JosephM Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Do you need to have a religious belief system? If so, Why? If not , Why? Joseph Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elen1107 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 I need to believe in something. & right now I have a cold so I prob. can't keep up with this post thread or concentrate enough to elaborate. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soma Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 I don't have an institutional religion, but I do have a system that keeps me in tune. I chose Christ as my diety and have equal respect for many others. Christ and his teachings help me on the physical plane understand my purpose on this level and helps me realign with the soul when I get out of line. I sleep well at night, but it is nice to relax in the soul consciousness from moment to moment especially in regular meditation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elen1107 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 (edited) I think we need to believe in something, that's just the way we are wired and that's that. It's the nature of the fuzzy fur-ball. It's probably the beast too, but the beast can only believe in himself and gets all strung out and wired up if he can't so lets not talk about him too much. actually forget I mentioned him Edited October 17, 2014 by Elen1107 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulS Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 I don't think I 'need' a religious belief system - really I don't have one per se currently and seem pretty good with that. That said, I like to think about other belief systems and I do wonder if there is something I should believe in or understand about the world that I currently don't. Admittedly that could be a hangover of my upbringing as a conservative Christian who 'knew' he had the 'right beliefs' for so long, only to realise they were wrong (as far as I now believe), so perhaps that has tuned me to think that there is a religious 'truth' out there somewhere that I haven't clicked with. But as for a 'need', I don't think I need one. I do take aspects from Christianity & Buddhism into account as to how I live my life, probably because they're the two religions I am most familiar with in my culture & society. But if I didn't know about them I think I would have learnt their primary values (love, compassion, empathy, peace) from other sources anyway because I think these things come naturally to us. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaS Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 I sort of had an epiphany a while ago. If "God is Love" then "Love" is God. I choose to worship, seek, infuse, become, etc. "Love" to the best of my human ability. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveS55 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Personally, I think most "spiritual" people benefit from a belief system. But, it is the beginning of a path rather than the culmination. It is the famous metaphor of the boat that seekers use to get to the other shore, but then leave it behind instead of dragging it with them. Peace. Steve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephM Posted October 18, 2014 Author Share Posted October 18, 2014 I would agree with what Steve has said above. Also with E who expressed the human need to believe in something. The start of a path for me, but perhaps not everyone required a belief system. Today i have no such system per se and can say as PaulS has above , i no longer feel the need for one.and am okay with that. Being human and having a strong belief system brought me into a web of judgement and condemnation and guilt. It contributed to me thinking in 'black and white terms' and set me up with laws that were enivitable for me to break. It also brought me among peers who were loving as long as we all retained the same views/beliefs but no longer were interested or displayed that love when my views/beliefs changed . While painful, all of this was necessary to bring me to this moment.. Now, even if someone asks me if i believe in God (to me, not the traditional definition but more as the Oneness and Unity of all life) it no longers requires belief or even an answer. Why? Because it is a subtle, everpresent reality in this life that now requires none, It is to me the same as asking you ... Are you conscious of this writing you are reading? But first it was necessary for a belief system to take me down so guilt and condemnation could be seen for what it was and how it was separating me from that subtle presence. HERE is a short personal true story/testimony on condemnation of how i found freedom from that which apparently separated me from such a freedom. And as LindaS has alluded to above in her post... in effect it is all about Love. (not conditional or as often mistaken for deire) Joseph Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romansh Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 The word religion comes from the Latin to reconnect. The question for me becomes to reconnect to what? God, the universe, the community, to family to one's self, to the atoms we are comprised of. Do we need an orthodox religious belief ... speaking personally ... definitely not? I don't even need to view life through some mythical perspective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soma Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 I feel we are reconnecting to wholeness, the Quantum Unified Field. Some people call it God, some Pure Energy, some Pure Consciousness. Religion can help, but I feel everyone must find their own way to unity. Christ didn't come to establish Christianity, nor Buddha Buddhism and so on, but they all came to lead us to the whole. Spirituality is the physics we haven’t understood because we think linear, but in spiritually everything is holographic. The physicist Alain Aspect led a team at the University of Paris that performed experiments that demonstrated that subatomic particles instantaneously corresponded with each other no matter what the distance was that separated them. Each electron at all times seemed to know what the other was doing. This was amazing because it established that the particles communication was faster than the speed of light a time barrier so physicist had to explain the phenomena and physicist David Bohm went beyond the objective reality and solidness of the universe and talked about the holographic universe. This is a drastic change in understanding the organization and order of the universe. The holographic universe insinuates that the whole is in every part similar to the characteristic of a hologram. In a hologram we learn that when we split it into smaller parts we don’t just get hold of the fragments that the hologram is made of, but we get smaller wholes. David Bohm’s explanation for this is that the subatomic particles can keep interacting with each other no matter what the distance is between them not because they are sending messages to each other faster than light, but because their separateness is a misconception. His theory is that in a more profound experience of reality the fragments are not individual pieces, but are expansions of the same basic mechanism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romansh Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Did not Bohm and Bell (who carried on with Bohmian mechanics) believe that the universe was causal (deterministic) although in a probabilistic way ... as opposed to the more orthodox interpretations of quantum theory? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soma Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 I think they were describing quantum mechanics in a specific area, mainly the particle, which they predicted movement from location, but I think their problem was the wave and the double slit experiment. They had difficulty explaining that so said there were hidden varriables and nonlocality factors. On these points I agree with them in duality, which is linear it seems cause and effect is the law of nature. One thing causes another thing in a linear rational, but in nonlocality of infinity and free will or entanglement with everything then the macrocosm could be a cause, but I like the way they put it hidden variables and nonlocality. I would say in the macrocosm of infinity everything happens at once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elen1107 Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Focusing on the original post question… I don’t think that I need a religious belief system, in fact most religious belief systems if feel I can do without. I do feel like I need spirituality and some sense of light and joy and freedom in my life. Without this, life is just too negative and sometimes even too hard to bear. I’m wondering if it might be important that with spirituality, or my understanding of the word spirituality, that there is no “system”. It’s more about just putting into action or practice certain ideas or way of looking at things. By action or practice I mean actually stepping or living in a certain mind set or outlook, or even more so; living in a kind of positive, caring, intelligent energy, that I for not having a better word would call God. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romansh Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 (edited) On another thread Soma said ... Organized religion can prepare and lead individuals if they set up a way for Christ to speak directly to the believers in contemplation. Vigorous interactions with mental discourse are also a healthy way to encourage, deepen and strengthen the communion of God and humans. Although Soma does not say it has to be through a Christian lens, I can't help wondering does it have to be Christian, does it have to be God or god, does it have to be a divinity, or the universe or spiritual, or can it be family or community? Just wondering. Edited November 4, 2014 by romansh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soma Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 I don't think we have to use the word God, god. I think we can use energy, love, consciousness, Krishna, Shiva, Infinity or Eternity. There are infinite ways to symbolize infinity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romansh Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Is infinity anything more than a mathematical construct? Love and energy are both ways of symbolizing infinity? I am going to need some of Paul's/Brand's new light here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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