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

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Originally Posted by SATCHMO

Obviously, the term religious experience can run the gambit from a profound sense of peace to a mild psychosis, but I have a tough time understanding how a sense of enlightenment should be outright avoided.

I only said that the duplication of a religious experience (or enlightenment although I don't like that term) should be outright avoided. For example, Zen Buddhists like to stare at blank walls for a certain amount of time each day without any reason other than they believe that this may remove them from the natural but unimportant human belief in a "self". Some never have a religious experience but they do it anyway. Others have one. I have no problem with this and I think theirs is a worthy pursuit. However, problems arise when a religious experience (in this specific case the disillusion of a self) is attained and the meditator obsesses on that experience rather than simply experiencing it, appreciating it, learning from it, and then letting it go and moving on with their life.

Why they should let it go is your next question.

Originally Posted by SATCHMO

Is it really the belief that people can and should duplicate previous religious experiences That's responsible for most of the problems that religion has caused in the world? I Would think that designation would go toward intolerance of conflicting lifestyle and point of view, or a desire to impose ones beliefs on others.

Yes, it is the drive to duplicate a religious experience that causes major problems. The intolerance and such is just a symptom of that. The problem arises when a person who has a religious experience feels that they are privy to something very special (which may be true) and that the experience needs to be grasped and held onto. This goes for the individual, let alone the individuals influence on others (i.e. one's teaching that everybody should strive for a particular religious experience that seems correct to them).

I basically feel that religious experiences can be had and appreciated but that it's harmful for a person to turn that experience into a belief even for that person, let alone their influence on others. Beliefs can be dangerous because only reality matters. In other words, have your religious experience if you do, but don't get obsessed by it because doing so inclines one to neglect reality.