Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Religion and Spirituality

 Everyone lives by faith. We take this for granted in the case of religious persons, yet the same is true for materialists, non-religious spiritualists and atheists too, since all of them live by faith in their own beliefs. What is unique in the case of religion are the shared belief systems that are formally acknowledged within a community that is intent on preserving a belief system as a social institution. However, just as patriotism is to a country, so religions are to belief systems, and just as patriotism is to nationalism, so religion is to religionism. While the former cases in each of the previous examples is marked by devotion to a respective cause or ideal, the latter cases are characterized more by outwardly directed inflation and aggression. This distinction is important to identify for the sake of preserving the rich treasury of wisdom that religions have to offer the world, especially in defense against the growing trend toward 'secular spirituality' which arises due to a seeming aversion to religion. The conflict between religion and spirituality is much like the conflict between clouds and the sky, which is to say that really, there is no conflict at all. So why would people have an aversion to religion then? This is not to imply that everyone need be religious; the intention is simply to deflate the supposed aversion, and perhaps to recontextualize religion in such a way that it might, at the very least, be embraced more willingly as a benign yet important aspect of society and modern culture as a whole, whether individuals have the desire to be involved in formal spiritual practice or not.

 In modern culture it is interesting to note that religious values and ideas have permeated the everyday aspects of our lives, especially when it comes to our most cherished forms of entertainment: television and film. In fact, upon closer inspection, the similarities between how we entertain ourselves and how we practice formal religion are uncanny. With television, we set aside an hour once a week to spend with our most inspiring characters. With religion, we do the same. In both cases, individuals are developing a deeper relationship with the characters; getting a deeper sense for their motivations, expectations and values. Also, as psychologists and sociologists have documented, television, in a physiological sense, has a similar effect to meditation on the psyche. Meditation serves to relax the body and disengage the mind from being excessively active, as does television. The effect of both these practices is that they enable us to have a break from the intensity of day to day life, so that when we do get back to our day jobs and other obligations, we can do so with a reduced level of anxiety. The striking parallels between religious practice and the average person's day to day life are quite remarkable; almost as if every experience we have, when viewed in the right context, has a spiritual component. Why then, if daily life and religious practice are so similar, do people take such rigid positions when it comes to religion? It would appear to be the result of a lack of distinction between regular religious practice, and extreme religiosity.

 So often these days, we see news reports about terrorists engaged in jihad (holy war); we read on the internet about evangelists who brainwash naive, at-risk teenagers; we hear from friends about people handing out pamphlets on street corners, warning us of an eternity in hell if we do not kneel down and repent. All this without even mentioning the bloody history which has been credited to religion with the Crusades and the Inquisition to name just a few examples. If any of this accurately represented religion, then the seeming aversion would be far more understandable. Of greatest significance in any of these cases is that none of the respective religions being 'represented' actually supports this kind of activity. In fact, the Holy Bible, the Koran, the Vedas, Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita all support alternatives to aggressively principled evangelism. All of the world's most prominent religions, and the vast majority of the more obscure ones, preach messages of love, peace and forgiveness. They teach followers about humility, surrender, and service to one's fellow man. Each of the examples of extreme religiosity mentioned above are examples of 'religionism'. Religionism occurs when spirituality is removed from religion, and what is left is little more than politicized dogma. In these cases of extreme religiosity it is very common for individuals to take integrous teachings and segments of scripture, only to present them, far removed from their original context, in such a way that supports political or egoistic agendas. We might note how the Koran teaches of 'Allah the All-Merciful' who uses the 'Sword of Truth' to bring about peace and justice, and how extremists have taken the teachings out of context in order to inspire men to take up the sword of steel. As well, we have cases where Christian fundamentalists brutally attack homosexuals, citing that “God hates gays”, even though the passages they refer to are rather ambiguous, while the less controversial teachings of the Christian Bible proclaim that judgement is reserved for God alone, and that in order to be holy, a man must 'love his neighbor as he loves himself'.

 One issue which seems to give rise to extreme fundamentalist groups is the issue of sectarian exclusivity. Exclusivity arises as a result of a deeply subconscious characteristic of the human psyche which is likely the consequence of early evolutionary adaptation. This characteristic is best described as a secret tendency to think that what we believe is 'righter' than anyone else's beliefs (a secret that we may very well deny, even to ourselves). When we encounter someone with a different belief or interpretation than us, it appears to be threatening to our secret belief. In response to the perceived threat arises a sense of opposition, division, and ultimately sectarianism. With sectarianism, individuals lose sight of the principles and intentions which form the foundations of their spiritual belief systems. People become religionists when they lose sight of divinity as a spiritual authority, and instead begin to revere the belief system itself as authority over truth. Worshiping religion, ironically, is not religious.

 It has been said that “Spirituality is the individual's ability to wonder at, and delight in, the indecipherable”. This sort of spirituality is integral to religious practice. Socrates taught that 'man always chooses what he believes to be the good, though he lacks the means to tell the difference'. Spirituality and religion are just a few of the means of exploring that difference; each as fallible as the investigator who explores them. The indecipherable nature of existence reinforces for us that indeed, everyone lives by faith. In light of this condition, this virtual state of oblivion, we can resolve then that the best we can do for now is to simply be compassionate toward our fellow man. The religious can be compassionate for those lost without religion, and the non-religious can exercise compassion for those who seem to be lost within it. Aversions only contribute to further divisions, and a greater sense of conflict, neither of which gets us closer to the goal of understanding. If there's anything we can know for sure, it is that love has never in the history of man been an opponent of peace. Perhaps that is a good starting point.

-Rob

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