Combined religions

Gillo

(for the point of view of keeping this simple I will refere to God as he instead of he/she/it etc, it's not meant as a sexist comment)

I'm not sure how this is going to go or how well I'll be able to get my point across, but;

I was born in Catholic and raised a Catholic by religious parents they were deeply involved in Charmasitic Renewal for awhile. As a child I was a good obidient son (most of the time), as a result I "took" on my parents religion and until I was sixteen I followed it pretty much blindly. At that stage I started to question what I believed.

I never doubted that there was a God, but started wonder was he a Catholic God or did he belong to a different religion. If he wasn't Catholic could he be a different Christian God, or maybe was he bhuiddist, hindu or what religion. Was I following the right religion or was I waisting my time. The more I thought about this, the more I became interested in different religions and what they believed. I did this because I was curious what other people believed, not because I was dissatisified wtih Catholicism.

Now for the crux;
The more I looked into other beleif's (I also looked at so called "cults") I began to realise that if you take the basic beliefs of these religions and broke them down again and again until you were at the most simpilified. The final concept you came to was to respect yourself, respect others and lead a good life. Yes, some relgions had one God others had many, (one main/head God and many more minor Gods who I equated to Angels in say christianity).

So the end result which I cam up with is that essentially we all belong to the same religion, we all worship the same God and it doesn't matter whether you go to church, synogoue, mosque or whatever, it's whichever "tag" you feels suits you best.

(I don't want this to turn into a debate about them, but while not a relgion Freemasonary demands that you believe in a God, the thing is it dosen't matter which one, once you do believe which I found to be a very interesting concept similiar to the idea I cam up with, so obviously I'm not the only person thinking this way.)

I'd love to hear people opinions on this.

McGinty

I came to a similar conclusion some years ago, like you I was christened a Catholic, but my parents weren't that devout. During my teens and early twenties I tried very hard to be an atheist, but I couldn't because I always felt God, so during late twenties and now into my early thirties I read up on different religious movements. I beleive that religion is man made, initially being God centred (hence why all religions have similar core beliefs) but became political and man made in an attempt to answer the deep mysteries of life, plus religion became political because it was needed to adminster the church. A classic example is the Reformation, where Luther came to the conclusion of 'justification by faith alone' (amongst other stuff) and that we only needed faith in God, no amount of good works could buy our way into heaven. However when Luther ended up creating a new religion, it had to be adminstrated, and that's when things became watered down. The Reformation is an example of how religions form and how they evolve. I don't know enough about Eastern religions (yet) but they may differ.

However God and relgion don't always go hand in hand, and think this is where confusion occurs, plus hate towards religions. I believe spirituality whatever religion one is in, is what God is all about. I'm not sure if my last sentence makes sense, but maybe I will expand on it further some other time. Just some of my thoughts and observations.

solas

So the end result which I cam up with is that essentially we all belong to the same religion, we all worship the same God and it doesn't matter whether you go to church, synogoue, mosque or whatever, it's whichever "tag" you feels suits you best.

don't think I could have putit any better myself and yea..I would think that many others feel the same way.

I believe spirituality whatever religion one is in, is what God is all about.

I'd agree with this statement also.

Oryx

Id agree totally with you as well, Ive posted on this topic before. God is whatever he is, religion is the badge we put on him in an effort to understand him. (Likewise him= he/her/it )

Dreamcatcher

Gillo, I have also felt that way about religions for quite a while now, and you put it very well in your post. The wars and injustices inflicted by people in the name of religion, has nothing to do with religion, and has given the word a bad name. Even the words "God", "Allah" etc. have been given a bad name because of their misuse by politicians who are imho the forces for evil in the world.
I suppose it doesn't really matter what words are used, because in the end words are just words. It is the meaning/intent behind the word/s that really matters.

McGinty wrote:

I came to a similar conclusion some years ago, like you I was christened a Catholic, but my parents weren't that devout. During my teens and early twenties I tried very hard to be an atheist, but I couldn't because I always felt God

Same story with me. I was an "atheist" till mid-twenties, then "agnostic" I learned was the more correct term for where I then stood on the subject.
Unlike you though McGinty, I can't say that I always "felt God" - I wish I had. I mean I did meditate a bit now and again, and was basically a "good" person, but soon after I met my previous bf, I kinda "lost myself" and allowed myself to get into bad self-destructive behaviours, which I believe would never have happened had I felt the prescence of God and not been so nihilistic about life.
Recently I've been doing a fair bit of reading and thinking on the subject and I want to let God into my life again. I feel that I cannot move foward as a person without him there, or me being aware of him.
I am naturally a spiritual person, I think. I was when I was a teenager(after I stopped going to mass at 16), but at the same time allowed myself get distracted by other "life" stuff, things that are not important.

Maybe you guys could recommend some books to read, or something so that I can really live my life in a more spiritual way?
I'm not looking for any quick or easy answers. This is a path that I want to follow, and it will be long journey, I feel and I am at the this point, only really at the beginning.
[edited: Sorry for going a bit off topic there]

solas

Trying to think which would be the best recommendation, there are so many books out there to choose from.
Evertime I pass the bookstore I have to stop in and see if anything new catches my eye and I usually buy whatever "jumps off the shelf" at me.
The last book I bought was the bible
(because I didn't have one and thought it was about time I did)

But for starters I would recommend "Anam Cara"~ spiritual wisdom from the celtic world~ by John O'Donohue.

Stabshauptmann

All religions are based on the premis that there is a power greater than ourselves, they all preach a code of ethics and some psychologists argue that we all basically know whats right and wrong, and religions tend to influece each other in the same way as cultures do.

Thus there is bound to be overlap and look like they are all basically the same.

But where religions differ is in there belief in:
What type of creature g*d is - forgiving or harsh, controlling or spectator
What type of afterlife there is if any
how we should live or lives, role of clergy, role of women etc

One these issues and many more its easier to see where religions differ

stevenmu

gillo wrote:

So the end result which I cam up with is that essentially we all belong to the same religion, we all worship the same God and it doesn't matter whether you go to church, synogoue, mosque or whatever, it's whichever "tag" you feels suits you best.

That's very literally true in the case of Chritianity, Judaism and Islam, I still can't understand how they can all believe in literally the same God, with very similar morals and ethics and still disagree so violently over the petty little differences.

transperson

I still can't understand how they can all believe in literally the same God, with very similar morals and ethics and still disagree so violently over the petty little differences

it really is mad.

i actually think Islam is most innocent of original differences, it says in the Quran that muslims are to respect other religiuons of the book and they hold Jesus Moses and Abraham to be profits.

i personally think that all religion points to the one thing, just different takes by folk for different folks, and its the folks that fight not the religions, it seems the religion is an excuse in most cases.

Talliesin

gillo wrote:

So the end result which I cam up with is that essentially we all belong to the same religion, we all worship the same God and it doesn't matter whether you go to church, synogoue, mosque or whatever, it's whichever "tag" you feels suits you best.

I agree, but not entirely. All paths lead to enlightenment (if only "this is so not the path for me, what on earth was I thinking"), but they are different paths for a reason.

When Idries Shah, the Sufi teacher and author, wrote a biography of Gerard Gardner he did so under the pseudonym "Jack L. Bracelin". He did this because he didn't want his students to start investigating Wicca, not because he had anything against Wicca, but Sufiism is Sufiism and Wicca is Wicca, and while both paths are very open to accepting ideas from elsewhere they are still what they are.

There can be a danger to the view that all religions are the one, or in borrowing from sources outside ones own path to arrive at a mish-mash where you aren't really doing anything. It can be distracting, or you can arrive at just the bits from various paths that make you comfortable and avoid work. It can be decoration rather than devotion.

antiskeptic

Gillo wrote: »

The more I looked into other beleif's (I also looked at so called "cults") I began to realise that if you take the basic beliefs of these religions and broke them down again and again until you were at the most simpilified. The final concept you came to was to respect yourself, respect others and lead a good life.

That's quite perceptive of you - that is indeed what all the worlds Religion and Cults say.

According to Christianity (of the non-Religious/non-Cult kind), if you follow this concept then you will surely end up in hell. For the simple reason that no one is able to do what these Religions suggest you do. At least not all of the time.