@GeorgeMichaelBluth Said
I dont mind if people are spiritual or religious. If someone believes they know what happens when we die,then thats fine. My dad (a Christian) took his own life in 2009. He once told me and my sister that suicide is a one way ticket to hell. Many youth group leaders and pastors preached the same regularly. However at my dads funeral, at the church we went to for over 12 years,the pastor said "We know where Andy is. And hes in heaven." Which i never understood. Suicide is murder,you're murdering yourself without a chance of repentance because you're dead. I asked this same pastor why he said that. He said, "Your dad would never do that. That was someone else in your dads body,he wasnt in his right mind" . In this case Christianity is a religion of convenience. And what little respect i did have is no more. However if it helps people get through a tragedy, who am i to say they are wrong. Great topic and thanks for taking the time. Be safe all.
My experience is that Faith and Belief are opposites. I understand how many relate the two, how they are intertwined or whatever, but I always experience belief as dictatorial, explicit, dredging up the past conditioning and prejudice, pulling forth reactions and judgements of events seeking to "justify" them.......I think your post gives examples. The judgement is made then rationalised according to
belief .
Faith as I know it has no "content", it is a simple Trust in Reality, but sets no conditions. I am not safe from harm yet all is well, and "all manner of things shall be well" as the Christian mystic Mother Julian of Norwich has said. From this "ground" of trust I find I can open to others. Neither I nor any other needs to be "justified." Reality itself justifies.
Though this may sound very passive, even static, I find it liberating, a catalyst of genuine transformation.
I am reminded of a passage from the writings of Thomas Merton concerning the outlook of Chuang Tzu....
"The way of Tao is to begin with the simple good with which one is endowed by the very fact of existence. Instead of self-conscious cultivation of this good (which vanishes when we look at it and becomes intangible when we try to grasp it), we grow quietly in the humility of a simple, ordinary life, and this way is analogous (at least psychologically) to the Christian “life of faith.” It is more a matter of believing the good than of seeing it as the fruit of one’s effort."
"Humility" aside (
) those words hit some targets (though "believing the good" tends to detract from my perspective!)