(April 23, 2010 at 10:17 am)Worldquest Wrote: Rwandrall, that's one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is that with religion, you're at the mercy of what the whole of the religion tells you, and you're expected to go along with a whole set of preset beliefs. Whereas with general beleifs, spiritual ways of seeing things, it's more a matter of what feels right to the individual. Religion tends to tie you into what seems a bit like a contract, but when you pick and choose, as I do, from whichever religion or tradition or anything at all, you're completely in charge of what you wish to believe and you can be totally honest with yourself. And there's no peer pressure. So in a sense, you do have boundaries, because the whole idea is to go with only that which feels right to you.
Religion is often what feels right to sheep... it may interest you to know that most of us briefly (or perhaps not so briefly

Quote:The one thing that most of you and I have in common is that we have made our own decisions on what to believe or reject. We haven't accepted the pressure and the boundaries of organised religions. In making that decision, you've gone one way, I've gone the other way. There was a time, a long time ago, when I was tempted to reject god (and for a few minutes I was an atheist while I pondered) but when I realised how flimsy my reasons for doing that were, I had a rethink and I realised that it wasn't god that I had a problem with, it was my circumstances. If I hadn't made that realisatin, I could well be logged on here as : Worldquest, Atheist.
'God' is responsible for all of your circumstances, if indeed we are to call 'Him' "God" at all.
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day