Quote:
Originally posted by wolf
On second thought, it kind of HAS been done ... A Course in Miracles, The Celestine Prophecy, and every book written by Dipak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Michael Harner or Andrew Weil are pretty much packaging and selling spirituality as a concept separate from religion. I don't know that any one or combination of these folks have enough penetration in the marketplace (especially outside of the Western hemisphere) to have any real impact.
I don't know that there actually is an answer here ... I come from the perspective that humans are naturally divisive ... they seek out conflict whenever possible, and base that conflict on some observable or imagined difference. (race, politics, religion) ... there's always an us vs. them mentality ... our warriors are superior to your warriors, our gods can kick your god's ass, The Eagles rule and the Giants Suck. (Frankly, I don't much care about sports, but it is a modern expression of the warrior spirit in a lot of ways. Of course there's a lot more money involved.)
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I like this discussion. Here it's only 12:30am on Christmas Eve, and, yeah, not much going on either.
So I've been thinking about this in the 5 minutes or whatever it takes for me to brush my teeth and get ready for bed, and I have a late night theory for you - so obviously, it's incredibly substantial. Basically, all major religions boil down to convincing people to be nice to other people. This idea has to be constantly repackaged for different regions, cultures and eras.
The problem is that people aren't going to believe what you say unless you wow them. So religions were forced to become more and more inventive and spectacular or else they wouldn't have anyone in their flock. Without a following, religions would fail. The fabric of society needs something like religion or else it gets torn apart. So the society's religion becomes key to its existence, and it ends up becoming intertwined with cultural identity and, in modern times, nationalism.
Western societies, however, are moving away from religion. At the same time, Western Europe is moving away from nationalism with the creation of the EU. I think there's a connection between these two trends, and I think the result will be a transcendence of religion - just like there will be a transcendence of nationalism. I think what we're seeing today is the last sputterings of religious bickering, and I think the eventual goal of globalization is to equalize.
I realize there's a lot of holes in this logic, and its probably been said a thousand times, but I'm too sleepy to notice right now.
