OK, if you're asking me personally, then my answer would have to be, that's why I think I, personally, am having such a hard time figuring out where my spirituality is. I've had many, many experiences that, to my mind, indicate that there is indeed a Higher Power out there. What I said in my first paragraph two levels up, that's my personal view, and others can take it or leave it. My experience, logical or illogical, says there's some force outside of myself that, when my life seemed like it was at the absolute worst, suddenly everything came back together.
Do I know what to call this Force? Nope. Not a clue right now. "God" has become something of a shorthand that I use, not entirely adequate. But, I do have faith that this Force does indeed exist. And since this force is intangible to my perception via physical sense, but is something I seem to connect with on a spiritual/energy level, I label it as being "god-like" rather than something due to the actions of any human, including myself.
The above are strictly my views, not my speaking on behalf of any other individual or group.
I guess what it boils down to is this: I can accept someone not wanting to be part of a faith where the doctrine is vastly different from what they believe or perceive. But don't tell me you (specific or non-specific) don't want to participate in organized religion only because of the raving lunatics. There are raving lunatics and extremists associated with just about every faith on this planet, and they've existed pretty much since the beginning of organized religion. The only difference is that now, in the age of mass media, the person or family who might have been quietly shunned by the rest of a small community -- someone everyone living there knew was there, but certainly didn't represent the views of the rest of the community and everyone knew that, too -- is now the guy who gets all the airtime on national news, with only a few "human interest" soundbytes by one or two neighbors. I don't believe the actual proportions are any different, just the attention paid to the lunatics for the sake of ratings.
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Date: 2003-09-08 11:45 am (UTC)Do I know what to call this Force? Nope. Not a clue right now. "God" has become something of a shorthand that I use, not entirely adequate. But, I do have faith that this Force does indeed exist. And since this force is intangible to my perception via physical sense, but is something I seem to connect with on a spiritual/energy level, I label it as being "god-like" rather than something due to the actions of any human, including myself.
The above are strictly my views, not my speaking on behalf of any other individual or group.
I guess what it boils down to is this: I can accept someone not wanting to be part of a faith where the doctrine is vastly different from what they believe or perceive. But don't tell me you (specific or non-specific) don't want to participate in organized religion only because of the raving lunatics. There are raving lunatics and extremists associated with just about every faith on this planet, and they've existed pretty much since the beginning of organized religion. The only difference is that now, in the age of mass media, the person or family who might have been quietly shunned by the rest of a small community -- someone everyone living there knew was there, but certainly didn't represent the views of the rest of the community and everyone knew that, too -- is now the guy who gets all the airtime on national news, with only a few "human interest" soundbytes by one or two neighbors. I don't believe the actual proportions are any different, just the attention paid to the lunatics for the sake of ratings.