If you could change one thing... Options

[Mistress Bags]

If you could change one the in the world, what would it be? Nothing that would affect you directly, but something, rather, that affects the entire world, something that makes a positive difference.

[Mistress Bags]

I don't mean to offend or call anyone out, but how exactly is it "brilliant" to post a rant against religion and spirituality without even explaining one's position? There's a pretty big anti-religion bias among the "intellectual elite" that seems misguided in a way. I don't see anything wrong with a person holding religious or spiritual beliefs. Organized religion, of course, is misguided, but organized religion is hardly about religion—it's about politics.

I'm not against religion, and I don't think she's brilliant for being against religion, I just think it has caused so much unnecessary issues in this world.

[*mipadi*]

I'm not against religion, and I don't think she's brilliant for being against religion, I just think it has caused so much unnecessary issues in this world.

Organized religion, yes, but what's the problem with a person's spirituality?

[NoSex]

Organized religion, yes, but what's the problem with a person's spirituality?

I should have made my statement a bit more clear.
I'm against dogmatism. Spirituality can only survive within dogmatic parimeters.
To be a spiritualist it is inevitable that you are going to hold beliefs in face of contrary or inadequate evidence. I think spirituality decapitates more meaningful human relations. I also think it is a dangerous and negative force in many people's lives. Organized religion and individual spirituality are both baseless systems. They are upheld by nothing but human emotionalism, insecurity, fear, and false hope. I don't think life should be shrouded in lies, let alone unfounded and misguided lies. I think that, as human beings, we could work towards a more meaningful, more progressive, and more beautiful future given the demise of dogmatisms such as spirituality.

How can you find something wrong with organized religion, but not individual spirituality? They are two sides of the same coin. They are both self-built prisons. One is just supported institutionally, while another by unmitigated personal and emotional ignorance.

Further, if organized religion is about "politics," what is simple "religion" about?
Is not spirituality a drug in of itself? Is not organized religion simply a distribution system used to traffic said drug? Should we just loathe its distributors? Or should we loathe the drug itself?

I just don't see how the poison of organized religion is not shared inside individual spirituality? Are they not held in the same dogmatic vain? Do both not obscure reality?

I find organized religion to be rather destestable, but I find it detestable for many of the same reasons that I detest spirituality in general. Where is it that you find this significant and distinct seperation? Where exactly is it that organized religion is misguided where individual spirituality - still blindingly unsubstantiated, driven by faith - is not?

[*mipadi*]

I don't think spirituality necessarily equates to dogmatism. One of the core concepts of Snow Crash, which I'll synthesize and expand upon here, is the idea of informational viruses; that is, information that spreads from one carrier to the next, unchanged. Organized religion is more often than not an example of this. Religions often dictate that the "word of God" be written down unchanged. Islam promotes this; Christianity does, too, especially with handwritten Bibles—monks were strictly forced to copy the Bible exactly.

But those are teachings of organized religion, not spirituality. Believing in a God or gods does not necessarily mean that a person holds a set of principles as "incontrovertibly true" (to quote the definition of dogma). Jesus never really suggested this. People were never meant to idolize Jesus and believe only his word; that's why his tomb was empty after his death, as a sign that his teachings should be learned, and that he shouldn't be idolized.

So there's no reason why spirituality has to equate to dogma. A person can be spiritual and still examine his beliefs, still analyze what he was taught. If a person is learning, not merely following, then it's not dogma—and not all spiritual systems, not even most, force a person to blindly follow their teachings. The organization of that spiritual system might, but the system itself generally encourages a person to look at things more closely, to not blindly follow.

And in the end, what is science, or philosophy, or things of that nature, but a belief system of a different variety? The Truth is difficult to prove. Science might try to explain things through observation and experimentation, but in the end it requires a lot of faith in certain core concepts, too. And likewise, a person who blindly follows scientific knowledge, or philosophical thought, without thinking is just being dogmatic as well.

The key idea is the generation of new thoughts, and belief in a spiritual system does not preclude that in any way.

I should have made my statement a bit more clear.
I'm against dogmatism. Spirituality can only survive within dogmatic parimeters.
To be a spiritualist it is inevitable that you are going to hold beliefs in face of contrary or inadequate evidence. I think spirituality decapitates more meaningful human relations. I also think it is a dangerous and negative force in many people's lives. Organized religion and individual spirituality are both baseless systems. They are upheld by nothing but human emotionalism, insecurity, fear, and false hope. I don't think life should be shrouded in lies, let alone unfounded and misguided lies. I think that, as human beings, we could work towards a more meaningful, more progressive, and more beautiful future given the demise of dogmatisms such as spirituality.

How can you find something wrong with organized religion, but not individual spirituality? They are two sides of the same coin. They are both self-built prisons. One is just supported institutionally, while another by unmitigated personal and emotional ignorance.

Further, if organized religion is about "politics," what is simple "religion" about?
Is not spirituality a drug in of itself? Is not organized religion simply a distribution system used to traffic said drug? Should we just loathe its distributors? Or should we loathe the drug itself?

I just don't see how the poison of organized religion is not shared inside individual spirituality? Are they not held in the same dogmatic vain? Do both not obscure reality?

I find organized religion to be rather destestable, but I find it detestable for many of the same reasons that I detest spirituality in general. Where is it that you find this significant and distinct seperation? Where exactly is it that organized religion is misguided where individual spirituality - still blindingly unsubstantiated, driven by faith - is not?