Journeyman Philosopher

As Digglu hinted in response to my last post:

People should find religion on their own, not have it forced on them, which is probably why so many “Christians” aren’t Christian at all.

In my life and studies one thing I feel I have confidently learnt is that religion is not something that can simply be taught. Religion/Spirituality (whatever you want to call it; they really mean the same) requires the individual that adopts it to take a personal assumption, one that in no way can be taught as a fact by others.

Think of it this way, I use christianity as its easiest to illustrate, you are approached by a priest who says to you ‘God exists, I know he exists’. This priest has, what he would consider, a connection to God of some sort that allows him to make such a statement. In such a manner the priest, to the best of his belief, is most likely not lying.

However what needs to be taken into consideration is the status of the person who is hearing the priest make this statement. Priests in general are respected in society and people have a tendency to place trust in their judgements and decisions. As so it is common place for a person of little or no knowledge of religion to adopt the views of the priest; ironically to have faith in God by truly having faith in the priest.

This is a problem. In this step the personalization that is necessary for sincere religious understanding is sidestepped.

In my last post I covered the concept briefly that religion recquires individual interpretation. How religion is ’suppose’ to work is the priest is suppose to give you their interpretation, but explain it in a manner open for debate that allows the listener to understand that this is an interpretation (although a true one to the preacher).

In this manner the individual listener gets to, through debate/interpretation, determine which truth makes sense to them; and thereafter develop it for themselves with the assistance of the preacher. This allows them to do more than listen, but as well develop critical thought abilities (which is of course necessary to even apply religion correctly to your life).

Think of it like this: It is not sensible to just adopt a belief without knowing its premises. And if its premises require you to ‘just believe’ it makes little if no sense to accept it as a truth, without first determining if you yourself hold that premise.

Without personalization through interpretation religion is nothing more than a fact. But religion isn’t a fact. When religion is adopted as a fact ad hoc someone elses reasoning it leads to a misrepresentation of the sincere belief that is required for successful adoption. This is the fundamental problem of how we approach spiritual development in our societies, we teach as fact rather than inspire individual development.

Imbroglio religious belief, belief that is disconnected from what would be considered its ‘true spiritual element’, is the natural occurrence of mass producing an individualistic belief for a society in an attempt to spread its merits. The merits are inevitably lost in the drone of mass consumption.