Posted by JLx on August 16, 2005, at 12:48:50
In reply to Religious friends and my unease, posted by Deneb on August 7, 2005, at 11:33:29
I hope this post passes muster on this board. I read the intro and examples, so we'll see...
I was friends with someone for many years who was religious while I was an agnostic/atheist whose previous religious exposure was minimal.
I too used to feel that sense of unease and paranoia, not only because of the discussions I had with this person, but because general society (in the US) is saturated with Christianity, often filtering through to the nonChristian by osmosis in a definite "Us/Them" manner about the state and fate of our immortal souls.
What I found extremely helpful in terms of putting such beliefs in perspective, was to learn more about various religions. I recommend Huston Smith's book, "The World's Religions" for an overview.
Even more beneficial and interesting regarding people's actual personal beliefs (not just the doctrine of their religion)was the internet, especially message boards. For many years, I participated on CNN's Religion Today (now defunct) which, because it had a world audience, attracted a very broad group of posters, including Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, Hindus, Christians of many stripes, Wiccans, Pagans, Jews, Baha'i as well as atheists and agnostics, of course. One of the most fascinating discussions I've ever witnessed was between a Muslim and a fundamentalist Christian where the Muslim, with a great deal of sincerity and respect, attempted to dissuade the Christian poster of his "false" belief in Jesus Christ's divinity, very adroitly using the New Testament! (In Islam, Jesus Christ is spoken about in the Qu'ran and revered as a prophet, but not as the son of God, so many Muslims have also studied the New Testament.) Seeing two such true believers face off using the same text but with different conclusions from different religions, was mind boggling. As was the discussion where a Buddhist tried to convince another fellow that the *reality* of the chair he was sitting on was a product of perspective and illusion. The diversity of religious belief and practice is wondrous. :)
I also recommend "A History of God" by Karen Armstrong, which is an exploration of the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For what is meant by "Abrahamic" see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religion
From your comments in another post, you sound scientifically inclined and if so, might be interested in neurotheology. Wikipedia has a good overview of that too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurotheology You might also find "the God gene" interesting to Google.
I suspect that we are all to some extent hardwired to be religiously inclined or not. In my case, it's more "not" apparently.
JL
poster:JLx
thread:538674
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20050811/msgs/542463.html