Faith Fusion

[Adriana]

I like the idea of multi-tasking, 3-in-1 shampoos, gizmos of every purpose imaginable but when it comes to religion, I'm very particular on what my beliefs are.

Some cults, which like to call themselves as religions, preach that all Gods are one God. To bring you to their side, they tell you that the name of who you're worshiping doesn't matter since it's the same god with different identities. It's a marketing strategy that I'd like people to steer clear from. The smorgasbord of eastern and western religions isn't something you treat lightly.

[Gen_X]

I have a friend who practices Hinduism and Buddhism while she's also engaged in Wiccan rituals. I don't know if it's for making up for the fact that her parents are atheists.
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[majika]

When Oprah talks, America listens. Unfortunate, isn't it? Considering that Oprah seems to have New Age beliefs. She has said that she believes in the force and she calls it god. She also said that if you believe in a rhythm of nature and in love, then you believe in God. She'd never admit to being a New Age believer however. She may sometimes quote the bible but it's out of context and only when it suits her position. For a non-believer, she sure invites plenty of New Age experts on her show.
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[Truthed]

Originally Posted by Gen_X

I have a friend who practices Hinduism and Buddhism while she's also engaged in Wiccan rituals. I don't know if it's for making up for the fact that her parents are atheists.

LOL!

There is also Free Religion churches for Christianity, where there is no certain religion, ie: Catholic, Lutheran ect, you just go there to worship God.

[resonance420]

I believe at the root, most religions share the purpose of structuring moral guidelines and helping to instil a sense of meaning into a persons life. Or at least the traditional religions, not the crazy new religions! ha

[SmokingMan]

Resonance420,
I agree with your previous statement, however, let's think about this for a minute...
Most spiritualities or religions have some sort of moral standard that they suggets humanity live by. I was reading an article where the Dali Lhama was being interviewed. The interviewer asked him, don't you ever get angry? -to which he replied, "Sure I do, but then I have to tell myself not to lose my temper." Then the interviewer asked, Do you ever get sexually aroused? He said "Every time I see a beautiful woman, but then I have to tell myself to think about something else." The question that I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts about is this:
Any human no matter what he or she believes in can be like the Dali Lhama. We have the natural ability to learn through trial and error to conduct ourselves properly in an outward way. But is that righteousness?
Or is that just covering up our inward anger and lust? For example, my wife and I can get in an argument, and get angry with each other. I may be able to keep myself from loosing my temper, and even deal with the situation in a noble, mature, responsible way which does not lead to any further trouble, but it doesn't mean that I'm not angry. Anger is the sin in itself, the lost of temper is just the outward manifestation of that sin. So should a human who get's horny and angry be considered holy?
I'm not trying to pick on the Dali Lhama or Buddhism, just using him as an example because he's just another human being. Here's a parallel to help illustrate my point: Have you ever bitten into an apple and found a worm in it? If you have you might've tried to gag yourself into vomiting and searched the remainder of the apple to find an entrance whole. When you were unsuccessful at that you may have pondered that you swallowed the part with the entrance whole grossing you out even further. The truth is that there never was an entrance whole. The adult female lays her eggs in the apple blossom, then, once it becomes a fruit, the larvae hatch from the inside and begin to consume the inner flesh of the fruit for nourishment. The point is that it can look perfect and delicious on the outside and still be getting eaten by worms and rotting on the inside. Having established this, doesn't it seem a little pointless to have a standard of morality that is only skin deep? Shouldn't a "true" spirituallity or a "true" god be trying to fix things from the inside out? If not, then all we have is the suppression of the outward manifestation of sin, or a false front of "goodness" applied to cover up a decaying inner being. Am I wrong?

[Truthed]

Smoking Man -
I see your point, but at the same time, is it possible for a human not to feel anger or lust? We all have feelings that come naturally when certain events occur, the only thing that changes from person to person is the way that person handles those feelings. Some people get angry and murder someone, another person get the same feeling of anger and calms themselves down and moves on. The question I guess I have is it possible to get rid of the common thing in both persons which is the original feeling of anger?

[SmokingMan]

Truthed,
-Now were cookin' w/ gas. Both your point and question are very relevant. Here inlies the age-old question: "Is absolute righteousness humanly possible?" Keep in mind, I'm not trying to impose an opinion, just raising interesting questions because they make these kinds of forums fun to visit. To "try" to answer your question I would have to say that most religions tell you about all the work you need to do to "self-perfect" yourself. Personally, I believe that self-perfection is, on the one hand, beneficial to ourselves and society, and on the other hand, spiritually worthless. I think people need an exchange of inner being which works from the inside out. Does it exist? I would say that it does, but it is a lifelong process, and the people who achieve such transcendancy are nobodies, because such a one would reject and refuse to be recognized in the world. So you won't find it in any of today's so-called "spiritual leaders". These people not only do not seek fame, but they refuse it. I say leave it up to the seekers of spiritualities to do the appropriate homework for themselves to discover where in the world one can find the way to such a course which leads to the elimination of the sinful nature itself.

[Truthed]

I have to agree-
If such a thing did exist, then that person would not seek nor want recognition. A person who reached that level of righteousness would, in my mind, be almost like a monk hidden away in the mountains with no cares of anything that has to do with a material world. Which, like you stated would make them impossible to find. So i guess we agree that if there is actually a way to avoid feelings like anger or lust all together, then you definitely won't find a persons who achieved it step by step book to achieving it yourself on amazon for $39.99

[SmokingMan]

That's very good. We should take a look at that. But let's look a little deeper into that. Most monks come to the temples at a young age because they want to escape the temptations of the world making it easier for them to live outside of those temptations. Now, these are true Buddhists and such, living very disciplined and solitary lives in the mountains of Tibet or the Asian region. Put one of these into society, and see how they deal with the California girls and the people who make fun of them for wearing wierd robes. I would say that possibly some masturbation and Shaolin Kung-Fu might be in order. Is that kind of living real righteousness? To learn the teachings and realize that the only way to do it seclusion? We have to say that American Buddhism is more of a mockery than anything else. Americans call themselves Buddhists because they believe in some Buddhist teachings, but live their lives according to their own convenience. Historically, Gutauma, the Buddha, and Lao Tsu, (the father of Taoism which many historians argue never actually existed) are contemporaries of Confucious. Confucious was a man who's job it was to write laws for the purpose of making the justice and court system of his time and culture fair and just. These laws were taken by certain people and turned into philosophies for positive and healthy living and later turned into what we call today, "religions". So, even for these ones, this kind of thing would be nearly impossible. It would be like taking a guy out of jail, putting him in the world and waiting to find out if he reoffends. Well, not really, but living in a monastary all your life doesn't cure you of your human nature. Certainly such a person would avoid recognition unless he or she saw something they could gain out of it. The plot can definately thicken if you're willing to exhaust the big picture of it all. I'm excited to see how folks respond if they do.