Ok so in my book of mormon class we talk a lot about questioning, which conviently enough has been on my mind a lot lately. So i've decided to post a few questioins I've had in reguards to religion in general. Now before i post them I want everyone to know that this is NOT me declaring that I'm an athiest because i'm SOOOO not! I have learned that being brave enough to question is a great way to strengthen my own personal religious beleifs. Ok so here are some questions I have.
Is there such thing as absolute truth? Is religion only TRUE because members CHOOSE to beleive in it? Or is it an absolute truth? Does religion only exist becuase humans need it to maintain personal sanity? Because it makes us feel better that our lives have meaning? Is it not true that one can convince themselves that they beleive something when they engulf themselves completely in it. When they pray to a god, read the word of their god, and surround themselves with people that have the same beleifs as them. So what makes one church MORE true than the other? If a muslum truly beleives what they say, how is their religion more valid or true than a Catholic?
Once again these are just questions that I'm looking for answers to. So PLEASE!!! if anyone has any insights, additional questions, thoughts, or answers to these questions PLEASE comment! I want to know how people feel about this.
4 comments:
Hi
icame by your blog casually and very much enjoyed it.
English is not my first language but i will try to respond to your entry because religion is something that has occupied my mind very much.
Born from muslim parents and raised in a catholic environment, belief has always played a strong roll in my life and although it seems there has been this huge condradiction (muslim-catholic), as a child i never got really confused about it. God (the one and only) was there to love us and to Him(Her?) it didn't matter in wich way we praised for that. The diffrences was among people, not God. With groing up, as with you, questions also began to rise. I realised that in the One-God religions and also the beliefs wich concern about "the main source of life", all the basics come down to one thing: a high power/force that is the reason of existance. Some say that force lies inside the universe and contains it, but its not a supreme being itself wich can interact with the world (as for example with the prophets, who "heard" the voice of God), here the human can relate with this higher force trough himself, the truth lies inside. In other beliefs, this God is the universe itself and at the same time stands above it. He sort of "watches" the world and can interact with it if He chooses to, the so-known miracles. Also here lies the truth, the source of knowledge, inside ourselves. Through knowing ourselves better we can relate to God. We learn to be loved and from that we learn to love. personnaly i think that is the most important thing all of these beliefs have in common. The rest are mainly diffrences that are due to many reasons: historical, political, cultural,psycological... all reasons that are also the main reason people have so many diffrent opinions in almost everything else and not only religion.
With every person who thinks diffrently you have someone who believes diffrently and therefore worships diffrently. If we can understand that, we have a chance at having a better and peaceful world for everyone.
thank you so much for commenting Pardis that was VERY helpful and beautifully said.
I'm not sure this will help, but in my very unprofessional opinion: The whole point of religion is that nothing is an absolute truth. So religion is our way of making up the difference. As a members of the Church of Jesus Christ we have a specific set of beliefs that we claim as truth. In reading our scriptures, praying, inter-acting with nature and people around us, we find "evidence" to support our beliefs. Religion is faith-based, not knowledge based.
Joseph Smith can personally know that God and Jesus Christ exist, but we can only believe until we have a literal witness has he did.
I personally think this is why religion is so beautiful. It allows us to choose a clump of beliefs that best fit our personalities. Only God KNOWS which is correct, but we are given enough information/oppportunities to decide for ourselves.
check your facebook inbox. i sent a response there. started typing it here and decided that it was too long and something for just you to read. love you.
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