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beliefs
February 2009 
If you had to pick another religion to practice, what would it be
Posted on Jan 13th, 2009
by 
Chris Cade
Chris Cade
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for January 12, 2009:
At present time, I don't follow a specific religion. I was raised Catholic and went to church each week, and I was confirmed in my teens. However, it was always because my parents made me do it.
As I got older, I began to see some of the flaws with religion. Specifically, that most religions I've encountered have a basic body of knowledge that they require followers to acknowledge as "Truth." The reason I see this as flawed is because it doesn't give each individual an opportunity to discover what Truth means for them as individuals.
It is roughly equivalent to always slapping a kid's hand when they try to steal cookies from the cookie jar and saying "Bad boy!" But what happens when the parents go out? The old adage rings true, "While the cat's away, the mouse will play." The child will go and dig into the cookie jar and take a cookie (if they're not thinking ahead about thins such as leaving trails or their parents counting cookies).
However, if that child is raised in an environment where they are allowed to discover, perhaps, the woes of eating too many cookies at once... or they are on such a healthy diet that even eating a few cookies adversely affects them, then that child will learn from natural consequence. The result is that no matter who is looking, or not, the child will act in accordance with the Truth they have discovered through their experience.
Although that's an overly simplistic example, and probably has a few logic holes in it, the purpose of it is still pretty solid - to demonstrate that when we adopt Truths from others, rather than discovering our own Truth, we are disempowering ourselves and ultimately not taking ownership of our experience.
That's some insight into why I don't have a current religion. I'm not opposed to religion, though it may sound that way. I feel it's a very helpful tool in a person's spiritual development, and when approached with an open mind, religion can be another gateway for people to discover the Truth... but only so long as they are not adopting the beliefs of the religion as Truth, and instead using the religions beliefs as a guide and opportunity to explore their own individual Truths.
What religion would I choose, if I had to pick one? I don't know if one would truly call "Unitarian Universalist" and "Unity" religions... but to be fair I haven't looked deeply into them either. I have recently been learning about Sufism and am enjoying it very much. It doesn't appear to be as dogmatic as other religions, but that's just my understanding on the surface. I may be wrong abuot that as well.
However, the fact that it focuses much on learning how to live in the world... to truly be an active participant in life, is something I like. I like the fact that it doesn't try to dictate a lot of what people "should" do... at least so long as they are acting in accordance with the basic tenets of Sufism and Islam - tenets which basically boil down to "Be compassionate and truthful." (yes, I'm vastly oversimplifying for sake of trying to keep this blog post below the length of a novel).
One person I heard recently quoted that "any time we mistake a belief as Truth, then we are being religious." In that sense, I understand. When we have to believe something, it means we don't actually know. That's fine to have beliefs, and they're often helpful, but only so far as we don't take them too seriously - that we don't assume they are Truth.
Oh, I could go on... it's actually difficult to stop typing. But I shall stop here for now - perhaps more on another time, or in response to any comments :)
As I got older, I began to see some of the flaws with religion. Specifically, that most religions I've encountered have a basic body of knowledge that they require followers to acknowledge as "Truth." The reason I see this as flawed is because it doesn't give each individual an opportunity to discover what Truth means for them as individuals.
It is roughly equivalent to always slapping a kid's hand when they try to steal cookies from the cookie jar and saying "Bad boy!" But what happens when the parents go out? The old adage rings true, "While the cat's away, the mouse will play." The child will go and dig into the cookie jar and take a cookie (if they're not thinking ahead about thins such as leaving trails or their parents counting cookies).
However, if that child is raised in an environment where they are allowed to discover, perhaps, the woes of eating too many cookies at once... or they are on such a healthy diet that even eating a few cookies adversely affects them, then that child will learn from natural consequence. The result is that no matter who is looking, or not, the child will act in accordance with the Truth they have discovered through their experience.
Although that's an overly simplistic example, and probably has a few logic holes in it, the purpose of it is still pretty solid - to demonstrate that when we adopt Truths from others, rather than discovering our own Truth, we are disempowering ourselves and ultimately not taking ownership of our experience.
That's some insight into why I don't have a current religion. I'm not opposed to religion, though it may sound that way. I feel it's a very helpful tool in a person's spiritual development, and when approached with an open mind, religion can be another gateway for people to discover the Truth... but only so long as they are not adopting the beliefs of the religion as Truth, and instead using the religions beliefs as a guide and opportunity to explore their own individual Truths.
What religion would I choose, if I had to pick one? I don't know if one would truly call "Unitarian Universalist" and "Unity" religions... but to be fair I haven't looked deeply into them either. I have recently been learning about Sufism and am enjoying it very much. It doesn't appear to be as dogmatic as other religions, but that's just my understanding on the surface. I may be wrong abuot that as well.
However, the fact that it focuses much on learning how to live in the world... to truly be an active participant in life, is something I like. I like the fact that it doesn't try to dictate a lot of what people "should" do... at least so long as they are acting in accordance with the basic tenets of Sufism and Islam - tenets which basically boil down to "Be compassionate and truthful." (yes, I'm vastly oversimplifying for sake of trying to keep this blog post below the length of a novel).
One person I heard recently quoted that "any time we mistake a belief as Truth, then we are being religious." In that sense, I understand. When we have to believe something, it means we don't actually know. That's fine to have beliefs, and they're often helpful, but only so far as we don't take them too seriously - that we don't assume they are Truth.
Oh, I could go on... it's actually difficult to stop typing. But I shall stop here for now - perhaps more on another time, or in response to any comments :)
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