- Peter Hodges
- Taunton
- United Kingdom
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Does religion have any relevance in the modern world ?
Given that most religions are founded on ideas and teachings that come from books written hundreds, or even thousands of years ago, and that their relevance to modern ideas have been superceded by scientific discoveries, is it logical to have any belief in religion ?
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Roy Bourque 20+
Religion is built on associations. The associations are all presented in symbolic form. Without explanation, the symbols are meaningless just like a formula would be if no one explained what the letters or symbols of the formula stood for. That is the problem with modern religion. They tell you to take it on faith, but when you ask for clarity, they tell you they don't know in so many words.
Genesis and Exodus are mythologies. They contain information that is useful if you know what you are reading. Take the story of Adam and Eve for example. They were warned not to eat of the forbidden fruit. Ask any priest or minister what the forbidden fruit was and they can't tell you. I can tell you. It represents anything that entices you but leaves you destitute if you partake of it. Today we see it in the form of drug addictions, compulsive gambling, sexual infidelity leading to unwanted pregnancies, abortions, and STD's, and a host of other temptations. They are all branches of the same tree because they all have the same thing in common; they will drain the life from you. The tree is as real today as it was then and people are still eating from it with the same results. Once you understand this, you know why the story was written in the first place.
Organized religion today is not providing its parish with explanations that make sense. Instead, they are giving you false interpretations that have evolved to make followers dependent on religion for salvation. Religion was about discovery. In ancient times, science would have been a major part of it. But the Catholic church took God out of reality after its attack on Galileo, and the word has since become meaningless. I am trying to put the meaning back in.
Colleen Steen 500+
I'm curious about your "religious experience" that was not connected with religious worship...want to share?
If you don't want to share the actual experience, maybe you can explain what the difference between religious experience and organized religious worship is? Are you speaking about an experience that may also be called a spiritual experience?
Roy Bourque 20+
I guess I confuse religious with spiritual experience as being the same.
When I was nine years old, I felt threatened by the Catholic church teaching on purgatory. In my questioning, a nun told me to get alone with God and ask him the questions and let him answer. Several weeks later I had a spiritual experience while meditating on God (in my backyard). I was looking for God apart from reality because that is what I was taught. The experience took me back into reality and showed me the connectedness of everything. It was in harmony with the basics of quantum mechanics, but that was eleven years before I had any formal instruction on quantum mechanics.
When I finally learned about quantum mechanics, I understood it scientifically, but also spiritually. I came to see God and quantum mechanics as two different expressions of the same thing. Quantum fields are everywhere, they are invisible, they are perfect, they are the source from which all things come and back to where they go. They are what is doing the creating. Our vision of God as a person comes from trying to personify the ineffable mystery. Quantum fields are part of the ineffable mystery. We only know of them by the effects they produce. We know nothing more about them including why they exist or where they came from. The person of God isn't real. What the personification relates to is. If only we could get religious leaders to understand this, it might put them back on track with science.
Colleen Steen 500+
We seem to share some similarities in life adventures, and I sensed that while reading many of your comments:>)
I had issues with catholic teachings from the time I was a wee small child, stopped going to services as soon as I moved out of my home of origin, and did not practice a religion for 20+ years.
I then sustained a near fatal injury and had a near death/out of body experience. While in that state, I percieved myself and other beings as masses of energy. I also percieved the connectedness of everything. It did not seem like a spiritual or religious experience in any way. The experience was totally foreign to me, so when I recovered, I went on a quest to research and explore various religious/philosophical beliefs, studied them extensively, and even practiced a couple of them for awhile.
I find it interesting that science is starting to recognize the energy connections, and I percieve my experience as more scientific than anything else. I believe the words god, spirit, soul, etc. are used to describe the energy that powers the body and everything else in our universe. As you say..."these fields are everywhere".
I agree that the percieved "vision of god as a person, comes from trying to personify the mystery". I did not meet a god "out there" with the NDE/OBE by the way.
Based on extensive research of many different religious beliefs, the NDE/OBE, my life experiences, etc., I still do not practice a religion, and I am very content. Those who seem to need an organized religion, seem to be limiting themselves, in my perception. And those who are trying so hard to convert everyone to their beliefs, seem insecure with their beliefs.
It would be interesting if religious leaders accepted and understood the concept you speak of, and I suspect they would not open the heart and mind to it, because they would lose some of their power to control others...would they not?
Roy Bourque 20+
I wrote a book called "The Merging of Two Worlds" to try and present my views. I recently received a copy of an article written by a Moody Bible Institute student who interviewed me by phone about a month ago. The article clearly shows the student to be a fundamentalist Christian who had problems of my views, but at least he presented it as a book that "will hopefully begin the process for deeper thought for scientists and Christians alike".
I sold some books locally and received the following comments from a friend; my neighbor is no longer attending her church because she finds your book much more informative, filled with explanations that are not covered in the services. Another teenager said this; I was an atheist until reading your book. Now I am seeing things in a whole new light and need to rethink what it is that I should believe. I am sensing that there might be a higher power out there somewhere.
Your experience took you beyond what the church teaches, as so did mine, forcing us to think outside the box of religious dogma, but not abandoning the idea that we are part of something much larger than ourselves. I spoke to the daughter of a paster and she seemed intrigued by what I was saying, finding it hard to grasp, but interested in knowing more. I presented ideas that she could not dispute even though it was taking her out of her comfort zone. I think we will be seeing more of this at time goes on. We need to just keep saying it.
Adriaan Braam 20+
When the subject of religion came up, she mentioned her experience and the outcome. When I said "NDE's are quite normal and acceptable in my religion she almost fell off her chair :)
Swedenborg could recount his OBE experiences and explain what actually happens (250 years ago) that it all clicked with her. She loved it.