Help; Ideas for discussion needed
 

At my work, I run a group focusing on 'Faith Exploration'. (You read that right).

We've focused on many topics and while we avoid anything topical, linked to one religion or single issue subjects, we've touched on a wide variety of subjects (NDEs, Death, Courage, The Golden Rule, etc.- 26 in all)

What sort of topics would be on point for something like this? We definitely tie most topics back to science and research for and against the idea on target for that meeting. Like Mike R w/dirty Jobs, I'm out of ideas! :icon_eek: :smile:

Appreciate this forum & I'm not going to judge any suggestions; just toss it out there. Thank you.

Help; Ideas for discussion needed
 

Hello again BodhiCris,

Interesting Focus Group! I invite you to take a look at the reference, below, provided as answer to another SF member who had a similar interest in the topic of Faith. Please bear with the length of my explanation to his, and your excellent question.

Hope you share some of the response(s), if any, from your work group.

Reference: http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...5&postcount=36

Hi,

In my mind Faith Exploration is a lot like Belief Manifestation. My understanding is that the beliefs we have create our reality. This has more to do with the energy of our beliefs than any specific subject.

Would this subject be of interest to your group?

John

Here's something I've been contemplating recently.

Awareness vs. mind and in this context: Awareness is of the spiritual realm and mind is of the scientific realm and there is no inherent conflict.

We have The Hard Problem of consciousness which can thought of as on the spiritual side and mind which can be thought of as on the scientific side and as purely deterministic. Spirituality says we have free will and science says that's an illusion.

I posit they are not contradictory views and play together quite nicely and especially when one directly experiences the space between them. Awareness is the seat of free will and the body-mind, a fantastic deterministic biological machine, only possesses self-will, which is deterministic.

If you have not already done so, perhaps you could focus on what faith itself is, is not, or what individuals believe it should be, when it should be, when (if?) it is necessary, when it is not, etc....

U may discuss something like
1. Functions of spirituality
2. laws of spirituality
3. Divine feelings like love , empathy , sympathy , bravery , charity ,generosity , devotion ,grace , force ,gratitude ,serenity ,faith , abundance etc

Guthrio, I will check it out and definitely share findings... Thank you!

Hi John32241 - we have done a subject on "Manifesting Reality" based on the works of Raden, Chalmers, Sheldrake and others. It's a fascinating topic, and the point we zeroed in on was how the energy you need to manifest is near fanatical and why you have so many who are down on "The Law of Attraction". It's a subject we're likely to return to...

Thanks!

Ah, this is a funky chestnut...

My opinion on faith/belief goes as follows.
The ineffable (re; consciousness, universal energy, etc.) must exist without quantitative measurement or reductive categorization. Then you have faith and belief.
Belief is when you have received or told yourself a "Truth" about the ineffable and have boxed out all other options without exploration.

Faith is when you accept the ineffable based on experience, and trust our puny human capacity is incapable of knowing more. The more is out there but does not require categorization or measurement. It is.

I remember Sadguru commenting the act of belief is a mini-death, eliminating any other options beyond the hyper-narrow belief. Literal acceptance of any religious text is belief; reading the meaning and context of the text and attempting to understand the nature of the teachings is an act of faith. Basically; it's opposite belief in our lovely dualistic world. :D

I'm with you; I see science as integral to life on earth (in our advanced society and being bathed in tech). I also see consciousness as a fundamental force, like gravity, and living in dimensional space around but outside the scope of science. Any theory bringing the two together is bold, bound to cause strife and ultimately 'is' even though we can't prove it.

I'm no longer a fan of 'proof'; I much prefer experience. But that's just me.