What's up with the stance of being spiritual, but not being into any organized religion? What's the other option? Unorganized religion? I'm not so sure about that, but I do enjoy unorganized cooking. Like, I'm a hungry person, but I don't believe in any of that organized cooking stuff. Culinary creeds are for fools; I prefer to just throw a bunch of random foods into a pot, cook it to well done, and attempt to drink the results through a straw. I usually serve the leftovers at my unorganized game night where we just dump five different board games on the table and each play our own game with its own rules at the same time. Sometimes I don't even tell people where the game night will be and we all just show up at random locations and play a game without any rules. It's a lot of fun.
But seriously (erm semi-seriously?), what is organized religion? Well, I guess it's religion with rules. You know what else has rules?
Reality.
If you run a red light you will get a ticket. If you heat copper it will expand. If you drink ten gallons of milk in one sitting you will die (but you will die a legend!). I can't see anyone saying, "I believe in reality, but I don't believe in any of that organized and agreed upon reality crap; I live according to my own reality!" Well, I guess there are people like that, but then they ask where the bathroom is and contradict everything they believe in. Nature (i.e. reality) calls!
Suppose I came across this book, and I was all like, "woah, this book sure claims to say a lot about this fellow named God!" And then I started taking all its propositional truth claims and tried my best to place them into a coherent system of thought and other people did too, and then we came across each other and said, "hey, we so totally believe the same thing!" So we began to get together and talk about the book and invite others to learn about it. Sometimes we would disagree and have to hash out our differences, but other times we would agree and be all like, "fo' sho', yo!" Now, would anything be wrong with this? Is there something wrong with it just because it's organized, that is, placed into an objective systematic whole?
I guess some groups might get a little weird. One group leader might claim to have infallible knowledge of the universe and some might buy into it. A couple weeks later and they are drinking poisoned vodka in the name of the potato god (no offense to any potato gods who might be reading this), but I don't see how that is a mark against organization, rather it's a mark against people being, well, crazy.
Another group might get together and the leader starts to teach of this great holy book that only he can understand and he begins to delegate responsibilities to his followers. They unquestionably believe him, start doing his will, and then a couple years later all of the believers are sharing a room at the Motel 6 while he retires with his own tropical island. Was it organized, yea, I guess, but it seems to me that it's more of an argument against, well, jerks.
We could go on all day and the property of being organized wouldn't be touched.
Personally, I consider myself a spiritual person, but I believe in religion that is true. If someone has a religious claim and it corresponds to reality then sign me up for it. If it just so happens that they have a location where they meet on a regular basis to talk about this religious truth, then that's even better. I might even bring some of my unorganized cooking to feed the masses. I'll be like that Jesus guy with fish and bread, just with less God and more sin.
But seriously (erm semi-seriously?), what is organized religion? Well, I guess it's religion with rules. You know what else has rules?
Reality.
If you run a red light you will get a ticket. If you heat copper it will expand. If you drink ten gallons of milk in one sitting you will die (but you will die a legend!). I can't see anyone saying, "I believe in reality, but I don't believe in any of that organized and agreed upon reality crap; I live according to my own reality!" Well, I guess there are people like that, but then they ask where the bathroom is and contradict everything they believe in. Nature (i.e. reality) calls!
Suppose I came across this book, and I was all like, "woah, this book sure claims to say a lot about this fellow named God!" And then I started taking all its propositional truth claims and tried my best to place them into a coherent system of thought and other people did too, and then we came across each other and said, "hey, we so totally believe the same thing!" So we began to get together and talk about the book and invite others to learn about it. Sometimes we would disagree and have to hash out our differences, but other times we would agree and be all like, "fo' sho', yo!" Now, would anything be wrong with this? Is there something wrong with it just because it's organized, that is, placed into an objective systematic whole?
I guess some groups might get a little weird. One group leader might claim to have infallible knowledge of the universe and some might buy into it. A couple weeks later and they are drinking poisoned vodka in the name of the potato god (no offense to any potato gods who might be reading this), but I don't see how that is a mark against organization, rather it's a mark against people being, well, crazy.
Another group might get together and the leader starts to teach of this great holy book that only he can understand and he begins to delegate responsibilities to his followers. They unquestionably believe him, start doing his will, and then a couple years later all of the believers are sharing a room at the Motel 6 while he retires with his own tropical island. Was it organized, yea, I guess, but it seems to me that it's more of an argument against, well, jerks.
We could go on all day and the property of being organized wouldn't be touched.
Personally, I consider myself a spiritual person, but I believe in religion that is true. If someone has a religious claim and it corresponds to reality then sign me up for it. If it just so happens that they have a location where they meet on a regular basis to talk about this religious truth, then that's even better. I might even bring some of my unorganized cooking to feed the masses. I'll be like that Jesus guy with fish and bread, just with less God and more sin.
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