Spirituality versus Religion

[John21]

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John, can you elaborate on this odd form of belief? I can't see the whole system.

Cam

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That was a wiki synopsis I quoted. The one branch of Unitarianism I'm familar with has the motto, "no creeds, just deeds," and focus more on the spiritual and moral aspects of life, rather than the dogmas and rituals of religion.

[TTChamp]

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You are using the term "atheist" where you should be using the term "straw-man atheist".

You need to understand why. It seems that your entire view of atheism comes straight from sunday school.

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I don't know about where you live, but I have lived all over the country and I have never seen a community where atheist have a positive image in the community as a whole. I'm not saying those places don't exist, but they are rare. Certainly their image is poor when you integrate over the entire country.

Please make more detailed posts or stop posting in this thread.

[TTChamp]

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To me it seems illogical to expect organizations (religions) that are designed to help answer questions that in your view "cannot be answered" to stand up to rational scrutiny. If you presume that a question cannot be answered, and someone answers it, no matter what the answer is it will NEVER stand up to a rational critique.

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In this situation, one is left in a situation where what they have respect and awe for is the MYSTERY of the questions at hand. I would advise you to be very careful about how explicit you are in stating this problem. To me it seems likely that many modern religious traditions started in this same position but attempted to transcend the problem through metaphors which were later misinterpreted and turned into the same form of dogma which you disdain.


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The top part of what you have written is the point I am trying to make-that exploration of spiritual questions is rewarding but that choosing a specific answer from among many possibilities is flawed. Maybe unanswerable is a bad word choice. I mainly mean questions whose answers are currently unknown and are unsolvable within the modern framework of science.


I agree with your second point- I think that power corrupts religious leaders as easily as any other group.

[TTChamp]

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In that case I'd rework the second paragraph. Things like "can't justify," "worse," "peculiar," "superstitious," and "dogmatic" should be removed, they create a confrontational tone. Also, while I can't pinpoint it, something about the mention of reason seems to be poisoning the well. I'd emphasize (subtly if possible) that there's nothing wrong with beliefs based on reason - or just use a more neutral tone. Right now when you say things like "these beliefs are not based on reason" I feel like you're implying that's a bad thing. Also I'd replace "make little sense" with "don't seem to make sense from a logical perspective" or something with a similar connotation.

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Thanks.

[TTChamp]

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Have you looked into Unitarianism?


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Thanks for posting this-their beliefs are along the same lines as mine. I plan to research this further.

[thylacine]

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You are using the term "atheist" where you should be using the term "straw-man atheist".

You need to understand why. It seems that your entire view of atheism comes straight from sunday school.

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I don't know about where you live, but I have lived all over the country and I have never seen a community where atheist have a positive image in the community as a whole. I'm not saying those places don't exist, but they are rare. Certainly their image is poor when you integrate over the entire country.

Please make more detailed posts or stop posting in this thread.

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If you made a statement that negatively misrepresented African Americans, Jews or Gays, to the same degree that you negatively misrepresented Atheists, you would be expelled from the Ku Klux Klan for being too extreme.

Do you see why?