by joelbear 7 Replies latest jw friends
I believe strongly in discovering your own belief system, not simply adopting a belief system that a group or organization proposes to you or tries to sell you on.
god is personal. i simply don't buy into this god wants us to be in groups thing.
groups inevitably create hierarchy, hierarchy is bad.
find god, be spiritual, it fills you with a feeling that makes you want to share goodness with others.
Unfortunately, the belief in god is a belief system that is imposed on the individual by society, usually transmitted through parents. It is a learned behaviour.
To really adopt a personal belief system, one must start from scratch, eliminate all socially imposed constructs about the nature of the universe and ones place in it and ask oneself:
1) based on the available evidence, what reason do I have for pre-supposing the existence of a supernatural being in the universe?
2) From what source did this "belief" enter my mind? Parents? Organized religion? Friends?
3) Most importantly, is this belief founded on reality, or does it simply fill a need, such as psychological anaesthesia against ones fear of death and human frailty?
I believe strongly in discovering your own belief system, not simply adopting a belief system that a group or organization proposes to you or tries to sell you on.
I agree with you. I have some beliefs that I imagine some would find wacky, but I don't care they work for me. Feel free to explore and examine your beliefs and change them if necessary. They're yours, do with them what you want.
Dams
joelbear
kid-A !
Unfortunately it is impossible to eliminate cultural norms and assumptions. Each of us is responsible for our own spiritual career, so whether we adopt a "set" of values and constructs or develop our own set, we are still selecting from existing formulas!
carmel
True, hierarchies end up being bad though they could have served the body of believers better than it is possible without them. In reality it backfires and hierarchies do more harm than good.
Even if you have a "personalized" belief systen which has been created by you, you have put yourself within a closed system. To posit that "god is personal" automatically limits what the word g-o-d points to. Are you absolutely certain that this is true, or is this just your particular belief? What can be gained by dropping all belief systems, especially beliefs about "god" and about who you think you are in relation to "god"?
If you are truly courageous, see what lies beyond the mind which would entertain any belief, see what exists prior to the arising of beliefs of any sort including your ideas of "you", and what exists after all beliefs fade away.
we are still selecting from existing formulas!
Actually, the formulas can be escaped, but it takes a lot of searching and working. You can get out of the boxes. That's not to say that what you end up w will be new. There isn't anything new.
The really important thing, is to resist the urge to spread your particular belief to others. Beliefs are like diseases, in that they should be quarantined. They are never complete, containing all of the truth, even though many people do stop at certain points and take that position. That is just an excuse to stop putting in effort (which is ok, if they keep it to themselves).
S
