As I’ve been thinking about Religion and Spirituality lately, I’ve been dwelling on a question: Does Relegion serve a posative purpose when it’s used solely to make people feel better? Jung (I tend to reference him alot; it’s a habit,) talks about people falling back into childlike, collective subconcious patterns when they don’t know how to deal with life by identifying themselves more as a member of a group than as a person; and I know it’s not hard to think of several examples of people using religion in this way. It bothers me when people use relegion/spirituality as an excuse to stop thinking. To me, this is like a drug, a useless simpering drug people use to escape scary truths. But, on the other hand, when rational, self-motivated thought is brought in to spirtuality/relegion, the result is a better understanding of God, (or whatever it is,) and of what ties human beings together.
I wonder, is this the fault of organized relegion or do people naturally look for a way out?
I believe that religion does serve a positive purpose. Unfortunately it is perverted by people both trying to teach it and by those taking advantage of it as an acceptable means of escapism.
Reason is valuable for keeping watch on our emotions. The development of our emotions in their capacity for human discrimination by first separating the real from the imaginary (wheat from tares), is the purpose of religion. The intellect is vital here for forcing the emotions to impartially “look”: Know Thyself in order to become open to receive higher emotions. But naturally, over time and from the scattered state of our being, it has on the surface been largely perverted into its opposite.
As a result, the literal mind has adopted the purpose of the emotions for spiritual discrimination which of course it cannot do resulting in all sorts of meaningless rationalizations in the human search for meaning in both personal and universal ontological truths.
Consolation is not all bad. For a good person psychologically incapable of going further and becoming a good “householder” accepting that there is a purpose to all this beyond his comprehension and remains open to it, it is fine. But when religious consolation leads to escapism or denies a person their potential, then it defeats its purpose IMO.
Seeing that this question of the purpose and potential of religion interests you, perhaps we can build a dialogue on it. For some reason I’ve discovered a lot of resistance to this topic and a need to degenerate it into animosity. Maybe we can dialogue without the need for weapons.
Religion is a Lie that your Spirit need to feel and see.
How can Lie serve anything positive ??
Jung was just a Dude who lived and died, do you realy need Him to tell U
How to do the same ??
The only time you stop thinking is when you’re in Coma or Asleep.
It is only your belief that people Use Narcotics to escape truth or reality.
Truth and Reality are dimensions we can escape, only when we die.
People use drugs, because they make people feel good.
Nicotin, Alcohol , Heroin, Crack, and Religion are drugs used by people
called Addicts. When one is an Addict, there is nothing more important, than connection to that Drug. In 99.9 % they Die because of that Addiction, 0.01 % is called Miracle.
Way out is illusion, remember, you can run, but you can not hide.
PFT is not a native English-speaker with some interesting ideas. Just some clarification. So, that may help you somewhat.
Personally, I see both sides here. I do believe that organized religion serves as sort of an opiate. A drug or a way of escaping for a lot of people.
However, its not everyone who is this way in organized religion. It depends a lot on the person. I have no doubt that some people merely want to be placated by the religion. But, I also think that many people are trying to find answers and resolution in themselves. They may seek to congregate and “worship” in the normal ways, but do not rely simply upon that for spiritual guidance and enlightenment.
I think that as of right now, the drug metaphor is more likely. In my experience, you are more likely to meet the person who is using it as a drug than someone who is truly using it for spiritual purposes. But, never fear that the true seekers of enlightenment are out there.
