Spiritual but not religious

[Inthemiddle]

I was initially beside myself with this particular essay. I find this guy completely off the mark, not having the first basic understanding of what "spiritual but not religious" means.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/29/my-take-im-spiritual-not-religious-is-a-cop-out/?hpt=hp_c2

 

[Avatar4321]

It is a cop out. It's a way alot of people absolve themselves from the responsibility to study and learn about various doctrines and justify not testing them to determine if they are correct or not.

They are also not mutually exclusive terms.

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:26-27)

Im not impressed with the spirituality of someone who never ministers to others.

 

[Mr. H.]

It is a cop out. It's a way alot of people absolve themselves from the responsibility to study and learn about various doctrines and justify not testing them to determine if they are correct or not.

They are also not mutually exclusive terms.

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:26-27)

Im not impressed with the spirituality of someone who never ministers to others.

I consider myself very much "spiritual but not religious".

Doctrines and Dogma are dead ends to enlightenment. Individual relationships without the associated collective organized religions and all the baggage they carry is much more appealing to me.

The trouble is that “spiritual but not religious” offers no positive exposition or understanding or explanation of a body of belief or set of principles of any kind.

Individual spirituality is individual understanding.

 

[Truthmatters]

I agree with the op that the writer has no idea what spirtual but not religious means.


He is trying to fit it into the world of organized religion.


What spiritual but not religious means is that spirtual belief IS NOT a part of the organized religious world.


It is spirtuality for spiritual reasons and NOT for the benifit of organized religion.


Many people are begining to believe what they believe and refusing to organize that belief becuase organized religion has for far to long been a source of evil in the world.


They DEMAND you believe what they believe and then Drag you arround by the nose for the rest of your life.

FUCK THAT.

Believe whatever you want to believe.

believe what comes from your soul.


fuck organizing

 

[Sunni Man]

I once had a dog that was spiritual; but not religious.

He used to stand in the yard and howl at the moon.

I think he was some kind of Druid or something?

But as far as I know, he never attended any religious services.

 

[Avatar4321]

I agree with the op that the writer has no idea what spirtual but not religious means.


He is trying to fit it into the world of organized religion.


What spiritual but not religious means is that spirtual belief IS NOT a part of the organized religious world.


It is spirtuality for spiritual reasons and NOT for the benifit of organized religion.


Many people are begining to believe what they believe and refusing to organize that belief becuase organized religion has for far to long been a source of evil in the world.


They DEMAND you believe what they believe and then Drag you arround by the nose for the rest of your life.

FUCK THAT.

Believe whatever you want to believe.

believe what comes from your soul.


fuck organizing

Believe what you want to believe? That really explains a lot about you.

Problem is, what we want to believe might not necessarily be what is true. The truth is things as they are, as they were, and as they will be. It's not subject to what we want to believe. It's true regardless of what people believe or don't believe.

And you are wrong TM, if you dont want to believe the principles of happiness, you are free to live otherwise and deal with the consequences otherwise. God doesn't force anyone. He wants a willing heart and mind. That's why charity needs to come from the heart and be voluntary and having your money taken by force and given to others is contrary to what is right.

And being organized is good. It is an empowering principle.

 

[Gadawg73]

It is a cop out. It's a way alot of people absolve themselves from the responsibility to study and learn about various doctrines and justify not testing them to determine if they are correct or not.

They are also not mutually exclusive terms.

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:26-27)

Im not impressed with the spirituality of someone who never ministers to others.

Jesus was never worried about who he did or did not impress.
Jesus ministered with love and compassion, never judging. Jesus ministered to THEIR needs, not some doctrine of the church at that time or past scripture. Most importantly Jesus was a listener and accessible to the people. Jesus got involved in THEIR lives first. Yes, he did speak and teach to large groups but having a relationship with Jesus is a personal one and not a one size fits all one way relationship.

 

[AmyNation]

I've found tha many people who embrace organized religion, find it hard to accept that not embracing an organization can also be a valid and correct choice for many.

 

[amrchaos]

I tend to think that doctrines are like guide posts to finding a "spiritual path" in a faith.

Rigid Dogmatism tends to kill the spirit of the faithful. Understand, I am saying rigid dogmatism. Some tradition should be held onto until a serious conflict between understanding of what is meant by the practice and actual practice of the faith is discovered.


I guess the difference between what I am saying and the others probably goes back to what is meant by "spiritual"

Maybe that would make a good thread topic.

By the way, organized religion does humanity a favor by publishing and maintaining a library of their beliefs. Without religious literature, how would you learn what is meant by "spiritual"? Not to talk about many other ideas concerning social behavior.

 

[Sunni Man]

In this modern age of rejecting organized religion for self spirituality is based on 2 things.


1) The concept that the individual is basically the "God" over his life.

And we are free to choose any style and mode of living that we feel is good according to our personal wishes.


2) There is no such thing as "sin".

Everything is relative; and so called sin doesn't exist, because God is love and accepts whatever makes us happy.

 

[amrchaos]

In this modern age of rejecting organized religion for self spirituality is based on 2 things.


1) The concept that the individual is basically the "God" over his life.

And we are free to choose any style and mode of living that we feel is good according to our personal wishes.


2) There is no such thing as "sin".

Everything is relative; and so called sin doesn't exist, because God is love and accepts whatever makes us happy.

For 1--don't you mean the master over his life. o suggest "God" is to imply that I created myself and in full control of all things pertaining to my life although I know that I am not.

In fact--the term "God" in your description tends to suggest way too much than what is intended to. But then some people wish you to think in the superlative.

2)Sin--Are we talking the Jewish definition here, or can we refer to the committing of some undesirable act as sin. Either or is ok with me.

 

[G.T.]

I am spiritual but not Religious. It's not a cop-out at all, to consider it a copout is to deem one of the Religions as factual. I cannot.

 

[Montrovant]

First, the blog linked in the OP is completely ridiculous. It is based on the premise that the only possibilities are a belief in Christianity or a complete lack of belief in any god or supernatural existence.

Now, I would say it's very probable that some people use the term spiritual but not religious as a cop-out. However, the idea that it MUST be a cop-out is ludicrous. That assumes that no one can honestly come to any spiritual belief without doing so through an organized religion. In many cases, calling it a cop-out may be a form of copping-out itself; it avoids the need to accept that someone might study organized religions, especially the religion of the person calling it a cop-out, and yet still honestly reject them.

People are far too different from one another, and there is far too little evidence of the supernatural, to assume that no one can find personal belief without going through organized religion to do so.

 

[amrchaos]

Here is another way to look at things.

When Judaism was getting started, was there an already established religion to teach Judaism?

I don't think so. Just some prophets and a god and not many established rituals or beliefs until Moses came along.

 

[Gadawg73]

In this modern age of rejecting organized religion for self spirituality is based on 2 things.


1) The concept that the individual is basically the "God" over his life.

And we are free to choose any style and mode of living that we feel is good according to our personal wishes.


2) There is no such thing as "sin".

Everything is relative; and so called sin doesn't exist, because God is love and accepts whatever makes us happy.

Sin and God are vague and broad terms for the INDIVIDUAL to define based on his/her INDIVIDUAL religious beliefs.

That is how we do it in America. Freedom OF religion.

 

[Montrovant]

I agree with the op that the writer has no idea what spirtual but not religious means.


He is trying to fit it into the world of organized religion.


What spiritual but not religious means is that spirtual belief IS NOT a part of the organized religious world.


It is spirtuality for spiritual reasons and NOT for the benifit of organized religion.


Many people are begining to believe what they believe and refusing to organize that belief becuase organized religion has for far to long been a source of evil in the world.


They DEMAND you believe what they believe and then Drag you arround by the nose for the rest of your life.

FUCK THAT.

Believe whatever you want to believe.

believe what comes from your soul.


fuck organizing

Believe what you want to believe? That really explains a lot about you.

Problem is, what we want to believe might not necessarily be what is true. The truth is things as they are, as they were, and as they will be. It's not subject to what we want to believe. It's true regardless of what people believe or don't believe.

And you are wrong TM, if you dont want to believe the principles of happiness, you are free to live otherwise and deal with the consequences otherwise. God doesn't force anyone. He wants a willing heart and mind. That's why charity needs to come from the heart and be voluntary and having your money taken by force and given to others is contrary to what is right.

And being organized is good. It is an empowering principle.

I'm not going to defend TM.

I do want to point out that the majority of humanity has not accepted what you consider to be the truth, at least as far as religion is concerned, Avatar. Even if it is the truth, it seems to be a truth that is not particularly obvious. I also have no doubt that many people would consider their own views truth and yours merely erroneous belief.

What is truth can be extremely difficult, sometimes perhaps impossible, to determine. When you tell people that what they think about a subject is nothing but foolish belief, but that what YOU think is not belief at all, instead being absolute truth, you sound arrogant and condescending. I don't think you meant to sound that way as you have never struck me as that type of poster. IMO, though, you certainly have with your post.

 

[Sunni Man]

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, together have thousands of years of monotheistic spiritual wisdom of great scholars to draw from.

But today's shallow and narcissistic individuals are more into self centered "spirituality" than drawing from any proven and time honored ancient text of religion.

 

[ABikerSailor]

You know............I like what a friend of mine named Ned taught me once.

"I'm not a human being seeking a spiritual experience, I'm a spiritual being having a human one."

As far as religion? I believe that it's kinda like an elementary school to teach us who God is, but, after you gain that understanding, it's kinda up to you to seek Him out in your own way.

I also like what His Holiness the Dali Lama said when he was asked how many different religions there should be. His reply was there should be as many religions as there are people, because all of us percieve God in a slightly different way.

The dogma contained in religion can actually hide some of the truth about God from you.

As far as sin? I only believe it's a "sin" if it goes against the 7 Noahide Commandments or the 10 Commandments. Anything else like drinking, dancing, sex, etc. is a vice.

And by the way...............most major religions have some version of the 7 Noahide Commandments, they just phrase it a bit different.

BTW............the 10 Commandments say pretty much the same thing as the 7 Noahide Commandments.

 

[Gadawg73]

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, together have thousands of years of monotheistic spiritual wisdom of great scholars to draw from.

But today's shallow and narcissistic individuals are more into self centered "spirituality" than drawing from any proven and time honored ancient text of religion.

I agree with all of that except one word.
Shallow is your opinion only.

 

[dblack]

I once had a dog that was spiritual; but not religious.

He used to stand in the yard and howl at the moon.

I think he was some kind of Druid or something?

But as far as I know, he never attended any religious services.

Somehow this seems to strike at the heart of the topic more than any post in the thread.