"Religions tell us we have to give up this life for another ...

by serenitynow 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  JamesThomas

  Yes, sadly, this is often the case.

  There is no reality, no genuine significance outside the present moment. Religion compels it's followers to mentally reach past the authentic richness of reality, out towards a lifeless imagined fantasy in some other place and time. When absent and numb to Reality, we are as the walking dead. (I would add that I don't feel that this is how religion was originally meant to be; perhaps the very opposite)

  However, religion is not the only door to such a death-walk. Often we unquestionably accept the beliefs and interpretations of the mind -- religious or not -- for genuine reality; and so die, never knowing what it is to really live.

  There is a beautiful and endlessly vast Reality of which we are truly so wonderfully connected as to be it! Realization of our true identity and unity requires a radical looking past everything we have so far believed "self" and "other" (or universe) to be.

  j
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  Warlock

  Well, Serenity, you got me to thinking. People just seem to have a need to control others. If religion put much more emphasis on the Second Greatest Commandment, as stated by Jesus, "Love your neighbor as yourself", instead of rules and regulations, things would be better in the present life and in our future life, wherever that might end up to be.

  Warlock
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  themonster123

  Yeah, I read something similar to this in a magazine called "risen" (I'm not dumb-they purposely spelled it w/ a lower-cased "r" even though it's the name of a magazine)....there was an interview w/ that girl from that show "Joan of Arcadia" and she was saying that's what she didn't like abou tChristianity is its constant promotion of the "suffer now for The Good Life later." I think that theme is common in ALL religions.

  But I don't think there's anything after Death, so live NOW.
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  greendawn

  That is the position of Christianity in fact, to forego the pleasures of this world, the immediate pleasures, in order to attain to much greater spiritual goals th eold man will wither away as the new man will develop apace.

  For someone spiritual this sounds right.
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  Numinous

  Even if we go by the "heavenly Father" scenario, what kind of father would want you to live a life of misery to prove to him that you love him? Right before I left the WT there were many in the hall who contacted me to tell me the REAL circumstances in their life, how very difficult and truely unhappy they were. They did this to try to help me realize that I wasn't alone, but it only solidified my feelings that, for me, enough was enough. I had already given 20 years and I was in a circumstance that I would never have thought I would be able to bear. It was the religion of suffering. God wants us to LIVE and be HAPPY! Could God fault a soul for wanting this?
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  serenitynow

  Thanks everyone for all those interesting thoughts and comments. I agree with so many of you esp. Warlock ... loving your neighbour is a basic that will give us spiritual happiness even if you are an aethist. That is a concept that helps me a lot when I'm feeling angry with Dubdom. And James Thomas - your sentiments are similar to those expressed in Deepak Chopra's latest book. I'm still trying to get my head around that one!