What is the purpose of religion?

[Taking a Break]

Originally Posted by ImthatIm

Organized Religion?
That's a whole different story.
This organizational system is more a business,that dabbles in the religious.
Also organised religion really serves the why of the organization.

Some say:" We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

Aren't we suppose to learn and live/survive without the help of the non physical beings, spirituality and religion?

Isn't it like doing an exam and asking the teacher for some of the answers?

Maybe our purpose is to learn to live with each other with all our differences, to depend on each other.

Is the purpose of religion and spirituality maybe to mislead us of our true path/goal?

Some say spiritual beings will develop/evolve/learn faster as physical beings, is this true, does this make any sense?

I hope this doesn't sound like communism, just some weird thoughts.

Originally Posted by Taking a Break

Some say:" We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

Aren't we suppose to learn and live/survive without the help of the non physical beings, spirituality and religion?

Isn't it like doing an exam and asking the teacher for some of the answers?

Maybe our purpose is to learn to live with each other with all our differences, to depend on each other.

Is the purpose of religion and spirituality maybe to mislead us of our true path/goal?

Some say spiritual beings will develop/evolve/learn faster as physical beings, is this true, does this make any sense?

I hope this doesn't sound like communism, just some weird thoughts.

These are pretty deep questions and observations.
I do like the communism part.Not that I think communism has ever worked but the
idea of one great big community sharing and taking care of each other sounds nice.
I think there is to much separation in the world.Organized religions and
spiritual circles participate in a lot of the separation.(Us vs. Them)
I think the pain and suffering factor in the physical is a great teacher like
touching a hot stove for the first time.

So Creator must have sent us here and said "Now Tommy don't touch that hot stove."
Knowing darn well we would. LOL.

Ultimately it is my belief that we have to draw our true nature from within our core and
bring that out until it is our being in human form.
A walking talking lump of clay expressing Love and beaming with light.
And religions and spirituality were probably meant to help in their beginnings before they all got organized.

[Busby]

Originally Posted by ImthatIm

These are pretty deep questions and observations.
I do like the communism part.Not that I think communism has ever worked but the
idea of one great big community sharing and taking care of each other sounds nice.
.

It has always been my opinion that 'Jesus' would have been a communist - and as Karl Marx intended - a follower of true communism. Communism, but not as a political energy, is the only way. It's called 'Caring for your neighbour - also known as real Christianity.

Communism doesn't work just as Christianity doesn't.

There are too many distractions...

[JosephineB]

Originally Posted by Taking a Break

Some say:" We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

Aren't we suppose to learn and live/survive without the help of the non physical beings, spirituality and religion?

Isn't it like doing an exam and asking the teacher for some of the answers?

Maybe our purpose is to learn to live with each other with all our differences, to depend on each other.

Is the purpose of religion and spirituality maybe to mislead us of our true path/goal?

Some say spiritual beings will develop/evolve/learn faster as physical beings, is this true, does this make any sense?

I hope this doesn't sound like communism, just some weird thoughts.

These aren't weird thoughts. If they are, then I'm weird too.

[meetjazz]

Personally, I am surprised at the degree of religion refusal. I can agree to a point, that all religions are in one way or another still dogmatic today and still have their own problems, no doubt. But to refuse all religions as some nonsense,...is in my opinion wrong. Afterall, at some point, hypocriticality begins, vast majority of modern spiritual beliefs and practices comes from one or another religion. To say namaste is Hinduism, to trying then to enducate someone who is saying Hallelujah is wierd.. Yes, I do think that all religions have their own problems, they fail to teach the right messages or even don't practice them themselves or are sometimes even bad examples, but still, religions do have imense know-how, insights, they offer to a practitioner a framework to build their own relationship or establishing a connection with the divine. The ''modern spirituality'' is very bad at this, regardless of the huge desire of modern man to connect with the divine, it often does not work, statements as ''My consciousness is the Universe's way of experiencing itself'' does not say much, they don't help much, even more various highly complex western or eastern philosophies make most of the people even more depressed, stressed out and lost, since they are very hard to understand in meaningful way, It's like some leap to go from 0 to transcendence in one second, and it does not work that way, at least not for vast majority of people. Also the notions of taking care for one another and the world are completely missing in most of ''modern spirituality'' usually everything revolves like this; me, myself and I, may this be in some law of attraction where our mega ego can attract whatever it wants and the universe is like genie in the bottle, to throw a ferrari infront of our door, if we just align ourselves with enough greed,..I could go on and on, before I could find anykind of message or teachings that will be based on helping the poor, compassion,community, equality,..as long this is not the case,..I don't see how this ''reject all religion train'' would be able to deliver a better world or ''enlightenment''.

[Altair]

Originally Posted by meetjazz

Personally, I am surprised at the degree of religion refusal. I can agree to a point, that all religions are in one way or another still dogmatic today and still have their own problems, no doubt. But to refuse all religions as some nonsense,...is in my opinion wrong. Afterall, at some point, hypocriticality begins, vast majority of modern spiritual beliefs and practices comes from one or another religion. To say namaste is Hinduism, to trying then to enducate someone who is saying Hallelujah is wierd.. Yes, I do think that all religions have their own problems, they fail to teach the right messages or even don't practice them themselves or are sometimes even bad examples, but still, religions do have imense know-how, insights, they offer to a practitioner a framework to build their own relationship or establishing a connection with the divine. The ''modern spirituality'' is very bad at this, regardless of the huge desire of modern man to connect with the divine, it often does not work, statements as ''My consciousness is the Universe's way of experiencing itself'' does not say much, they don't help much, even more various highly complex western or eastern philosophies make most of the people even more depressed, stressed out and lost, since they are very hard to understand in meaningful way, It's like some leap to go from 0 to transcendence in one second, and it does not work that way, at least not for vast majority of people. Also the notions of taking care for one another and the world are completely missing in most of ''modern spirituality'' usually everything revolves like this; me, myself and I, may this be in some law of attraction where our mega ego can attract whatever it wants and the universe is like genie in the bottle, to throw a ferrari infront of our door, if we just align ourselves with enough greed,..I could go on and on, before I could find anykind of message or teachings that will be based on helping the poor, compassion,community, equality,..as long this is not the case,..I don't see how this ''reject all religion train'' would be able to deliver a better world or ''enlightenment''.

You make many excellent points...

Yes, spiritual growth is not a leap, it's a path with small steps. Reading stories online though there seems to be loads of people claiming to know some absolute truth or state of being on the mere basis of having experienced this for a few times, or having found it some years or decades ago. They then assume it is the same as what any guru, who's done decades of deep meditation, has done. This is ignorance. A real enlightened person has spend years, decades, even life times doing spiritual practice. I think too many people cling to a handful of experiences, but transcending/transforming the ''negative'' characteristics of a human isn't like taking the dog for a walk..

Yes, taking care of others and the world are missing in most of modern spirituality. It's mostly about the self, but surely any self development and growth should be linked to taking care of others and the world. The two are intrinsically linked IMO..

[Dargor]

I've come to believe the purpose of religion is fear and enslavement.

[Morpheus]

Seeing that life is more than this temporary organic situation, in "illusory" time and space, the original purpose of "religion" is unification of the mortal with the immortal.

The repair of the consequences of the fall, including "space/time" itself... with the eternal and timeless.

Which is the greater reality and truth.

[Morpheus]

The main fault and problem with Marx' Communism has been the inclusion of world and earth centric atheism.

The greater reality and truth involves Spirit and involving the timeless.

[Morpheus]

Originally Posted by Native spirit

Religion causes wars and the need to control there is no purpose of it in my opinion


Namaste

That's a litany that gets repeated alot by those who dismiss faith. So let's examine it, shouldn't we?
"Religion", as it is classified in general, exists because life is more and other than this organic and material world, in time and space.
Science, Experience, and spiritual teachings, agree.

What "causes war" then, N.S.?

The situation we find ourselves in, this "evolved" animal/mammal situation, evolved in "illusory" space/time, is a result of a "fall". As the Boble indicates.
First of the angelic, then also of humanity.

What is primary in this evolved, organic and temporary situation?
The "Survival Instinct", related with ego.

So, it's not "religion" in actuality, which is responsible for wars, conflicts, and violence.
It is the "evolved" animal/mammal, "human" nature.
Again... evolved in what modern science since Einstein calls, "the illusion".
The greater reality and truth being Spirit, and involving the timeless.
This is what humanity is fallen from.
This is what religion, for the most part, teaches.