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originally posted by: InTheLight
a reply to: Specimen
Even to the point where, as a young girl going to church, I was forced to cover my hair and when I questioned it (as I have been doing all my life it seems) I was told "because you have to" and when I questioned why the boys/men didn't have to cover their hair the reply was 'because women are vain'. Yes, it did have a very modern Islamic touchy feely feel to it. But the RC religion then and now is being tweeked and the rules changed, so we could say some religions are being rewritten and rules altered, but can we say faith in certain religions is dying or is the practice of certain religions dying?
originally posted by: TerraLiga As the originator of the topic I’d like to thank all participants. It’s been interesting. It’s my belief that our species is constantly searching for faith - whether that be religious, natural, scientific or spiritual. Through centuries we have always asked the great philosophical questions, among which are who are we? Where do we come from? What else is in our universe? What happens when we die? The search for these answers is important to us. Over time we have found answers to so many questions and problems, like surviving better in community groups, farming crops and animals for a stable food supply, building better tools and shelter, and so on, but these are technical solutions to practical problems. The problem of answering philosophical questions are esoteric which a harder alloy or breeding a higher crop yield will not answer. Tribal and community leaders must have been asked these questions many times in our early history, and it is my belief that we simply made them up. We were not in a position to answer them accurately or truthfully at that stage of our development. We still can’t answer them fully thousands of years later, but we continue to search, as is the nature of our being. Over time communities interacted with others where creation stories were merged and enhanced and sometimes replaced wh,olesale with stories better than those held. We are an explorative and inquisitive species, populating almost the entire planet, and those stories travelled with us. It doesn’t surprise me to find several commonalities between religious and spiritual faiths around the world. During my own search for ‘faith’ my logic tells me there is no divinity behind our amazing and incredibly beautiful natural world. I’m comfortable with that and I believe it to be true, although I understand and respect that not everyone will have the same conclusion or experience as me. Each of our searches for faith is personal and we have our own questions to seek answers to. What is important is that we acknowledge our own and other’s doubts and not belittle those who have reached a different and personal truth.
originally posted by: charlyv
The common thread in religion is control. Any time you can gather many people into a belief system and then appoint a leader, there is the element of control. History has shown us the good and evil that all religions have been capable of.
People are realizing that they can believe in God and/or any of the prophets, without being classified in a group. Or, of course, they can choose not to believe in anything. I subscribe to the first type. I do not know what God is, but I believe it is something extraordinary.