More protests Against The Theocratic Regime in Iran

[Leonardo17]

Angrboda:
 
Neil Degrasse Tyson has this series of videos that I have just started watching:
https://youtu.be/1gUTBX8ERhQ?t=557
 
He asks “Did Noah have dinosaur in his boat? If so, Noah was not human”
 
I sort of happen to agree with almost all of these atheist criticisms of “religious” thought.
 
I on the other hand am referring to religion in its etymological sense. That is “to bind back” which mean to reestablish a relationship with this “inner reality”.
 
So all of those claims about reality or moral guidance are only meaningful if they contribute to this attitude of “binding back”.
 
Otherwise it’s just another ideology and we are not short of ideologies in our time.


 
BrianSoddingBoru:
 
- I only meant that “God” is a universal phenomenon and everyone has equal access to it.
 
And “not believing” is not such a big issue either.
 
The Grand Nudger:
 
- I do understand this. That’s the atheist explanation. This explanation is correct in many ways. But there is also a spiritual explanation.
 
I see, in most religions including Islam, something called “the ego mind” which is different from “our true self” that distorts all true spiritual teachings, because
1) It merely understands spiritual teachings. The energy level of these individuals is adapted to a more mundane type of existence and not yet ready for a more intellectual / philosophical approach to issues that deal with realities that are beyond the physical reality.
2) It is scared of these teachings. “Change” is a very big issue for the ego. Just think how hard it is for some people to give up habits like gambling, smoking cigarettes or alcohol. The Ego likes things the way it has them and is frequently lazy and unwilling to explore different paths that are presented to it.
 
- So people are distorting the original meaning of these religious teachings. If you are not making mistakes in the interpretation of spiritual teachings this makes you an enlightened being or Avatar.
 
The other category is the category of people who are willingly distorting all of these teachings and are literally putting these teachings to the service of their ego. These are completely evil people who need to be stopped. And that’s what we are dealing with in Iran.

[Belacqua]

- So what is religion?
 
- In it’s origin, it’s a sum of philosophical teachings and practical advices that includes methods that will allow individuals (like you or me) to create and maintain a stronger bond with this Ultimate Reality.
 
That’s all. 

Yes, I think that's a very fair summary of what religion is. 

It appears to be normal for people to ask certain basic questions. For example, about what is the fundamental basis of existence -- is it matter, or mind, etc.? Then if we can work out something about the qualities of this fundamental basis, we want to know how the human mind fits into this. And, most importantly, if reality operates in a knowable, regular way, how should we live in order to be best in alignment with this system?

(This is not to say that EVERYBODY asks these questions. Lots of people aren't interested. But it looks as though every different culture has tried to come up with answers.) 

Unfortunately, the word "religion" is unpopular these days. I saw a survey recently in which a large percentage of regular church-going Christians denied having any religion. They don't like the word, so they say something like "I don't have a religion, I have a personal relationship with Jesus." This seems problematic to me, but it tells us something about the word. 

A lot of people, understandably, assume that anything that qualifies as a religion has to include something which isn't in accord with modern scientific beliefs. 6-day creation, or something like that. But all of us here believe in things that can't be proven scientifically. We just draw a sort of fuzzy line between our unprovable beliefs (which are not religion) and other people's (which are). 

I mean, it just comes down to a definition of a word, and arguing about definitions on the Internet generally doesn't end up being a worthwhile thing to do.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Religion is organizational. It doesn't speak to profound truths (not intentionally) but rather to controlling the ideas of people. This is why we also have other words like "faith" and "spirituality" which are deemed as (near) synonyms, but are actually pretty different.

One is top-down. The others are bottom-up.

[The Grand Nudger]

The Grand Nudger:
 
- I do understand this. That’s the atheist explanation. This explanation is correct in many ways. But there is also a spiritual explanation.

No.  I can tell you do not understand this precisely because you said that above before launching into what follows below.  It acts this way.  It expresses itself as-such.  It is and does these things everywhere and at all known times regardless of whether there are gods or spirits or competing ideologies.  
 

I see, in most religions including Islam, something called “the ego mind” which is different from “our true self” that distorts all true spiritual teachings, because
1) It merely understands spiritual teachings. The energy level of these individuals is adapted to a more mundane type of existence and not yet ready for a more intellectual / philosophical approach to issues that deal with realities that are beyond the physical reality.
2) It is scared of these teachings. “Change” is a very big issue for the ego. Just think how hard it is for some people to give up habits like gambling, smoking cigarettes or alcohol. The Ego likes things the way it has them and is frequently lazy and unwilling to explore different paths that are presented to it.
 
- So people are distorting the original meaning of these religious teachings. If you are not making mistakes in the interpretation of spiritual teachings this makes you an enlightened being or Avatar.

The Original Meaning™ of these texts is even more barbaric and shitty than the modern interpretations you still see as broken.  What you're doing here is creating a fantasy of a past religion to vouch for your current religious beliefs, while calling the people who hold to those religious beliefs you would discard -for religious reasons- literal untermensch as an explanation for why they hold them.  Their fucking energy levels are low, lol.  Are you selling spirituality or testosterone supplements here?  Think about it.
 

The other category is the category of people who are willingly distorting all of these teachings and are literally putting these teachings to the service of their ego. These are completely evil people who need to be stopped. And that’s what we are dealing with in Iran.

Perhaps this was always their purpose, perhaps the teachings are themselves destructive, perhaps this is exactly the outcome a rational person would expect from a theocratic religious tradition founded by a pillaging warlord whose pedophilic heart gave out on him before the murderous little lordlings beneath him started squabbling for the remains of his bloody throne?  Until you can understand that religious people will do things you detest because they are pious you will fall down over and over on this issue.  The trouble with the iranian government isn't that they do islam wrong, it's that they do government wrong.