I've finally come to terms with all the different religions

[DannyW]

First time here, I read the stickies and hope that my post fits the guidelines of this forum. Moderators...move, delete or edit as you feel necessary. Also, this may have been discussed in ad-finitum here before, if so I apologize.

As background, I was born and raised Southern Baptist. My mother worked for the local church, so as you can imagine I spent a lot of my youth there at the church. I was Baptized at 12 after attending a local revival that we always went to.

But over the years I found myself attending church with less and less frequency (sound familiar?). In fact, I haven't attended church in probably 6-8 years, except for weddings and funerals. But I still consider myself a Christian and a believer in God.

The problem is that as I got older, I started to question religion. There are 5-6 "major" religions out there, and many other smaller ones. They all worship different superior beings (Gods for the lack of an agreed-on name), with different views of what an afterlife looks like, and different thoughts of how you must act and what you must do in the present world to get there.

My quandary was that, if you believe the teachings of any one religion to be right, that must mean all the other religions are wrong. I mean, everybody can't be right, can they? And if your religion isn't the "right" one, that means you must be destined for **** (in the belief of Christianity) or a nothing-ness (in the case of other religions).

And this right/wrong issue is one that that I just couldn't seem to square about the different religions. And therefore the possibility of a God and an afterlife.

I have come to realize that I was thinking of religion and the afterlife in absolute terms. Black and white terms. That if I didn't follow the 10 Commands, or if I didn't consider cows as sacred creatures, or if I didn't bow and pray 5 times daily to the East, that I was going straight to **** (I realize that word is probably going to be censured but it is meant in a religious context.)

At this point I hope that this post does not get bogged down in the minutiae of what is right and wrong with all the different beliefs and teachings of various religions. I hope it's taken as I intended, as a look at the issue at a higher level than individual religions/faiths.

I have come to believe all religions are intended to provide a moral structure to society. I'm sure they all get it wrong here and there, after all as human beings here on earth how can we possibly know EXACTLY what is correct. But I have come I believe that at the highest level, the very top of the tree, we must do two things only:

1. Believe in a superior being. And that's not hard for me. As I look out my back window, I see a world that is too beautiful to be a bloody coincidence.

2. Live a good life. By that I mean follow your moral compass. And when you commit a wrong, we all do, pray to your superior being for forgiveness. And most importantly FORGIVE YOURSELF.

I recently watched a TV series called Expedition Unknown: The Search for the Afterlife. It' s a 4-part series hosted by Josh Gates that explores the different religions around the world. It's what opened my awareness that at the core most religions are very similar. Yeah...there are nuances, even conflicting teachings of the different religions, but at the heart of the matter they all believe in two things; live a good life on earth and believe in a superior being, whoever that may be for you.

(Yes, there are some things like ghosts and exorcism in the show, after all this is a TV show, but I found a great deal that helped me with my understanding of the afterlife. Especially the interviews with different people who were declared clinically dead, and what they experienced while they were "gone" before being brought back to life.)

Whew, I'm finger weary! I don't know why I felt compelled to come to this specific forum, on this specific morning, and make this post, but I feel better for it. And if you have made it this far, I commend you. I just wanted to express what I hope is a non-judgmental view of the evolution of my belief in a God and the possibility of an afterlife.

 

[Artfuldodger]

Thanks for sharing your journey. Mine has been pretty close. At first I thought of it in terms of only Christianity and looking at all the various denominations. Back when I was younger we felt like we were in the right one and the others were all wrong. And even in that aspect, "they" were gonna go to he11. Divisions were mostly on Trinity vs Oneness, etc. and if He!! is suffering in an eternal flame or if you just receive eternal death vs everlasting life.
After that thought process it seems like one would have to wonder about the other religions as well. I'm still a Christian but sorta at least accept folks from other religions and denominations better than I did when I was younger.

 

[Spotlite]

Good post.

“My quandary was that, if you believe the teachings of any one religion to be right, that must mean all the other religions are wrong.”

I never understood this part with anyone.

 

[gordon 2]

To be religious is to be religious. With most religions you get to your merited place in the afterlife or after the final incarnation. With Christianity you get to an unmerited place in this life which is called eternal life which cancels dependence on one's own moral compass which is inadequate, to another one in friendship with God. When Christians make peace with other religious groups they make peace because of love and not because they practice religion for the same reasons or similarly as other. They don't understand religion generically informs the real moral compass in human beings. If it had been the case there would have been no need for Moses or Christ.

 

[brutally honest]

 

[1eyefishing]

I still have not come to terms with the religion asks that the faithful convert, subjugate, or kill all that are not faithful to this particular religion and its theocratic law.

 

[pjciii]

Good post.

“My quandary was that, if you believe the teachings of any one religion to be right, that must mean all the other religions are wrong.”

I never understood this part with anyone.

That is a judgment.

 

[Artfuldodger]

I still have not come to terms with the religion asks that the faithful convert, subjugate, or kill all that are not faithful to this particular religion and its theocratic law.

God orders the armies of Joshua to kill every single Canaanite.
The destruction was to be complete: every man, woman, and child was to be killed.

 

[DannyW]

I still have not come to terms with the religion asks that the faithful convert, subjugate, or kill all that are not faithful to this particular religion and its theocratic law.

I gotcha, that is the one religious teaching that I have the most issue with too.

But I think most believers of that faith reject that particular philosophy outright.

 

[Artfuldodger]

I gotcha, that is the one religious teaching that I have the most issue with too.

But I think most believers of that faith reject that particular philosophy outright.

I would say though, just as I posted a passage from the Bible in post #8, one has to see the context. If one wants to read and research an often quoted passage from another religion's bible, then they would have to look at it in that same light.
There are indeed passages in bibles that does approve of violence or war in certain situations or in certain times in their history.
A lot of passages today pertain to what went down with a certain group or nation that doesn't pertain to us now. I wouldn't offer evil strangers today, my virgin daughters just so they would not harm my visiting guest as an example.

We could look at it from a non-religious perspective if we were being persecuted and attacked as a group such as foreigners, etc. Perhaps our leader would tell us to be as drastic as necessary for our own survival and beliefs. Over the years even our own nation has killed "everyone" man, woman, and child. It just wasn't based on any religious reasons. But folks do like to use religion as an excuse to do such things.

 

[The Original Rooster]

My quandary was that, if you believe the teachings of any one religion to be right, that must mean all the other religions are wrong. I mean, everybody can't be right, can they? And if your religion isn't the "right" one, that means you must be destined for **** (in the belief of Christianity) or a nothing-ness (in the case of other religions).

Don't let that quandary bother you at all. It's not your decision. It's God's job to judge whether people go to heaven or not.

 

[gordon 2]

Danny W. Just wondering I'm sure you have considered at least making peace with the different sects and denominations within individual religions. Could you share if you in fact have done this consideration or attempted to do this and what you came up with in the sense that you have made peace with all religions? What do you think or understand of the different sects and denominations within different religions?

 

[DannyW]

Could you share if you in fact have done this consideration or attempted to do this and what you came up with in the sense that you have made peace with all religions?

Yes. I felt like I was basing my beliefs on a far too narrow interpretation of scriptures and teachings. Of all religions.

I needed to step back and look at it from a higher and broader view.

By doing that I came to the conclusion that most religions are there to provide a societal structure. They all provide guidelines and teachings to help you live your life and provide a foundation for belief in a superior being. And I believe, at their core, most religions are good, or at least well intended.

So I can accept, or at least overlook, individual teachings of other religious faiths that I don't believe are true. Or right.

But let me say this, I am far from being a theologian! I am just trying to express my current thoughts on religion, and find it difficult to put them in writing.

 

[gordon 2]

Yes. I felt like I was basing my beliefs on a far too narrow interpretation of scriptures and teachings. Of all religions.

I needed to step back and look at it from a higher and broader view.

By doing that I came to the conclusion that most religions are there to provide a societal structure. They all provide guidelines and teachings to help you live your life and provide a foundation for belief in a superior being. And I believe, at their core, most religions are good, or at least well intended.

So I can accept, or at least overlook, individual teachings of other religious faiths that I don't believe are true. Or right.

But let me say this, I am far from being a theologian! I am just trying to express my current thoughts on religion, and find it difficult to put them in writing.

Thanks. Yes human beings are individual and social beings and generally include forms or no forms of I Am that I Am within this mix. Ex.( And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them).

Man is a spiritual being and even if he denies any god or faith.

Like dynamites and nuclear energy his religions or due his anti religion spirituality these can serve for good and evil purposes--- both.

The closest thing to a theologian that I am aware of on this forum was a carpenter making his living as a carpenter. The reason he was a theologian is because he studied the works of theologians and so theology. He liked doing this. ( He was never boring like some theologians can be.) He always had a foot on earth and the other in Heaven. He recently left his life on earth and is most likely studying theology with other theologians who made it to Heaven before and after he got there.

 

[gordon 2]

DannyW. Your posts reminds me of my search or study. Back in the 1980s I decided to give a serious response regards my spirituality. I did not study religions to find their functions in the social order however, rather I focused my search and study on the spiritual landscapes of each religion or religious-spiritual tradition. It became clear to me that the mystical traditions of religions within the greater organizations was where I needed to direct my focus. ( That's how it worked out best--made best sense--for me.)

I focused on the spiritual traditions of the great middle east, Indian, orient, European, Native American or first nation spiritual traditions. What came apparent after a time of this was that all mystical traditions had masters and seers who had pierced through the earth bound reality and spoke of the possibility of knowing and experiencing a spiritual reality separate from the ordinary earth bound ones.

In most traditions rare( as in a few) individuals had witness of what I could call a "place" from which they witnessed. These sometimes different places had their own frameworks as to structure and so descriptions varied. Nevertheless they-- these individuals-- spoke with assurance for a place they had witnessed. Sometimes they were patient with others who had not witnessed as they had, sometimes they were cranky... but they spoke from "that place of assurance" or a sure extra ordinary and supernatural reality for with they hand attained an uncommon personality even within religions.

Spiritual reality for most had its low places and generally its highest place. Most if not all spiritual traditions required some " spiritual exercise or some focus " if one hoped to get to the "place'' where the great mystics of all traditions were in unity and similar and of a shared spiritual confidence.

And most traditions thought that spirituality had it levels of understanding often as increasing as one withdrew from the "worldly" or unneeded items required of human existence.

Most came to a place where life's motivations were changed or tempered at least by a greater than normal empathy with others, even with the natural world. Often great floods of love, light (seeing) and enlightenment ( the saintly) were due to the result of attaining the "highest place" by some effort to deny the worldly self.

Each spiritual tradition had its highest place which usually was a place where those who had been there had many many things common of this rare and uncommon place. And every tradition had at some point a place to sit or pray and wait in the hope or no hope of attaining the uncommon place and so to be in communion with other saints of the "place".

Now in some spiritual traditions ( oriental) for example "this place" was yet an earthly or even worldly place and the place of "light" was where there was no longer word in a human being for light or its source.

It took me a full yr full time devotion to find such things out for myself. I went around the world spiritually so to speak.

And then after a year I returned home. And there I reconsidered with what I had seen of all these places from all over the world what was the "place" for the local saints, those of my cradle tradition or the place right before me just next door... or in my local-immediate community.

To be born again, the kingdom, the fellowship of the faithful, the communion of the saints, the delightful smiles on the faces of those who prayed got with added meanings. The cross, the death and resurrection of Jesus and the exceptional gift of the Holy Spirit as a work outside of man's efforts to gain our rightful "place" as human beings will never be lost to me.

I sought and I found. And now I know that with Christ to find the "place" is not for the exceptional or the exception. The Christian God's efforts is that all should come to our common "place with Him" in this life and from which we can never die--if we chose.

Christians have perhaps the shortest spiritual journeys compared to other traditions-- sometimes to sit just long enough, sometimes from ultimate desperation, to be able to listen so that by listening one hears from the heart or a sober mind is all it takes. Sometimes we are that sinner on the cross nailed down physically and spiritually.

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

and

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

and

"But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them."

and


“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

Now for many this is as a sentence and a bible verse akin to the days of farming with ox or mules. It is old and well worn out as pointing to something practical and vital in our times. Its meaning and usefulness has lost its salts--except as with a pleasure animal perhaps.

But for some of us it will be a fresh horse and eager to work as soon as you see its notice as pertaining to all human beings-- included you and you just as you are--- no preassembly required.

 

[Madman]

I enjoy hearing people’s journey, even those of different faiths than me. A Buddhist, a Muslim, a Jew, a Mormon, they all interest me, each has a tinge of Christianity, yet they they are all so different.

Only Christianity explains how the creator of the universe, stepped into time, to show his creation how much he loves them.

 

[gordon 2]

What I find that tinge to be is often the common knowledge or acceptance that man's nature or his existence and the ( supernatural) entity(ies)) are in disharmony.

Also man is upset by the cognition of different demands from his dual natures physical and spiritual and so conflict and disharmony that seem inevitable. Also upsetting is the natural world itself is both a blessing and a curse. For example the soft ash lands under volcanos or the river deltas are good places to farm and husband cattle. They are not so great when volcanos, rivers and weather rearrange the beneficial landscapes and man is economically, ethnically and culturally settled on them.

Sacrifices, general offerings and prayers needing to occur in order to smooth out relationship so that man can get the most benefits out of general existence seems common to all. Appeasements have to occur toward those entities who run or directly influence in part "the all-encompassing shows" here on earth.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Yes. I felt like I was basing my beliefs on a far too narrow interpretation of scriptures and teachings. Of all religions.

I needed to step back and look at it from a higher and broader view.

By doing that I came to the conclusion that most religions are there to provide a societal structure. They all provide guidelines and teachings to help you live your life and provide a foundation for belief in a superior being. And I believe, at their core, most religions are good, or at least well intended.

So I can accept, or at least overlook, individual teachings of other religious faiths that I don't believe are true. Or right.

But let me say this, I am far from being a theologian! I am just trying to express my current thoughts on religion, and find it difficult to put them in writing.

I feel that it's possible that God reveals him/its self to different cultures in different ways that they can relate to their own lives. People are very different around the world, one religion isn't necessarily one size fits all.

 

[gma1320]

Yes. I felt like I was basing my beliefs on a far too narrow interpretation of scriptures and teachings. Of all religions.

I needed to step back and look at it from a higher and broader view.

By doing that I came to the conclusion that most religions are there to provide a societal structure. They all provide guidelines and teachings to help you live your life and provide a foundation for belief in a superior being. And I believe, at their core, most religions are good, or at least well intended.

So I can accept, or at least overlook, individual teachings of other religious faiths that I don't believe are true. Or right.

But let me say this, I am far from being a theologian! I am just trying to express my current thoughts on religion, and find it difficult to put them in writing.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:13‭-‬14‬ ‭NIV‬‬
[13] “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. [14] But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

 

[gordon 2]

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:13‭-‬14‬ ‭NIV‬‬
[13] “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. [14] But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

This is a good verse regards the original post. Good works can be common to all religions and I mean good works according to the Father.


“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

The context of these verses are works or doing as in "Thus, by their fruit ( works) you will recognize them." regards how we treat each other.

a) "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

b) So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

c)“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

d)“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction." ( The world's door and sinful works), and many enter through it.

e)But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it. ( In the world by comparison small is the gate that leads to hearing, listening and doing the will of God.) And for all religions this is perhaps what is also that tinge some Christians find in their groups and some individuals common with all others.