Ramblings about religion
Jan. 4th, 2006 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedusorI had a conversation earlier today with Jeanette about homosexuality, stem cell research and abortion. I think she's very confused about these issues- she's an intelligent person, but she wants to reconcile common sense with the Mormon church, and there's just no way I can see for that to happen.
I wonder how many people like her are out there, with a deeply religious background and beliefs, but an open and reasonable attitude. The thing is, the ones who are open-minded don't press their beliefs on others, so the ones that we really see in society are the rude ones who won't shut up. I know they're not all like that, but I honestly have no clue what the statistics are. I try to picture being in their shoes- growing up without a single doubt about something, and then realizing that maybe things aren't as black and white as they can seem if you think about them the easy way. What beliefs do I hold, that could be questioned if I looked at them differently? I'm not religious at all- I wasn't raised to be, and now that I'm old enough to look at more than one viewpoint and listen to different people, I honestly don't feel the need to be... although I'm beginning to understand, in the most pail-from-the-ocean way, why other people do. I see their community, the way they all work toward a common goal through common principles, and I understand both the attraction to join and the reluctance to leave. Conversely, and less obviously, there is the inner spirituality, the kind that tends to recoil from church and from other people's doubt. This has more to do with security, I think. People want certainty, safety, and (perhaps most important of all) meaning. They don't want to think that they don't matter. Religion, and to an extent spirituality, is there so that people can focus on possibilities- the possibility of heaven and hell, of self-actualization, of species-wide solidarity. I think there's more to inner spirituality than that, because it involves a lot more meditation and thought, versus the group mentality of organized religion, but it all still serves the same purpose, and that is providing purpose. Which is perfectly okay, as long as it doesn't force itself into laws and science and other people, because there are too many religions out there for that to resolve itself peacefully. When religion really is there to make people feel better about themselves and their lives, and when it's personal instead of an outer statement, I'm all for it.
Maybe Jeanette will be able to develop her own creed, a belief structure through which she can combine fact and religion in a way so as to satisfy herself, intellectually and spiritually. I wish her luck. I wish luck to all the Jeanettes, all the people out there who just aren't sure. I hope they figure it out, because no matter how much I wish I could give them my own confidence, I can't. No one can except themselves.
I wonder how many people like her are out there, with a deeply religious background and beliefs, but an open and reasonable attitude. The thing is, the ones who are open-minded don't press their beliefs on others, so the ones that we really see in society are the rude ones who won't shut up. I know they're not all like that, but I honestly have no clue what the statistics are. I try to picture being in their shoes- growing up without a single doubt about something, and then realizing that maybe things aren't as black and white as they can seem if you think about them the easy way. What beliefs do I hold, that could be questioned if I looked at them differently? I'm not religious at all- I wasn't raised to be, and now that I'm old enough to look at more than one viewpoint and listen to different people, I honestly don't feel the need to be... although I'm beginning to understand, in the most pail-from-the-ocean way, why other people do. I see their community, the way they all work toward a common goal through common principles, and I understand both the attraction to join and the reluctance to leave. Conversely, and less obviously, there is the inner spirituality, the kind that tends to recoil from church and from other people's doubt. This has more to do with security, I think. People want certainty, safety, and (perhaps most important of all) meaning. They don't want to think that they don't matter. Religion, and to an extent spirituality, is there so that people can focus on possibilities- the possibility of heaven and hell, of self-actualization, of species-wide solidarity. I think there's more to inner spirituality than that, because it involves a lot more meditation and thought, versus the group mentality of organized religion, but it all still serves the same purpose, and that is providing purpose. Which is perfectly okay, as long as it doesn't force itself into laws and science and other people, because there are too many religions out there for that to resolve itself peacefully. When religion really is there to make people feel better about themselves and their lives, and when it's personal instead of an outer statement, I'm all for it.
Maybe Jeanette will be able to develop her own creed, a belief structure through which she can combine fact and religion in a way so as to satisfy herself, intellectually and spiritually. I wish her luck. I wish luck to all the Jeanettes, all the people out there who just aren't sure. I hope they figure it out, because no matter how much I wish I could give them my own confidence, I can't. No one can except themselves.
