Lightkeeper
Seeker
Many religions claim to be the Truth. Yet, many religions are very similar teachings. What is it about humans that our beliefs need to be the truth?
The Truth
- Thread starter Lightkeeper
- Start date
The very topic I was contemplating this weekend...all the variety of religions and all of the denominations/sects in each religion that think they are holding the key, that believe they are the only one and true religion. Even those that feel all religiions have a basis of truth, or the bahai who feel they've incorporated it all....this thought also thinks it is the true thought...and that the rest of those that think they are the true thought will have issues with their thought... I touched on this in another thread, and am contemplating how this relates to our desire to find love, a love that will last forever...led me to think about religions and immortality...life after death....that we are seeking forever, the feeling of not being limited by this space and time...Lightkeeper said:
hmm I was refering to seeking foreverness, afterlife, immortality, love everlasting...not forever seeking... forever in stages takes me back to the reincarnation thread...but I think you interpretted me as forever seeking...my bad...never did do well in grammar.Quahom1 said:
wil said:
Not really. We are conceived, and go through a stage of life that is more or less nine months long. Then we move on to the next stage of life, and move from infant to toddler, to child to adolescent, to adult, have children (more or less), of our own and give them lessons to learn, but we continue. We enter the middle stage then move on to the end stages of our life here, then pass on...What makes us think it would stop there? Why wouldn't we continue as newbies in the next part of life, then toddlers, then children, then adolescents, so on and so forth?
Everything about life is in stages. Think about it Wil. If Love never dies (we carry it with us even though those who gave it to us are long gone), why should life end? They are both forms of energy, that can't be destroyed...only changed.
v/r
Q
Dondi
Well-Known Member
I'm with Q.
After death, our progression ought to continue, in some form or fashion. Which is why I find that reincarnation doesn't make sense in the whole scheme of things. If what I read in near-death/oob experiences, our conscience will continue to evolve and grow. I see no point in repeating the same stages of birth, baby-toddler, toddler-child, child to adolescent, etc. We've been there already. We'd be wasting our time going through all that again. (Not to mention that, if we've been reincarnated previously, we don't have any knowledge of our previous life/lives. How are we to correct mistakes we don't "remember"?) I will concede the possibility of reincarnation in cases where a person wasn't able to grow in this life (i.e stillborn, infant death, severe retardation, etc). But on the whole, I would think that how ever long we live we are going to take the lessons about love, relationships, hardships, heartaches, joy, sorrow, sufferings into the next life and will continue to grow in areas we lack albeit expodentially as our conscienceness expands. But any growth that we experience here or in the hereafter must be within a relationship with God or Divine Presence in order for us to grow positively, else we are in danger of allowing our sins to eat us up. I don't think God expects us to become sinless in this life, but to recognize that the purification of our souls will come through Him. Without God's Spirit within, our souls will surely shrink as our wretched desires overtake us.
After death, our progression ought to continue, in some form or fashion. Which is why I find that reincarnation doesn't make sense in the whole scheme of things. If what I read in near-death/oob experiences, our conscience will continue to evolve and grow. I see no point in repeating the same stages of birth, baby-toddler, toddler-child, child to adolescent, etc. We've been there already. We'd be wasting our time going through all that again. (Not to mention that, if we've been reincarnated previously, we don't have any knowledge of our previous life/lives. How are we to correct mistakes we don't "remember"?) I will concede the possibility of reincarnation in cases where a person wasn't able to grow in this life (i.e stillborn, infant death, severe retardation, etc). But on the whole, I would think that how ever long we live we are going to take the lessons about love, relationships, hardships, heartaches, joy, sorrow, sufferings into the next life and will continue to grow in areas we lack albeit expodentially as our conscienceness expands. But any growth that we experience here or in the hereafter must be within a relationship with God or Divine Presence in order for us to grow positively, else we are in danger of allowing our sins to eat us up. I don't think God expects us to become sinless in this life, but to recognize that the purification of our souls will come through Him. Without God's Spirit within, our souls will surely shrink as our wretched desires overtake us.
Lightkeeper said:
It's not necessarily that the beliefs need to be "Truth" as much as work within a specific culturally and personally accessible framework.
Whilst there may be some interchange of ideas between faiths - ie, Taoism and Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity - utlimately the framework for understanding them changes.
It is accepting the framework that makes them Truth.
2c.
taijasi
Gnōthi seauton
Perhaps there is an inherent concern, part of our survival instinct, left over from earlier evolutionary stages ... which can be subtly (or not-so-subtly) triggered, with regard to this issue. We come to those natural stages in life, often in adolescence/pre-adolescence, or early adulthood, during which we thirst for knowledge, and for meaning. Whether raised according to a particular religious tradition or not, we may turn to a spiritual faith for some of these answers. I'm not sure that what we get is always exactly - comforting, or reassuring. Some of what I've encountered, is just the opposite - very frightening!Lightkeeper said:
Speaking personally, I do know that what I heard from the various pastors of the Lutheran churches I grew up going to, was helpful. But I was eager to learn about other faiths, other cultures, other traditions, and by the age of 17 I had become quite interested in Eastern religions, as well as in mysticism and various esoteric philosophies. Some of the experiences I'd had as early as 3 years old, could not be answered by anyone I asked, or by any source materials, until I was in college. By then, the answers I finally found came as beautiful, wonderful confirmation of the "best guesses" which I had myself formulated over the years. New experiences further corroborated what I believed, and I was completely satisified that - while I had not discovered "ultimate truth," I had discovered the path that works for me. And that understanding has only increased, to this day, though I have come to see it from many, varying angles, and only thanks to the help of a variety of awesome teachers along the way.
For me, knowing that there is so much left to learn, to discover, and to accomplish ... is itself a truth worth cherishing. For if I thought that I had found it, Truth in its totality, then aside from being deluded, I think I should be quite sad, very disappointed, and probably a little bit angry, as well! I would almost feel cheated. The very notion, of the carrot on the stick, appeals to me. Simple human curiosity, a constant reaching out. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I don't think ... personally, that our beliefs need to be Truth, they just need to be true, in the sense that they are helpful for us. If I look back, I can find that there are many things which I have ceased to believe, yet if I had never believed them, and if I had never made experiment, then I would certainly never have evolved my understanding, or even come near a spiritual path. The challenge comes in being able to continue to ask questions, and always be ready to re-evaluate one's understanding, letting go of what no longer serves, and adopting readily that which is of value. One need not do a complete overhaul every day!
That would be incredibly unsettling, and chaotic. But what's often enough? Each individual must decide. It's if/when we stop questioning .. that I think "truth" begins to crystallize ...
peace,
andrew
Silverbackman
Prince Of Truth
Lightkeeper said:
There is a reason for this. Remember all religions were created in various cultures to understand the world around them and to create order and customs. Of course many religions teach the same thing because there is a universal moral standard that most humans agree upon (such as murder, rape, theft, ect. being wrong in most circumstances).
No religion speaks the truth because the absolute truth is infinite and cannot be truly known. God is infinite truth and therefore could never be completely understood. However that doesn't mean we can't find all the truth we need. God's laws may extend and be different and an infinite amount of universes but the more we understand about God the more we understand about truth.
In reality if you really think about it, the goal of life is quite simple. Reproduce is a famous one that comes to mind. Another is to contribute to the civilization you live on for this life so we that we can learn more about God (through science and rational thought perhaps). By doing this perhaps one day we may be able to transcend the universe and live forever in some way. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's Omega Point comes to mind. But this is just one idea of many that is sure to in the future. Medicine is also advancing at a rapid rate and in time we may come up with the technology needed to bring people freshly died back from the dead!
Either way you look at it the more we know about God the more we are on the track to immortality.