who's religious?

[mantis]

A couple of years ago one of my friends asked me if i was religious
i said "only if i am good to people, i can claim religiousness"
I dont care how your relationship is between you and Buddha, or God, or any one/thing you worship. I can only judge through the way you treat me and other people.

what is YOUR definition of a religious person?

 

[oldnewbie]

A religious person is one who actively practices their faith, and lives the tenants of their faith.

 

[Ray]

what is YOUR definition of a religious person?

My definition of religion is in James 1:27 "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

If a person does those things, then he/she is religious.

 

[heretic888]

what is YOUR definition of a religious person?

Religious or spiritual??

I'm gonna have to go with theologian Paul Tillich in that spirituality is best understood as one's sense of "ultimate concern" in life. As such, the degree to which the individual is commited and absorbed in whatever he or she believes to be of "ultimate concern" is correlative with his or her degree of spirituality.

This "ultimate concern", of course, can quite literally be anything --- devotion to a mythic deity, humanistic rational enlightenment, the universal realization of Buddhahood or Cosmic Consciousness, or even the fulfillment of hedonistic desires. This is why spirituality, like other elements of the human psyche, mature and evolve over the course of one's lifetime.

As for religion, I'm gonna have to go with philosopher Ken Wilber in that I distinguish between two types of religion: translative religion and transformative religion.

Translative religion has to do with "translating" reality into forms and interpretations that give comfort, solidarity, and understanding to the individual ego or self-sense. This is by far the most popular and well-known form of religion. As with Tillich's definition of spirituality, this transformative religion can be applied to paradigms and belief systems traditionally believed to be non-religious in nature. Its the basic idea of saying you believe something "religiously", whether it be the Bible or logic.

Transformative religion, by contrast, has to do not with interpreting the world in a novel way, but with actually "transforming" or adapting the self-structure itself. The former has to do with interpreting the world differently while remaining basically unchanged, the latter has to do with actually transforming oneself in a fundamental new way.

Both types of religion, of course, have their own intrinsic validity and are absolutely essential to understanding the human condition. And, as such, one can be "religious" in the transformative sense but not very "religious" in the translative sense. Vice-versa, as well.

I hope that about sums things up.

Laterz.

 

[Loki]

I go for the dictionary definition:

re·li·gious
adj.
Having or showing belief in and reverence for God or a deity.

 

[mantis]

I go for the dictionary definition:

re·li·gious
adj.
Having or showing belief in and reverence for God or a deity.

haha
thank you sir..
i was more concerned about who YOU consider religious
a lot of people claim religiousness, but that doesnt mean they are in fact religious.
You can spend your entire life in a church, and you still can be the furthest from being "religious" and that depends on your own definition of religiousness.

 

[OnlyAnEgg]

Ouch! Heretic's posts always hurt my head

I associate religion with dogma and legalism. For me, this means abiding by the tenets and beliefs of their chosen group. It may not be the correct definition; but, that's my spin. There are plenty of people in the church I attend that are religious. Fewer that are spiritual and religious (used here, 'spiritual' connotating a positive relationship with a higher power). I fall in the third category of spiritual with little or no religious aspects.

 

[heretic888]

i was more concerned about who YOU consider religious

In my opinion, religious is just a word.

And, like all other words, its meaning is completely dependent on how you use it within any particular context. What 'X' means to me may not necessarily be what 'X' means to Mr. Smith next door. That is why context is so important. All meaning is contextual in nature.

As such, I'd say religious means whatever the hell you want it to mean.

Laterz.

 

[heretic888]

Ouch! Heretic's posts always hurt my head

Happy to be of service. :asian:

 

[Loki]

haha
thank you sir..
i was more concerned about who YOU consider religious
a lot of people claim religiousness, but that doesnt mean they are in fact religious.
You can spend your entire life in a church, and you still can be the furthest from being "religious" and that depends on your own definition of religiousness.

If they believe in a deity, I consider them religious. I would consider a Buddhist spiritual, but not religious.

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

I'm completely non-theist, but I study mythology, theology and philosophy. I still do these silly little Buddhist-derived rituals that I learned from my first Kru.

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

If they believe in a deity, I consider them religious. I would consider a Buddhist spiritual, but not religious.

Arguably, the Shakyamuni Buddha and the various iconic Bodhisattvas are revered in the same fashion as deities.

 

[Loki]

Arguably, the Shakyamuni Buddha and the various iconic Bodhisattvas are revered in the same fashion as deities.

My knowledge of this is limited, but I assume they're revered as deities in a very different way from God or Christ.

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

My knowledge of this is limited, but I assume they're revered as deities in a very different way from God or Christ.

It gets really gray here; my humble advise is: going here will lead to nothing more than unfounded, subjective, heated arguments.




In other words: I'm too chicken to answer.

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

My knowledge of this is limited, but I assume they're revered as deities in a very different way from God or Christ.

Also, God and Christ are not supposed to, by their own religion, be deified.

 

[heretic888]

My knowledge of this is limited, but I assume they're revered as deities in a very different way from God or Christ.

You might want to do some more research before making that claim, Loki.

Laterz.

 

[Cryozombie]

Im religious.

 

[heretic888]

Im religious.

How eloquent.

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

Im religious.

I knew techno had a huge following. . .but had no idea it had become its own religion! lol

 

[mantis]

I knew techno had a huge following. . .but had no idea it had become its own religion! lol

yah either technoism or punkism
hehe