. Used to be quite involved in the church myself in the past, altar server etc. but drifted in recent years, probably because the catholic church doesn't satisfy me spiritually (and I'm not saying that because I'm gay, I've deeper reasons for it). Have found things to be better since I cut out the middle man. I also find that praying can be beneficial, prayers do get answered in a weird way. Remember once feeling confused about something and praying for an answer and had this weird thing with getting a voice in my head (sounded like my own voice but wasn't me) pointing me towards a specific passage in the bible, which turned out to have the specific answer. Would put it down to some psychological reason only I never read that section before and certainly don't remember passage numbers.
That's weird re. the Bible RBJ. How specific was that passage to the problem you had? Do you think it had more to do with some "sixth sense" us human beings possess or the intervention of a deity. I know people in my family, whom i trust and consider to be completely rational have had similar experiences, particularly strange eevnts concernign dead realtives etc. I guess I'm your typical Agent Dana Scully (pre season 7)... always trying to find a "plausible" scientific solution.
Ah, but Dana Scully was a staunch Catholic... ) As for my own spiritual beliefs.. I'm in an odd place right now. For the past few years I've been more or less atheist, after.. well some stuff happened that made me severely doubt in the existence of.. anything. These days, however, I'm beginning to entertain the possibility again. Ya know, that maybe there is something. I definately wouldn't believe in the Christian God, or anything specific like that. I'd say if there is anything there it's far more complex than heaven/hell/etc. So, basically.. I'm open to convincing. In the meantime, I think that whether there is or isn't "anything else", I have the same responsibility to try and be a decent person etcetcetc.. and if there is something/someone and s/he wants me to do anything special well I'm sure they'll have their ways of telling me.
Pyx, I went thru the same myself, of being very strongly atheist, but that things happened over the years that just made me re-think it. I'm not overly bothered about it, I'm a good person, I figure its better to be a decent individual than a religious nut. I let things happen as they happen
I was brought up as a Catholic, but I pretty much had rejected Christianity by the age of 14. I was an atheist for a number of years, but gradually I've come to believe that there is something beyond what we see and know, something that connects us all, a divine spirit if you will. I don't find Eastern religions or belief-systems any more appealing than Christianity, although I do believe in karma, the belief that you reap what you sow. My problem with agnosticism is that it's sitting on the fence. I'm with Kierkegaarde on this one.
