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What is religion? Communication
can only flow if we use similar definitions of words.
Definitions put things into categories; and describe how things are
different from other things.
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People respond to rituals, myths and
mysticism; especially if packaged together as a religion. As the object
and orientation of behaviors define religions, any discussion of religion
requires definitions of religion, behavior, religious behavior, dogma and faith.
- Religion is a formalized
practice of submission to dominant people or entities.
- Behavior is a movement of a person or a
part of a person through space and time.
- Religious behavior is submissive
movements to dominant figures using specific rituals.
- Dogma are unverifiable ideas that
require acceptance and restraint from skepticism.
- Religious faith is a confident belief or trust in
a transcendent reality or supreme being.
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Consequences of Religious Behavior
Your actions have relationship consequences; act to get
consequences that you like.
Religions and their dogma often define ways to demonstrate submission
to seen or unseen entities. Religious
dogma can become a social cause when other people accept the claims as if they were true. The acceptance of
religious claims is
identifiable through subsequent religious behavior.
Religious behavior is shown by ritual submission to
dominant figures who may be seen or unseen, animate or inanimate. Religious
behaviors are coordinated body movements (such as seen in churches, temples
and mosques) that signal submission. (A few organizations e.g.
Quakers and Pentecostals prefer random body movements). The rules for religious
behaviors are culturally transmitted. The external stimuli to display these
submissive patterns include authoritarian commands while inner motivations
are often feelings of anxiety, loss or gratitude.
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I visited a Las Vegas casino. Many
of the customers were intensely religious - judging by the words and
behavior of people I observed gambling ...
including those who had just lost ... or who had
just won. Martyn Carruthers |
Many ritual behaviors are submissive. Watch people in
military and paramilitary organizations (saluting and parades), in
political parties (chanting slogans, carrying banners), etc. Ritual
religious behavior requires some show of faith - some show of
believing statements that cannot be proved. Yet people who accept propositions by
faith appear to be unable to judge those propositions by evidence.
Many religions seem to have failed because they were too
complex. A philosophy beyond the comprehension of average people must be
dumbed down into a simple dogma. Many Western heresies were forced
underground to escape persecution. (The word "occult" is from the Latin
occultus which means "hidden", while heresy is from the Greek hairesis,
which means "choice").
Many religious myths seem to be projections of human
relationship dynamics onto archetypal figures. A story like that of Adam and Eve
could be an expression of the relationship between fathers, adolescent sons and
their sons' partners, for example.
Spirituality
Spirituality has many meanings. Spirituality can refer to an
ultimate reality; a path enabling the discovery of some experience of being.
So-called spiritual practices, such as meditation, prayer and contemplation, are
often hoped to lead to experiences of connectedness with a larger reality, or
with a 'true' self; with other people or with humanity; with nature or the
cosmos; or with some divine realm.
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Religions are irrational ... and so is
atheism.
Most religious
people will leave you alone if you leave them alone.
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Spiritual coaching can provide a source of inspiration
or life orientation. It can help people explore immaterial realities and
transcendental experiences. Spiritual coaching can also help motivated adults
replace what are sometimes called deadly sins with virtuous
behaviors.
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Replace this |
With this |
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Lust / Extravagance
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Gluttony / Indulgence
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Greed / Money
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Sloth / Laziness
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Wrath / Revenge
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Envy / Resentment
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Pride / Specialness
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Chastity
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Temperance
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Charity
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Diligence
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Patience
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Kindness
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Humility
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Experiencing spiritual connectedness appears to require clarity,
preparation and an appropriate methodology.
Many people have described to us experiences that they call ecstatic or
enlightening, and we often coach motivated adults to explore these
experiences.
Evidence or Faith
People who demand verifiable or testable evidence before
they show submissive behavior may be called agnostic, atheist or worse.
Members of tribal or authoritarian societies may be punished if they do not
show appropriate submission or if they criticize popular dogma.
Members of multi-cultural societies often have more choices,
including a choice of whether to not engage in submissive behavior.
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... almost any sect, cult, or
religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political
power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting
education to seize the minds of the young, and by killing,
locking up, or driving underground all heretics.
Robert Heinlein |
Religious behavior includes submissive movements,
such as bowing down, kneeling, folding the hands, etc. The primary
consequences of displaying religious behavior are acceptance by people
who behave in similar ways - and rejection by people who prefer to show other or no
submissive behavior. Religious behavior is rationalized by dogma and
bounded by taboos. Yet many people who call themselves
religious often break their taboos and overload themselves with guilt. But
... who have they hurt?
Consequences of Religious Dogma
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Religious dogma is any teaching, thought or
belief that rationalizes religious behavior. Religious dogma demands that unverifiable claims
are accepted without criticism or skepticism. Religious dogma is usually
taught to children, as most children automatically trust parents and
authorities.
Accepted beliefs feel true without further verification.
Road sign in Hungary (Photo by Kosjenka Muk)
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Adults who age regress become more naive, more eager to comply
and easier to manipulate. Common ways to induce
age regression include authoritarian threats and eliciting emotions such has anger, sadness, fear and guilt. Speeches
that elicit a desire
to punish, a fear of judgment or a sense of loss and diminished accountability have been
used for millennia to produce age regression and compliance.
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One of my favorite movies is the
Life of Brian by the
Monty Python team. This well-researched comedy highlights some conditions for
the acceptance of a new faith. Toronto, Canada |
Blasphemy is the disrespectful use of the names or claims
of accepted esoteric entities or religious dogma. It may include using sacred words
as stress expletives without intention to pray or speak of sacred matters. Blasphemy
is also defined as language expressing disapproved beliefs, or disbelief.
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Fundamentalism is a disease. It is an
invasive, violating thought-virus that spreads through threat and coercion,
subjugation, slavery and egos that developed well past their safety levels.
Posted by monsterdog81, Dec 7th, 2010
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Consequences of Religious Faith
Perhaps faith is believing what you know is not true - or
what cannot be proven. Although there appears to be
no hard historical
evidence that Jesus, Joseph or Mary ever existed, millions of people
have faith that they not only lived at one time, but remain alive now, over 2000
years old.
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Primacy: what you believe first you
believe longest ...
most people accept the beliefs and faith of their parents.
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Most children adopt their parent's beliefs, no matter how
irrational. Most children taught a belief system, no matter how ludicrous, will follow it without question.
Children who dare to question adult's beliefs are often punished. Often, religious education
is synonymous with child abuse.
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If
spiritual faith has a means of instantaneous communication,
then
some forms of
quantum entanglement or
spiriton particles are required.
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A resurgence of natural theology
attempts to justify religious teachings not through faith and
dogma but through rational argument, astronomical observations
and experiments on the healing power of faith.
When people damage their inner selves,
no matter with what good intentions,
something seems to infect the wounds ...
something that breeds in decay and corruption.
Religious & Spiritual Experience
We learn most about a religion, philosophy,
therapy or faith when we see how it shapes the behavior and relationships
of those people who claim to follow it. Exclusive claims of truth may
help people share activities in a monoculture but do not support
multicultural communities and nations.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam were founded
on the story of Abraham -
a man
who was prepared to kill his own son to obey a voice in his head.
Although evolutionary
psychology is the best theory of human motivation that I know,
I suggest that
helping professionals avoid religious connotations in their work.
Although they
may
attempt to include or incorporate religious models if
they arise during
sessions, they can strive to remain neutral and reality-based.
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Since the publication of my book
The End of Faith,
thousands of people have written to tell me that
I am wrong not to believe in
God. The most hostile of these communications were from Christians
... it is clear that such hatred draws considerable
support from the Bible.
The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite
chapter and verse.
Sam Harris (Letter to a Christian Nation) |
We are all atheists about thousands of gods
who were once worshiped as supreme deities.
Some people go one step further.
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When people are caught up in intense
traumatic or ecstatic experiences,
they often create esoteric beliefs to justify or explain their experiences.
We help people change unwanted beliefs. |
Leaving
a Cult
.
Shamanic Coaching & Coach Training .
Soul of Soulwork
Online Coaching & Mentorship
Plagiarism is theft.
Copyright © Jan Sikorski 2005-2011 All rights reserved. |
