Labels?
 

I realized that there are 4 categories of people namely: the fanatic extremist religious people who are convinced that they're right, the sceptics who refute everything, and between them, in the middle, the people who believe in spirit and try to look for answers as well as agnostics or people that are confused and don't know what to believe
No offense intended for the classifications. Are some of those spirits more evolved than the others, why are they having such different paths in terms of faith? Or is the free will in action? Why would they choose to be sceptic or fanatic religious?
Does this have to do with the spirit's development or are these just labels?

There should be a fourth label for agnostics and agnostic atheists (which I consider myself). Because I don't think the second label fits them perfectly.

However strong the ego is imo. Once the ego starts falling away, the higher self can reveal.

Conditioning runs deep. It’s all labelling.

If you let go of labels and look deeper at what lays under all this you see it’s not the surface choices that are determined by the person alone, but by what has been created in their minds by others choices created through them.

Perhaps some of the questioning is; why do you see people the way you do?

There are judgements made. But what are creating these judgements?

Is it comparing one to another and expecting a certain outcome?

These questions are in reflections of myself as well. For don't always know the full story.

What if someone just does not know, so questions what is thought to be known or told to know?

What if someone's beliefs is infused with thier identity and feelings of being devoted? So, questioning such may be taken as questioning his/her identity and faith.

Can not speak for others and yes in my opinion some do go overboard with it.
Live and let live is good up to the point where the other is threatening my well being, safety, and/or disrespecting me. But these are for the individual to determine.

To me it has to do more with in what manner we are willing and able to live with one another.

How, what, why, and such seem determined by the individual or group (if one follows such.)

Labels can be useful in having common ways to communicate and evaluate.
Labels can also add further divisions if used to categorize people, IMO.

For me look at the contex in which labels are being used and for what purpose.

I concur. Common nomenclature.

Maybe I am the fifth category, none of the above.

I came from nothing, no spiritual background, no religious background, no labels. I am picking them up along the way.

I can still feel blessed, have faith, send prayers.

I feel sad when people tell me a label and try to stick me in a box. It hurts my heart. Or when people tell me, “you must have a guide,...”

Labels can become more power, control and ego.

Labels can also create division or bring us together.

Labels are tools and each person decides how to use them.

Labels can create or they can destroy and there is a whole continuum in between.

Agree, labels can have impact.

You bring up some good points.

It is how they get used and also in what manner they may be projected upon another.

Some people can roll it off, while another may take it to heart.
But, they can cause pain and affect self image. They can lift one up as well.

Feel can not generalize and assume for all or a group. Each may have his/her own take on it.

I also pick up things along the way and have incorporated things I resonate with or find useful at the present time. Currently don't hold onto any specific practice.

Some may call me gnostic, some spiritual, while others may find me a bit weird, lol.

I gues I too would say none of the above.:smile:

It is more how labels get used and the tone of words used.

Yes, labels can be useful. Otherwise quite confusing disguising one thing from another or knowing the ingrediences in something.

When relating to each other can empower or belittle and is the individuals responsibility as to how labels are chosen, if at all, to be used, IMO.

sounds like you started out on your journey very well. Open minded and free. Hope label's don't place where others want you to be. I'll never feel one can place a label on a whole group of people. Individuals can be because they either put a label on themselves or they let others label them a long time ago. I do my best to not let a label decide who or what I am as a person.

The usage of labels are designed for those who prefer to use cognitive or judgmental means to try and relate to the world around them and then to share such experiences, through spoken or written language, to others who are also familiar with those labels used, so as to facilitate a 'mental connection' or rapport with other members of the species.

Where the flaw is, is that many people personally identify with these labels to such an extent, that any 'alternative label' is simply unacceptable and inadmissible.

For example, I am a Theist and believe in "God"...now the term "God" is used, as a label, to represent the mental construct of something which is beyond the ability of my limited mental process to understand it, although I have also conceptualised it into a "form" to help my mind and heart acknowledge it for "ease of reference" (i.e a label).

Now, an atheist or a purist may come along (and they often do) and say "how can you be SO gullible and naive to believe that?...to use concepts and labels?" without realising, of course, that the words "gullible" and "naive" are ALSO labels that they have assigned in their judgmental critique to apply to ME! :biggrin:

I can also see that the meaning of certain words applies to individual perception, experience and mental construct. We shall use the same example:

By labeling me as being "gullible" or "naive" does NOT imply that I am inadvertently ignorant or too blindly accepting regardless of evidence to the contrary...what it means is that I have a different belief set to THEM and in the attempt to get me to change that belief set so that it suits their own perception, they resort to undermining my personal experiences and sense of conviction, self-esteem and faith to achieve it.

Those who have a 'weak will' usually don't survive continual attacks on their character and that is what such people are preying on, while others can see through this and politely tell them that they enjoy being "gullible" and "naive" because it stops them from critically judging and labeling people due to a sense of purpose and fulfillment in their own lives which is totally independent of the beliefs, views and opinions of others...so, if I want to 'believe' that Santa Claus or Invisible Pink Unicorns exist, then they exist regardless of what anybody else has to say about it.

With regards to Santa Claus and unicorns. I guess that there must be an objective reality out there as truth, and this happens for all beliefs. Santa Claus can't exist for someone and exist for someone else, unless this happens as imagination. It's like saying a person happens to be in two different places at the same time as part of the same objective reality or universe