SATCHMO Spouts About Science, Life, and Isms: Another Goddamn Religion Thread

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Answers?

Originally Posted by SATCHMO

These are some of the questions that I have:

Is it possible to distill the positive aspects of religion/spirituality? To objectively explore spiritual practice as a mental hygiene tool, one that has positive benefits to it's practitioners?

Yes

Originally Posted by SATCHMO

Can we come, will we come to an objective understanding of what spirit is and understand it's dynamic?

No

Originally Posted by SATCHMO

When people speak of God, is there something that exists in reality that word points toward, not necessarily an anthropomorphic, autonomous deity, but something else entirely?

Yes, probably. But it's likely the product of inexplicable religious experiences that humans have which you talk about next..

Originally Posted by SATCHMO

What do we make of the religious experience? Is it simply a psychological aberration because it's subjective? If it's an induceable state and it brings joy, is that not a strong argument for trying to attain it, or duplicate it?

Religious experiences are psychological but not aberrant. People have them every day all over the globe.

The fact that they occur is an argument for "trying to attain" a spiritual experience but not a strong one. They seem to happen when they happen for whatever reason. I guess you can meditate for years and have one, or go to a church and have a communal one, or take drugs and have one, or something else entirely. We don't know what causes all of them.

As for duplicating those experiences, I'm hellbent against the idea. If a religious experience happens to a person then they have to choose how to deal with it and I think attempting to duplicate it, grasp it, and own it is wrong because actually duplicating it is improbable and attempts to do so are probably detrimental. No experiences last forever and certainly not religious experiences. I'd say most of the problems that religions cause in the world result from the belief that people can and should duplicate previous religious experiences.