From: Joe Karthauser <cogs.sussex.ac.uk!joek>
Subject: Re: Religion
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 02:47:09 GMT

Original Sender: Joe Karthauser <cogs.sussex.ac.uk!joek>

>
> On addressing the religious issue, religion is (or, as I hold it) a
> personal matter.  I, myself, do not agree with organized religion.  The
> relationship between one and the deity of their choice must be personal.  To
> take someone else's views on anything does not allow your own feelings to be
> heard.  Whether you're Christian, Buddhist, or atheistic (like myself) is only


> important to you.  If you place 100% of yourself into your faith, you will
> know what to do and what not to do.  Placing that much into one's faith is
> difficult, but that is the goal...isn't it?
>
> Golly, maybe I'm wrong...maybe.
>
> Steve
>
>
> ==============================================================================

> Note: These views may possibly be someone's.|            Frieden
> ==============================================================================


I personally feel that it is very easy for people to fall into the habit of
letting their religions rule them, rather than them ruling their religions.

It's all too easy for someone to accept that what they have been taught about
their religion is solid fact. What people forget is that whatever they've
learnt is just a way of thinking; another interpretation of the facts.

For instance most religions have a terrific amount in common. They have the
same basic beliefs, just seen from a different angle. But instead of people
being tolerant of each other's beliefs they go so far as to say that they are
right and other religions are wrong! They say this without the hint of an
understanding of the other "way of seeing things" and then believe that they
have an informed opinion.

As far as Oobes go if you look most religions have writings which relate to
this topic. They don't explicitly state that that is what they are, as the
people who were writing about these experiences didn't understand what was
happening and so generated their own myths as explanations. If the myth fits
then it generally gets used until it's disproved.

For hundreds/thousands of years people thought that the sun travelled around
the earth, we now think that the earth travels around the sun! All of the
evidence points towards this theory, but we must not let ourselves fall into
the trap of not questioning this! Imagine that someone discovers some amazing
mechanism and states that the universe doesn't really exist in the way that we
understand it; what would we say? Probably our first reaction would be to
disbelieve the claims, because as far as we are concerned our model fits! This
is because we don't have an understanding of the whole picture. Once we
understand the bigger picture our model doesn't work anymore.

What I'm trying to say is that we should learn to question everything and be
aware that just because a model explanation fits it doesn't mean that another
model wouldn't or couldn't be better.

I'll finish with this: I was brought up in a Christian family where my parents
took their beliefs very seriously, but in doing so allowed themselves to build
up false ideas of the world.

A friend of theirs was very ill and had a near death experience where they
imagined that they went to heaven and saw old friends etc.. For my parents and
their friends this experience they used to re-enforce their belief in
Christianity over other ways of thinking. They failed to notice that other
people in other religions experience the same things, except that instead of
heaven, their main religious place was represented. For me this confirms that
something else is happening, not necessarily exclusive to the Christian way of
thinking.

The way I see it is I can understand my parents religion and beliefs in terms
of the way that I think, but my parents can't understand mine! Like trying to
understand atoms in terms of compounds, when compounds should be explained in
terms of atoms. It down to a question of fundamentals. What are the fundamental
truths? It is my belief that most religions haven't narrowed it down yet!

I believe that there is a lot of truth locked up in the ideas of men (and women
:-) but it shouldn't be accepted at face value. If someone believes that the sun
goes round the earth, and observations confirm this theory, are they right, or
wrong? If they are wrong how can we prove that we're not wrong with some of our
ideas? I put it to you....... What do you think?

Food for though anyway...  :-)

Cheers,

        Joe

--

------------------------  -------------------------------------------------
Josef Karthauser          Remember... Today is the first day of the rest of
joek@cogs.susx.ac.uk      your life. Use it well. :-)
------------------------  -------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body