Discussions
Why practice religion?
Posted by LeavesLoves • 12/03/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: kindness, love, practice, religion
What is the overall purpose or goal of practicing your religion?
I am very curious..
Do different religions have a similar purpose?
If yes - why not unify together?
Sure we can agree on the minute differences within different religions - but if the essence is universal - can we not all practice together?
I'm expecting answers as simple as 'To be/stay/practice good'
Which is a beautiful thing. What I don't understand is this.. if the view is universally seen throughout all religions why is it so poorly to practiced from one religious organization to another? Is no solid message practiced?
What is the message? It's your religion - please enlighten me to why you practice it?
My message is simple..
Practice love and kindness to all.
Thanks for reading
with love,
Leaves
User Comments
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so you can get better at it?
Now mine -
Why can we be underwhelmed and overwhelmed - but not simply whelmed?-
So let me get this straight - your motivation for practicing religion is to get better at practicing religion?
I guess my question is what is it that practicing gets you better at?
Religion?
If you can get better at religion - why does one want to get better at religion?
What does being really good at a religion do?
Why do we practice getting good at a religion?
Why? Why? Why? -
hmmm that's like asking why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?
Regarding the OP, when we ask the wrong questions we get the wrong answers.
Why not practice a faith and therefore be a member of a religion? (even so-called non-religious have a religion, think about it!)
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Why practice religion?
I have no idea. Nobody who is adept at critical thinking and applies it to the concept of supernatural dieties will practice religion because the outcome of that critical thought would have to be that the balance of probabilities weighs very heavily against the existence of such a being.
I can only conclude, then, that those who practice religion have not given the probability of existence of such a supernatural being much rational or critical thought.-
I beg to differ... I don't know why... probably because of the begging thing...
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lmao - i completely agree with you
the now is what's important - not potentialities -
Many of us who serve God are critical thinkers and seekers of wisdom as His word says, and have spent years studying both secular religious history as well as our own doctrines. That being a side point to the fact that we enter into a personal relationship with Christ. Example: You have a friend named Bod. I come along and say I don't believe you have a friend named Bob, that he's real or probable. It does not affect your life or relationship with Bob at all, the outcome only affects the one that doesn't believe because Bob can not be friends with them and they cannot enjoy that friendship.
The basic truth is that those who believe need no proof (that does not imply that they are shallow, non-thinkers that accept anything.)
And insistant unbelievers will not accept no matter how much proof.....their will always be an agrgument. -
Belief in an imaginary supernatural being is absolute proof against the ability to critically think and come to to valid logical conclusions.
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I think quoting alittle Chesterton would be appropriate
Take away the supernatural and what remains is the unnatural. (Heretics)
The truth is that the modern world has committed itself to two totally different and inconsistent conceptions about education. It is always trying to expand the scope of education; and always trying to exclude from it all religion and philosophy. But this is sheer nonsense. You can have an education that teaches atheism because atheism is true, and it can be, from its own point of view, a complete education. But you cannot have an education claiming to teach all truth, and then refusing to discuss whether atheism is true. (The Common Man) -
I disagree Sweetviolet.
I'm quite adept at critical thinking, and yet, I believe in my religion.
If scientists only believed in what they could see right now, right in front of them, they would have never invented anything new at all.
It takes a little imagination, and a whole lotta faith when coming up with new theories and inventions - the same principle applies to those who believe in a religion.
Unexplained or undiscovered does not negate existence. It just means it hasn't been explained or discovered yet. And religious belief is simply the expression of the unexplained and undiscovered. -
Congratulations on insulting millions of intelligent people. Bravo. I'm sure you feel quite superior now.
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Why practice? just do it!-
Is that the extended Nike slogan? -
genius!
blind faith!
Hitler would be so proud.. -
wise comment seeing I live with hitlers aftermath daily...
who said it was blind faith? I just said why practice it? why not do it? like practising the piano, just do it, ohh what the heck ever I am not explaining myself to this crap, open your mind and the hilter joke was not effin funny! -
lol
'just doing it' without questioning most specifically - is blind and ignorant -
Leaves that is an unfair and total misrepresentation of what she said.
Your bias is showing.
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Religion only serves as a vehicle in which true spirituality can take off. Of itself, it really isn't worth anything.
Those who change are ready to do so at any rate, and seek religion to provide the language by which they can unfold such change. At least as many find that in Christian religions as do not. But changed lives occur as a result of any religion... or even the release from religion. -
I'll go with that bit "Practice love and kindness to all."
And twice as much love for Red Pandas -
Why there is religion? -
Being good and practicing love and kindness to all isn't religion, it is ethics. Ethical or legal behavior is important, but it isn't religion.
Religion, at least historically, is a mythology. The myths tend to be uniform and global in the macro-sense, with local and tribal variations. Religion serves four functions:
1. Mystical: Religion should introduce you to the mystical element of human existence, the idea that our individual identity can be transcended.
2. Cosmological: Religion should explain the nature of our cosmos. In this arena, religion has been supplanted by science. An effective religion would need to create a cosmological view that incorporates recent scientific advancement, possibly by taking the cosmology of the religion and applying it metaphorically. Fundamentalism often gets mired in an ancient cosmological view.
3. Sociological: Religion is about the preservation and protection of the society through shared mythology. If you don't believe me, go visit some different congregations. You challenge the religion, you challenge the tribe.
4. Pedagogical: I guess this is the element that incorporates the ethical, since historically religion and myth have been used to teach ethical behavior and to teach people where they belong in the world and how they should interact with the world.
All of these are valid reasons for wanting to practice a religion or following a particular mythology. The problem really arises in evaluating the quality and effectiveness of particular religious beliefs.-
"Ethical or legal behavior is important, but it isn't religion."
Legal doesn't enter into your discussion. At one point in the US's history, legal behavior constituted returning people to other people as property knowing that they would likely be killed for no sin other than yearning to be free. Legal, sure. Ethical, not in my book. -
Law is a society's attempts to legislate ethical behavior. The law may not always live up to high ethical standards and it certainly has evolved and improved over time. Religions also attempt to codify ethical behavior in their doctrinal pronouncements, so you are at least right in pointing out that my mention of "legality" was an improper nod in the discussion of ethics to the secular religion of government.
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Look at it this way: The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up. -
To get brain washed and ripped off. -
To get better at it?
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people practice religion because they have an innate urge to worship something greater than themselves.
the-daily-light.blogspot.com -
People seem to practice religion for one of the following reasons:
1) Out of guilt
2) Out of tradition
3) Out of fear
4) To find purpose in their life
5) To find releif from the pain in their lives
I think the basis of EVERY religion is love. The one common thread as it is intended at least. Because there is so much power given to religious leaders, there is no way they would all ban together.-
I do not practice religion for any of those reasons, I go to God because I love Him, it is a relationship not a practice.
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obviously they value power over love..
religion = power = control
i like your list of reasons
love and kindness brings unification -
Not all religions thrive on that equation.
Sometimes I think that the anti-religious groups are just as bad as the fundamental religious groups.
*shakes head*
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I don't practice religion. I have beliefs, and I consider myself to be pretty spiritual, but I don't practice any prescribed religion, although I was raised Catholic.
I think that all religions do have a common purpose and goal, and that is really to create good people. I agree with the person above me who said the basis of all religions is love. Those fundamentals may have been lost in a lot of the bullshit that does on, but I don't think religion is inherently bad, if that is something you need. -
The word "religion" is just a battle over semantics. Everybody is religious.
Whether you brush your teeth every morning when you wake up then shower or whatever. At the core you believe it will make a difference, and that belief provokes you to make a difference. But if you don't align your actions with your beliefs then you lose thrice fold.
1.You just killed alot of time/effort/potential to no avail.
2.You grow accustomed to tradition and hard hearted to the effects that religion SHOULD propel.
3.You completely miss out on God.
To attempt to understand God is to attempt to understand the Infinite.
All religions are not the same at their core, because not all of them base "Love" on the same foundation, which is what they believe "Love" to be.-
Semantically speaking....I would say that Religion is Applied Philosophy.
Take for example a Philosophy of living Clean Life and Being Kind.
To live a good clean life and be kind, one must actually 'Live a Good Clean and be Life and be Kind'.
..It goes beyond Theory, and to get it right, it needs to be Practiced.. -
love is an emotion
love is also often misunderstood sadly
i agree that everyone is religious - but that doesn't mean everyone consciously and actively practices a religion - which is my question - why practice?
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I don't practice any particular religion anymore. I do believe in God but I can't say there IS a God as a fact. When I do choose to practice a religion again I want to out of choice not fear, peer pressure, or tradition. Religion is just the vehicle or the finger pointing to something greater that deserves worship (or attention). But I would also like to learn how others perceive the Creator. By learning from others I collect a puzzle piece and add it to my God-Sized Puzzle so that I may achieve a greater love and appreciation for God and my fellow Man.
agod-sizedpuzzle.blogspot.com/ -
To get better at it? I believe that's the reason why some people practice homosexuality.-
sounds like you would know
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Religions can't unite because every religion says every other religion is wrong.-
Not my religion
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I don' have "religion" and I am not bound by the delusional belief that I have a "personal relationship" with a non-existent supernatural being.
I cannot believe in that which I do not experience. What I experience is that when I meditate and all the things associated with my "self" like greed, anger, hate, etc. dissolve is that there really is no self; there is no distinct being that is separate from the universal stream of pure consciousness -- quiet joy, peace, love ie. god.
Neither male nor female, neither good nor bad, neither light nor darkness but containing all there is and situate everywhere: the universal stream of consciousness flowing through all is god. Hence, god is found in everyone and in everything; god just keeps on is-ing.
The best decision I ever made in my life was to toss the dogma and doctrine of Christianity into the trashcan, turn my back on the church, and learn how to meditate. Because when I did I found the universal stream of consciousness that is god. -
Yeah, and your "religion" doesn't subjugate heretics either. What the heck's wrong with you guys?
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I dunno, I'm sure my husband could answer that question for you, though
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my sentiments exactly@Paul8bee.
There is really no amount of belief that will cause someone to stop doing something unless they truly...STOP doing such. And vice versa. But sometimes the mind is stronger than will. Which is why surrendering our will to God's Will will ultimately produce the change religion (on its own) cannot bring.
I hear you dude. I hope to build some more with you -
With all this practicing you think people would get it right. I do not practice, I live life and so doing find inspiration in it.
(The root of the word "religion" is usually traced to the Latin religare (re: back, and ligare: to bind), so that the term is associated with "being bound." )
and
(popular etymology among the later ancients (and many modern writers) connects it with religare "to bind fast" )
and
( Webster's Collegiate Dictionary traces the word back to an old Latin word religio meaning "taboo, restraint." A deeper study discovers the word comes from the two words re and ligare. Re is a prefix meaning "return," and ligare means "to bind;" in other words, "return to bondage."
The root of the word "religion" is usually traced to the Latin religare) (re: back, and ligare: to bind),
VoodooKobra is quite right!!-
interesting..
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Because ignorance is bliss.-
the root and stem of all evil is ignorance -plato
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I do not practice religion I practice worship of the Creator. Religion is flows out of an organized set of standards set by people and usually results in people trying to please God. True worship flows from a life of submitted to the Creator and involves thanking Him for all that He provides for us. Religion brings glory to our righteousness and worship gives all the glory to God. -
First I take issue in the gendered deity. He HE HE!!! There is no way we, as humans, have any idea if Deity/God is a man or woman. We as humans, lack a great deal of understanding in this realm. Hence we practice.....the very thought of gendered deity relegates a resistance to religion in me. Perhaps it goes back to the historical aspects of religion when the Catholic church sought to abolish the Goddess/Pagan religions.. There is a very interesting quote from Tony Shearer's book Lord of the Dawn, although it is most likely fiction the thought is quite interesting. According to the book he quotes Malinche/Marina (the mayan concubine of Cortez)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Malinche
as saying. "There is something very interesting about these men in their beards and metal armour that worship a mother and child." The point is that deity is in the eye of the beholder and the fact that we create a gendered deity, shows our lack of understanding in the essence of the creator/creative force. I guess it is our shortcoming, that we have to put things in a way we can understand when it comes to that which we do not understand.-
[First I take issue in the gendered deity.]
In English, that's always a problem, but other languages have no excuse.
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Focus practicing on kindness. xo
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To me religion is man trying to reach up to God. It is his attempts at being good enough for God to accept him. Being a follower of Jesus is acknowledging that God has reached down to us. He gave his life for all of mankind and all we have to do is accept what he did. Our good works do not save us they are a result of us being saved.
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"To me religion is man trying to reach up to God. It is his attempts at being good enough for God to accept him."
i guess this is a bit scary to me. the obvious/major problem is the self-centeredness.
self-centered minds are why there are religious wars.
it's amazing how religion so often leaps over beautiful important things like equality, freedom, joy, love, kindness..
inevitably leading to misunderstanding the focus of getting along which each other.. which is in my opinion what the focus of religion SHOULD be.. getting along with each other on this little planet. co-existing friendly and kindly.. it's so simple it's like a kindergarten class.
children are more kind than adults honestly
adults are stupidly blind by there huge egos and vast amounts of useless complex knowledge
thus leading to a difficult life practicing kindness -
o well such is life
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The religion currently trying to unite Abrahamic religions is Baha'i. -
I do not practice any religion because I want to keep my link to god clear of any interference. -
I don pratice religion .. I practice life giving by God
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