Pluralism, Spirituality, Religion, Atheism and Christianity
I think that religious people and atheists often generalize beliefs. We've got this token idea of Christianity, and this token idea of Atheism. Our generalizations are not giving us a chance to really investigate.
I grew up Christian, and never really questioned my beliefs until circa 13-14, when I began doubting the whole story. I just had no context for it to make sense. It's kind of a weird story! I began to even have a disdain for Christians etc., after a while because the whole thing seemed so ridiculous to me, and a lot of my Christian friends were crappy people.
In about 8th grade though began to see Christianity with a different perspective though after I read Conversations with God, a book by Neale Donald Walsch, which is a dialogue in which Walsch claims to have spoken with God himself. I wasn't really sure whether or not it was "God" at the time, but regardless the book brought up many interesting points, including pluralism--basically one god, many paths to god.
After that I no longer had any doubts about whether it was wrong for me to not be exlusivist in my Christian beliefs and I became really engrossed in studying Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, and the yogic practices. Gradually over time, I began to see all sorts of similarities between the religions. Some of the most interesting similarities were in the numerology--for instance the many forms of the trinity. mind, body spirit, the son, the father and the holy spirit, or jing, chi and shen and qi-gong martial arts. There are many others. There were also simlarities in the use of various rituals, practices and austerities, beliefs, goals etc.
As I began to look across the lines I basically came to the belief that all religions were essentially trying to reach the same goal. Union with God, and removal of the ego--I still haven't defined God though.
Now I still saw all sorts of corruption and crappy stuff in religion. Basically I felt like the core truths were being obstructed by the exterior traditions. Focus on exclusive tradition, caused all the religions to be seperate and constantly fighting eachother for the "right" way. That combined with various manipulation of texts (hard to prove but I think certain scriptures of the bible were manipulated to create exclusivism).
But eventually I came full circle to Christianity, after a lot of study of the spiritual sciences of the east including a lot of yogic esotericism. Bible passages that I read had new meanings from my different perspective.
I also embraced atheism in a way. There were no miracles. Nothing defied the laws of nature. If something happened that could not be explained, it was simply because we did not have the power to yet explain it. Last semester I took a class from professor Frank J. Tipler, author of "The Physics of Christianity," and the creator of the Omega Point Theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_Point_(Tipler)
He was a genius physicist and christian, who basically taught me how the scientific descriptions of the universe were essentially the same as the theologians descriptions of god. About "what/who" created the universe--"The uncaused, first cause" says theology. "The initial singularity within which the laws of physics do not exist (thus can create the universe without a cause)--says physics.
See I feel like religions and other explanations of the world are all expressing the same things, with different vocabulary, different traditions. Christianity is in some ways a code religion. It's all in a secret code. I didn't understand it until I investigated other religions.
I feel like we are all looking at the Sun with are different kaleidoscopes and mirrors, because it's impossible to look directly at it.
When I say I'm Atheist, it's because I believe in the Universe and nothing but the Universe and all of it's properties and possibilites, many of which we do not fully understand yet. I also believe the Universe can function like the Christians described personal God.
But I cannot deny spirituality, when I see unusual similarities that run across all religions and that all "masters" speak of and when I see just how amazing this Universe is. I cannot not believe that there is something incredibly special and amazing about this universe we live in, that fact that there is even something, the ridiculous beauty, and the amazingness of consciousness all from this giant formless mass. So I have decided that there is something special, and awesome, something innate and not random or by chance and that the the spiritual masters have tried to describe it to us, and teach us how to fully access this "specialness"
So I feel like I am a Christian, Atheist, and Pluralist simultaneously. I'll try to post some more, but I should stop now because this is getting way too long.
